NEW ORLEANS - Controls Group North America (CGNA) hosted an Integration Forum at its 2005 Annual Spring Conference in New Orleans. CGNA is a network of 34 independent HVAC controls distributors with 122 branches throughout the United States and Canada. Many of them provide engineering services and products from multiple manufacturers for systems integration. Over 140 members and preferred vendors of CGNA attended the event.

The theme of the forum was "Building Automation Solutions through Distribution," and the event included a broad spectrum of participants. On the program were three distributors, two manufacturers, a building contractor, and a building engineer.

Brian Turner, vice president of Controlco, in Concord, Calif., was the first speaker. Controlco is a Tridium master distributor, a Honeywell Authorized Systems distributor (ASD), and a member of CGNA. Turner kicked off the morning with an "Industry Introduction - Integration Defined." In a market with so much new and confusing terminology, he was able to define and explain the main components of systems integration from the vantage point of a distributor that specializes in integration services.