Finalcad attended the one day RICS BIM Conference 2016, held on 25th February 2016 in London.
The RICS BIM Conference is an annual event. This year it attracted over 165 conference delegates from predominantly the UK but also international firms, including award-winning analytical construction software developer Finalcad. There were over 15 expert speakers, including 4 key note speakers, and several opportunities for networking for all attending.
Delegates came from a range of public and private sector organisations, including a variety of academic and industry and associated technology businesses. Leading authorities in BIM as well as newcomers to the BIM learning curve, learnt more about the challenges of realising the benefits of BIM in practice, including via a live collaborative BIM project example. Engaging with BIM was deemed by many to be an “exciting journey.” This appeared to encapsulate the general mood of conference speakers and delegates, in relation to their involvement and journey in BIM.
The key note panel discussion (including speakers: Dr David Hancock, Simon Rawlinson, David Throssell and Alex Jones) focused on “construction and the digitised world” and the following was revealed:
- smart automation was identified a key challenge for the industry
- there is a need to apply tools to the BIM process and not vice versa.
- there is a need for skilled analysts in the BIM sector
The UK live BIM Level 2 project team BIM4SME also explained how they can validate data to create a collaborative “success matrix” and facilitated interactive workshops on the same. General conference opinion we gathered highlighted several things:
It shows that there is a need to establish clear methods for achieving accurate, structured data and a need to demystify BIM terminology. This would overcome the key challenges of the smart BIM journey of “fear” and of not obtaining cost or other critical data early enough.
Several areas of concern were identified:
- the need to unlock knowledge by passing it through the #construction supply chain was recognised
- the need to always use the latest data
- the need to tap into the other 50% of the workforce by using technology better
- the need to make the industry more BIM ready by reviewing contracts in light current BIM requirements
- the need for international BIM standards
Opinion also pointed to a future of more collaborative data-centric analysis as information retention is deemed valuable Above all there was apparent consensus that there is a need to "think of the end before the beginning" and to the need for an accurate as built model and data base although highlighted by one speaker that data is more important than a digital model itself.
For a closer snapshot of the occasion, see our live tweet #RICSBIM Conference 2016".
Finalcad also revealed their solution to achieving "BIM with boots on" to interested conference attendees during the conference. FINALCAD’s new approach “BIM with boots on,” reflects its ‘two-way’ capability to allow a BIM model to be simultaneously obtainable and contributable to by those working on site in the field.
This approach, will be outlined in a forthcoming whitepaper “BIM with boots on”.
The #RICSBIM brochure introduced #BIMwithbootson @ricsnews 25.02.16 pic.twitter.com/tJfVCZI5YX
— FINALCAD (@FINAL_CAD) 26 février 2016
