BIM Show Live Review, Part 2

BIM Show Live ran on the 8th and 9th April and was a huge success in its fifth year. The two days are filled with more than 60 speakers, exhibitors showcasing different technologies and provide an environment for the best discussions on BIM and guidance to achieving targets. 

In part one, we discussed the opening addresses and the general setup of the event. Today, UK Construction Media concludes its review by discussing some of the highlights of those two days. 

Following Josh Valman’s keynote speech was a panel discussion focusing on the overall strapline of proving it and getting a return on investment. Chaired by David Philp, it involved a Q&A with James Pellatt of Great Portland Estates who himself gave a presentation beforehand.

From there is where the day became really tricky. As mentioned in the first part of our review, tough decisions have to be made and this observer chose to attend a session about BIM for SMEs that included a panel of numerous speakers, all who came down to the floor, splitting the audience into groups of five before initiating discussions that would result in interesting questions for the panel.

It resulted in, amongst many things, conversations about providing better dialogue with clients, and how important it is for companies to take BIM processes on board to ensure that work is not lost and that the full lifecycle of a contract can be managed.

NBS presented their new BIM toolkit and digital plan of work on the first afternoon with the launch of the beta version – described as a “key day” by David Philp. This user accessible toolkit stores project information in one place, increasing efficiency and all information can be exported to the likes of Excel and PDFs.

Other highlights included a presentation from Populous that talked about the Manchester City stadium expansion and how BIM tools are able to maximise the efficiency in producing the stadium seating bowl.

When discussing highlights, it must be said that these are just those that we managed to see. Undoubtedly, there were a host of engaging presentations that physically could not be attended because of the range of those available to see at any given time.

As well as the four different stages, BIM Show Live hosted a Tech Stage in the largest room which housed the exhibitors. This was a place for short, sharp presentations of 15-20 minutes, where in many cases, exhibitors could showcase their products and the innovative ways in which they use BIM.

The hive of activity doesn’t end with the presentations though. At the end of the first day, the exhibition had half an hour of networking and exhibition time and after that, there was the BIM Show Party –  a two-hours where people get to know each other, their businesses, differing ideas and hopes for their own BIM journeys.

Looking from the outside looking in, this may seem like as just a time to unwind with the selection of free food and drink, added to with air hockey and table tennis to keep the hundreds of people entertained.

But, as reported on the pages of UK Construction Media previously, the success that the BIM Show Party enjoyed last year made it an integral part of this year’s event.

The feedback from last year described it as a highlight through the networking opportunities with peers and colleagues, attended by almost every delegate.

To see the room and how easy it was to mingle and integrate with others showed the value of those two hours. Undoubtedly, people will have left that first day richer for the experience of that time and the extra ideas and debates that would have been generated through speaking to others.

The two-day itinerary was rounded off with the Bimmy Awards which saw the first award for best classroom session presented to Leon van Berlo for a talk about collaborative design and engineering with IFC in the Netherlands.

Numerous exhibitors filled up the space on the main floor at the venue and all voted for which stand they thought was the best. Steljes Business won this particular accolade. Meanwhile, Bentley Systems won an award for their presentation on the Tech Stage, which covered using Smart 3D Capture to help with advancing reality modelling.

The most innovative BIM solution Bimmy Award went to NBS for their new BIM toolkit which was launched in a session on the first day.

From a personal perspective, it was great to see how many new and innovative ideas could be found, altering a person’s thinking and perspective with each and every session.

The ease with which contacts could be made was clear to see, something which happened in our personal experience in those two days. If that is the case for a media outlet, just imagine how many contacts would be made by the numerous like-minded delegates.

It is integration like this that ensures BIM Show Live was as big a success as it was, and undoubtedly, it will have benefited the BIM journey of each and every person and organisation who attended.

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