IEC General Meeting 2024 sets path for diversity, digitalisation, sustainability and AI governance

Hosted by our British counterparts at BSI (the British Standards Institution), the 88th International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) General Meeting recently took place in Edinburgh, Scotland. New Zealand’s IEC National Committee (NZNC) was represented by President Peter Berry joined by three delegates of the IEC Young Professionals Programme – Cameron Chapman, Harsharan Singh and Ash Young.

With an eye to collectively solving global issues, the main being sustainability, the focus at this year’s general meeting was on facilitating the transition to a digital and all-electric society and international collaboration cross-geographies and sectors like energy, manufacturing, healthcare and mobility. Another key theme was the digitisation of standards.

An opportunity for the next generation

Attendance by recipients of IEC’s Young Professionals (IEC YP) programme is crucial for succession and thanks go to their employers for recognising the brilliant professional development opportunity it provided and supporting their attendance. With committee representation predominantly by professionals more advanced in their careers, this allowed those coming up through the ranks to learn, network and collaborate on projects.

Every year the IEC offers an opportunity for more than 100 YPs globally to attend a full week of standards training and activities. Each cohort chooses a YP Leader each year who gets the responsibility to come back the following year to train new YPs.

The gathering provides a platform for the next generation of experts to contribute to standardisation and bring in a new perspective to the IEC community. It is an opportunity to see the IEC in action and meet technical experts from all over the world and better understand why and how standards participation at a global level is an essential strategic tool.

The IEC YP Programme also helps to build on the ongoing work to improve diversity on the national committee and standards development committees. One of New Zealand’s YPs, Cameron Chapman was previously nominated as a YP leader two years ago and this event in Edinburgh gave him an opportunity to continue his involvement, particularly through his role in promoting the IEC YP programme in the higher ranks of the IEC leadership. He recently received support from the IEC Market Strategy Board for his initiative to establish a YP strategy committee.

Newly appointed NZ YPs Harsharan and Ash joined Cameron for the full week on the ‘standards bootcamp’ and other activities working with other international YPs on projects such as helping to brand IEC better and developing standards online. The fruit of their collective labour is a video available to view here:

YP – Strengthening the IEC brand(external link)

Key themes and emerging issues

Propelling digital evolution of international standards

The SMART standards programme(external link) is an ambitious initiative jointly led by the IEC and the ISO. The next generation of IEC and ISO standards will provide tailored and up-to-date content at the right time to the relevant users - whether they are humans, computers, complex machines, or small intelligent devices.

IEC are also developing an Online Standards Development tool(external link) for IEC experts and members. The OSD tool enables the full international standards development process in one online platform (XML). It is a harmonised solution for the IEC and ISO technical community to write, review and comment on technical documents. It facilitates collaborative work in complete transparency, including commenting and comment resolution. It also provides a foundation to support SMART standards and other digitalization initiatives.

All-electric and connected society

This vision is about leveraging smart grids, communication and digital technologies with the help of international standards to ultimately achieve a decarbonised world. We are already seeing new standards emerging over recent years for EV charging and SMART appliances.

Standardisation of AI and quantum technologies

AI is revolutionising decision-making, communications and data gathering and efficiency of technologies and standards for AI are being developed to help build trust. 

BSI is leading the first international quantum technology committee, which is theJoint ISO/IEC Technical Committee - Quantum Technology (JTC-QT). Quantum technology is the second generation of technologies that harness the power of quantum mechanics to create advanced tools and devices such as quantum computing, quantum simulation, quantum metrology, quantum detectors and quantum communications.

International collaboration

Standards are all about the power of collaboration. IEC along with ISO and ITU (International Telecommunication Union) can work better together on standardisation solutions to help achieve the UN Sustainable Development goals. These organisations also recognise the need to integrate more with regional and sector specific organisations working towards similar goals including IRENA (International Renewable Energy Agency), United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and AFSEC (African Electrotechnical Standardization Commission).

Key takeaways

• The IEC is an incredibly passionate collective, and not dissimilar to the United Nations of the electrotechnical space.
• The IEC is recognised as an organisation that can make difference for sustainability globally and be on the cutting edge of tech as well as have a positive impact on developing countries.
• All IEC member countries exist in their own political environment and will respond to global challenges differently. With that, every National Committee does things differently and some NCs have more resources than others.
• International collaboration and digitisation is the way forward. Unity, co-creation and communication are how we can address bigger challenges.
• There’s an important role for young people, including students and younger professionals which the IEC YPs spreading the knowledge about standards amongst peers.
• Most NCs have some ways to go on increasing female representation on development committees.

Get involved in IEC

We encourage you to consider how IEC standards can help you and your industry.

Getting involved in IEC standards development is open to anybody either as an observer or participant. You can find out more about the NZNC here:

International Electrotechnical Commission New Zealand National Committee(external link)

And sign up to keep up to date with IEC standards under development or get involved on any available committees here:

Express interest in joining a standards development committee(external link)