Introducing EC&M’s Premium Content Portal and Exclusive Member Benefits

If we’re being completely honest, technology is one of those things most of us love to hate — or at least those of us who didn’t grow up using tablets, high-tech gadgets, and cellphones from the age of three. Without question, it’s made our lives so much easier, efficient, and productive. But, at the same time, technology can be overwhelming. To put this into perspective, consider that in 2009, according to an article written by Nick Bilton in The New York Times, the average American consumed about 34 gigabytes of data/information per day — and that was more than a decade ago! I can’t imagine what that number is today (I had no luck finding a definitive answer despite a ridiculously lengthy web search), but I bet it’s safe to assume it’s substantially higher. When it comes to sorting through the most pertinent information in the electrical industry, EC&M is trying to make your life easier by taking you straight to the content you want and need most. That’s why we recently launched our Premium Content Portal at ecmweb.com/members.

This new members-only section of our website offers resources that are hand-picked by our editorial team. By being a registered user of our website, you’ll get all of the great content you always had access to before, but now with additional features, such as monthly quizzes with prize drawings, more than eight years of digital magazine archives, electrical theory and back to basics series, special reports like our annual Top 50 Contractors and Top 40 Electrical Design Firms, editorial webinars, how-to tutorial educational videos (coming soon), and more. We also recently introduced a new podcast series, “EC&M On Air,” in which I talk with industry folks about all things electrical. This new medium will allow us to share industry intelligence, insights, and opinions — all in 15 minutes or less. To kick off our first production, I recently spoke with Mike Bickimer, owner of The Virtual Electrician (TVE) and Bickimer Electric in Overland Park, Kan., about the ins and outs of providing virtual estimates to customers.

In the podcast, Mike discusses how his firm revamped its estimating procedures over the past year to adapt to current market conditions with the COVID-19 crisis, ultimately leading his company to open up a new business venture (The Virtual Electrician) that is in high demand — a trend he expects to continue even after the pandemic ends. He walks listeners through some of the key components to performing virtual estimates and outlines common roadblocks that may arise during the process. Mike explains why his company decided to adopt a flat rate pricing structure for this new business stream, and also shares best practices from the IT side of things, such as how the platform works, how advanced you have to be to actually pull this off, and the key factors that have made this new division such a success. This podcast builds on the discussion that started with the article, “Virtual Reality Check,” which ran in the December 2020 print issue.

I’m really excited to bring you more editions of “EC&M On Air.” If you have a subject you’d like to hear more about in an upcoming podcast, or suggestions for content to include in our Premium Content Portal, please email me at [email protected].

For those of you who might have registered for ecmweb.com in the past, please note that the first time you log in, you’ll be asked to update your site registration by answering two quick questions — then you’ll be good to go! Not registered yet? Just visit ecmweb.com, select “register” in the upper right, and fill out the short registration form. The best part is, unlike many sites, ALL of our content, including premium content, is FREE to registered users.