NFPA Conference & Expo

For electrical engineers the NFPA Conference & Expo is about two documents: NFPA 70, the National Electrical Code, and NFPA 70E, which governs electrical safety in the workplace. This is where their revision cycles are discussed in public, and where the reasoning behind changes is available from the people who argued for them.

That makes it valuable in a specific way. If you write specifications, perform arc-flash studies, or own an electrical safety programme, hearing a code change explained and challenged is worth more than reading the resulting text a year later. Incident-investigation sessions tend to be the most useful and the least comfortable.

San Antonio, at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center. Much of the wider programme is fire protection rather than electrical, so read the agenda before committing three full days.