“What we’ve got here is failure to communicate.”
The famous movie line from “Cool Hand Luke” could also serve as a warning for those unwilling to embrace concepts shared at the 2024 Hoosier Energy Strategic Issues Forum.
The annual two-day event at the French Lick Resort for member CEOs and Hoosier board members emphasized the importance of effective communication and its many benefits for leaders seeking to successfully engage with their stakeholders.
First up was Jon Ford, President of Reliable Energy Indiana with a state of the industry update.
He noted a decrease in supply, and in supply surplus, combined with an increase in demand inevitably leading to higher rates. With demand fueled by data centers aided by AI (artificial intelligence), “which isn’t going anywhere,” as well as increased cooling demands for quantum computers, cryptocurrency and electric vehicles, communicating this situation to decision-makers is critical to avoid a reliability crisis.
Increased education for the government and the public about alternative energy resources such as nuclear would also be helpful.
Ford was followed by John Qualls, the Founder of Purpose HQ, who addressed The Question of AI Impact.
To do so, he mostly demonstrated using a variety of AI platforms to produce information about the energy industry and how AI could be used.
Qualls even got a pair of volunteers – Jodie Creek, Hoosier Director from Whitewater Valley REMC, and Chris Chastain, CEO of RushShelby Energy – to help shape the questions he asked of AI, encouraging the polite use of please and thank you along the way.
While highlighting the practicality of AI, he also highlighted its shortcomings by asking it how many R’s were in the word cranberry and getting the answer of two.
John Brabender speaks at the Strategic Issues Board Forum in front of a slide for his company’s website about Gen Z.
The second day began with John Brabender, Chief Creative Officer for BrabenderCox, a national political consulting and advertising firm.
His focus was on how to reach and talk to younger consumers, providing a myriad of facts and figures about Gen Z and their preferences to connect based on culture more than on product.
Pat Mangan, Senior Director of Governance Education for NRECA, returned the group to more familiar territory, spotlighting the Value of the Generation, Transmission and Distribution Relationship. Still, he emphasized the importance of understanding and communicating those relationships en route to providing the kind of reliability one expects in the co-op world.
Things wrapped up with Von Kliem, Director of Force Science, leading a session on Managing Misinformation.
He came at it from his background in criminal justice as a police officer, attorney, educator and author. However, the message still rang true in providing people with the pieces of information they are lacking and listening to their perspective “as if they know something you don’t know.”