26 Cross-Pollinating AutomatedBuildings

Cross-Pollinating AutomatedBuildings: Mentorship & Bumblebees After more than five decades in the building automation industry, Ken Sinclair has seen it all, from brass pneumatic thermostats and refrigerator-sized computers to cloud platforms, digital twins, and AI. As the founder of AutomatedBuildings.com and a fixture at AHR for nearly 30 years, Ken’s real superpower isn’t prediction; it’s connection. In this Café ZAI conversation, Ken shares his “bumblebee” philosophy: cross-pollinating ideas between people, disciplines, and generations. We explore how mentorship really works, why innovation dies in silos, what’s changed at AHR over the decades, and why trust, not technology, remains the industry’s most valuable currency. A conversation about history, humility, and why the future of automated buildings depends on sharing the honey.