Global CIO Forum brought together renowned indoor air quality experts on June 11, for a GCF Unite WebSummit on a topic that affects everyone: Impact of indoor air quality, now and in the post-Covid world. As the world continues to be battered by Covid-19, with over 7 million people infected and over 400,000 dead, there has been renewed focus on the role played by the air around us. Ongoing research has found a strong correlation between improving air quality and reducing the risks from Covid-19, whether it is at the workplace, home, malls, factories or movie theatres.
Improving outdoor air may be beyond our control, but given that we spend most of our time indoors, management of indoor air conditions can be crucial to inhibiting the propagation of Covid-19.
The attendees
The WebSummit brought together more than 300 attendees across India, GCC and Middle East. The audience included:
- Designers and planners of human and urban habitats
- Urban solution providers
- Executives from inspection and audit institutions
- Human resource and training consultants and specialists
- Key executives of socially responsible organisations
The session
The welcome note for Impact of Indoor Air Quality: Now and in the post-Covid world WebSummit was delivered by Ronak Samantaray, CEO GEC Media Group, Arun Shankar, Editor, GEC Media Group.
Next, Jeffery Smith, WHO Consultant discussed the global pandemic, how big data is delivering important insights, what going back to work means, and likely future scenarios. Smith’s session was followed by Uni-Lever BlueAir AB’s Girish Bapat, who talked about how indoor air quality management has become the new corporate buzzword. The next expert was Mansoor Ali, Founder of Amfah India, who dived into the topic of managing indoor air quality control through industrial systems.
Ali was followed by Anders Hedstrom, IAQ Expert from IAQ Sweden AB. He elaborated on a topic that was closer to home: Do indoor air quality controls in residences need to be upgraded? Hedstrom’s session was followed by Pradeep Viswanathan, Global System Architect, MEA and India, Digital Energy Division at Schneider Electric. He focused on healthier buildings and new normal building operations, and how HVAC and air management needs to be overhauled.
The final speaker was Barun Aggarwal, CEO of BreatheEasy, who detailed out a step by step approach to improving indoor air quality, and the role played by consultants, equipment and audits.
The IAQ WebSummit concluded with a panel discussion, on the topic that is on everyone’s mind: Indoor Air Quality and back to work. Are we ready? The panel included Paul Slater, Vice President, Operations and Health, Safety and Environment at GEMS Education, Pradeep Viswanathan, Jeffery Smith and Mansoor Ali. The session was moderated by Arun Shankar.
About GCF Unite WebSummit
Global CIO Forum’s GCF Unite WebSummit is an online webinar that is aimed towards creating a global technology leaders’ community whose ultimate goal is to Integrate, Influence, Impact CIOs and tech leaders. The GCF Unite WebSummit will host a series of events in multiple chapters and 30+ countries featuring successful local Tech leaders, CIOs, IT Directors, innovators, educators and investors who share business leadership best practices, and lessons learned on the road to building great future with help of technocrat & technology.
About Global CIO Forum
The role of a CIO is one of the most critical one in today’s business and industry. Today, CIOs hold the future of innovation, productivity and competitiveness in their hands. At the Global CIO Forum, we not only provide our members with an exchange forum for best IT leadership strategies and practices to enhance business results, but we are also developing a strong voice to ensure that CIOs are represented at key industry and government decision tables. In other words: Integrate. Influence. Impact.
The Global CIO Forum’s mission is to represents IT Executives and CIOs globally. Currently working in META region and with expansion plans globally, the Global CIO Forum is a non-profit community of CIOs and IT leaders whose mission is to facilitate networking, sharing of best practices and executive development, and to collaborate on issues faced by the CIOs/IT Executives.
