Now in its second year, Digital Construction Week will be held 26 -27 October in London and will be looking to build on the success of last year’s inaugural event. Once again, the impact of technology and innovation in the built environment will be examined and will see thousands of the most influential thought leaders and decision makers in attendance.
In the second of a two part interview, UK Construction’s Matt Brown speaks to Oliver Hughes, Director of Digital Construction Week, about this year’s speakers and what people can expect from the exhibitors.
Last year’s event obviously took place before the BIM Level 2 mandate, will the focus of this year’s event will be different?
In truth I don’t think we’ll be a million miles away. We always want to strike a balance between being an exciting event looking towards the future of the industry and an event that helps people solve real-time problems, and current challenges.
Hopefully our seminar streams help demonstrate this. The Innovation Theatre is a real future looking piece, whilst the BIM Village and Digital in Action theatre are all about how processes such as BIM can help people right now.
You can see in the creation of the UK BIM Alliance that there’s a need still to help get people up to speed and carry on their journey. We’ll be looking to help do the same.
Who will be speaking at this year’s event?
I’m delighted to say our opening keynote will be from Paul Morrell, the former Chief Government Construction Advisor. Paul will be taking a look at the direction the mandate has gone in a presentation titled ‘Are we nearly there yet?’ It will be looking at the aims that were set out when the mandate was first put in place and his perspective of where it’s going; what maybe the missed markers are; where the successes have been and what could come next.
We’ve got a great panel looking at strategies for innovation, which include John Pelton who is the Strategic Projects Director at Crossrail, Iain Roche, who is Head of Innovation a HS2, and host of other speakers. People talk about innovation a lot, the idea of this session is to help people understand what it means really and how you do it. So that will be really interesting presentation, Crossrail in particular have a really interesting story around embracing innovation and technology.
We will also have David Hancock (Cabinet Office) giving an update on the government construction strategy. Anne Kemp (Atkins) will be introducing the UK BIM Alliance following its official launch at our Westminster Reception. Sadie Morgan (dRMM) will be offering a keynote on the future of architecture and design on major projects. And James Pellatt (Great Portland Estates) will be presenting his views of BIM and Digital Construction from a client’s perspective which should be really interesting.
There will be the usual mix of TED style presentations as well as panels, so we are really excited.
What can visitors expect from the exhibition?
More of the same hopefully. As was the goal last year, we really want to move away from just pop-up stands and literature and create a much more experiential exhibition.
It’s about having something a bit different to come, see and touch and get involved with rather what you can just find online. Something you might not find anywhere else. We want an exhibition that really offers visitors and experience.
As previously mentioned we’ve also got a whole host of free seminar content. That will be the real difference between this year and last year. There’s 4 stages with over 48 hours of free content to come and see.
How do you decide who will exhibit at the event?
We are always interested in new and innovative ideas and when you scratch the surface we’ve not been short of them. What we really want is people that can tailor their message and make it appropriate and accessible to all.
Really I think it is just showcasing everything that is out there – everything that people can start to use and get their heads round. Like I say 3D printing, robotics, virtual reality like the new Oculus, Soluis are bringing their new HTC Vive headsets. Last year, we had Leica’s scanning backpack and Faro’s handheld scanner.
We have introduced an Innovation Village this year, which is very much a kind of start-up opportunity to anyone with a new product such as an app, software or even hardware that isn’t quite there yet or is from another industry that they want to bring into construction. We are offering a nice easy way of them getting access to the audience and showcasing what they have got. We want to see new ideas and something different.
Similarly, though at the heart of the exhibition are exhibitors that can help visitors right now. Help them become more productive, efficient, and ultimately more profitable. Practical tools that you could apply right now. We want visitors to get excited about the future but primarily we want to help them with practical advice and guidance right now.
Is that something you would go out research to try and find the products or do people come to you with them?
A bit of both. This year certainly we have had a greater awareness so a number of people have approached us. We’ve been fortunate in that we are only the show that is doing what we are doing with this broader agenda of digital tech and innovation.
This year has been fantastic for us. A lot of people coming to us saying they have got a new bit of kit, app or a new bit of software and would like to show what it can do. Equally my role in putting together the conference and seminar program, you unearth a number of new ideas and concepts.
When I attended last year’s show some of the products on show were breath-taking. Do you still get that feeling when you come across inventions and technology?
Yes, I’m quite unashamedly a bit of a geek! I have to remember to rein myself in because it is easy to get very excited. There is a company in Japan for instance that is manufacturing exoskeletons, which I believe Bouygues are trying out, similarly things like the Daqri Smart Helmet look to have incredible potential.
That is the bit that I love which is partly what made we want to do the show in the first place. You do have to sit back and think “Ok, brilliant but what are the steps to making that happen” and that’s what we really want to show because it will be a long time before your house builder turns up to build an extension and emerges out the back of the van with an exoskeleton suit and robot helper. What they might have though is a project management tool that might help give you both better sight of the project delivery and costs. Those things are just as exciting in terms of industry change.
What we want to explore is what the business case for these new technologies and ideas is. Because without that its technology looking for a problem to solve when really it should be the other way round.
What was noticeable about last year was the number of SMEs exhibiting; will this still be the case this year?
Yes, to be honest it wasn’t deliberate. You quite often find though that SME’s are some of the most innovative companies out there. SMEs have the benefit of being able to be very agile, nimble and able to move with the times. We do see quite a lot of small companies with new ideas new bits of kit that they want to show. Yes, I think we will see more of that without a doubt.
Equally we’re keen to engage with SME’s as an audience too. We are an SME ourselves, so I feel the pain of having to pay £400 for a conference pass, trains and the time out of the office. We wanted to make the show accessible to as many people as possible which is why there’s so much free content. The conference itself is also just £200 for a two-day ticket. Which hopefully is pretty good value!
To read part I of this interview click here.
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