With digital technology revolutionising the architecture, engineering, construction and operation (AECO) world as we know it, Digital Construction Week will focus on the realities of digital innovation, technologies, and processes for businesses today and implications for the built environment of tomorrow.
In this, the second and final part of an exclusive interview, Oliver Hughes – Director of Digital Construction Week – discusses his aspirations for the event and the series’ eclectic schedule.
In terms of the fringe events, how is it decided who is there in terms of exhibitors?
It’s absolutely open to everybody who is involved with the week or supporting, whether they are non-financial industry partners or exhibitors or sponsors, or just somebody with a real interest and wants to support it as an agenda.
In the early discussions that we had, we said that there are so many great conversations going on the industry and we’d like to give a platform for that more than anything. An open source platform if you like.
We didn’t want to compete as such, but instead decided to create a platform to bring the whole industry together and shout about it. So there’s not a fee that gets you involved in it. It’s people who want to educate and inform, network and collaborate.
Our role really comes down to a bit of curating in so much as we don’t want competing events on at the same time on the same day. It’s something that we really want to grow next year. I love the idea of businesses hosting Google Friday type events in-house during the week, exploring their own challenges and then bringing that to share at the show.
We are open to anybody keen to support us and get involved in this big idea of driving change, digital adoption and collaboration. We want to remain as independent as possible.
How do you choose speakers and seminars?
For the conference, we’ve taken a predominantly single stream route with a few breakouts. What we’ve tried to do is create an evolution conference. We want it to be relevant whether you’re an architect, engineer, contractor, client, SME or whoever, so there are key themes built around what we mean by digital and digital construction.
The conference will cover adopting the digital mindset, what it means as far as changing the face of the industry, what skills are needed, getting construction on the agenda in education, and demystify some of the bigger topics like big data, IoT, wearables, new methods of construction.
We have put together key themes around hot topics in the industry, working with our Steering Group who have been fantastic in their support. They have helped us with this programme, so it’s much more curated by us, but with a lot of industry guidance.
Ultimately what we want is to help educate, and it’s about asking the right questions, adopting an outcome based approach, and helping explore the business practicalities of these different things. We want people to go away inspired but also with some real practical learning.
For speakers we’ve really tried to get some different voices, look to other industries, find new perspectives.
The seminar programme on the show floor, is built around a lot of the same themes but perhaps a bit more focus on specific projects, technologies, and processes. We’re also working with the BIM Regions, Task Group, and BIM4’s on the BIM4 Communities Village which will feature a host of different presentation to help people understand what BIM means to them.
We’ve worked very hard on the conference programme and it is thought through to focus on educational outcomes.
What message are you trying to convey and what do you feel it offers that is different to what is already available?
Ultimately we’re the only show in the UK focusing solely on the scope of digital technologies and processes in the AECO industry. I think the big thing is it’s talking about collaboration and innovation and you can only get that if you bring everybody together, and it’s around providing learning across the board, understanding how all these different elements work together.
We will without a doubt talk about technology but we want to discuss the process around adopting it, making it work in a project team and across a business. This isn’t just a show for Google types it’s about the entire industry at every level.
The scope of what we’re doing is different. It’s pretty ambitious but we want to become more than just a trade event, we want to help drive real change and bring digital to the forefront of our industry. We are trying to think outside the box to show the whole breadth of what the industry is.
So Digital Construction Week is trying to show evolution in the industry and give a platform to show all the great stuff going on, with exciting things for people to see and interact with along the way.
Some exhibitions perhaps don’t cater for the likes of SMEs and where they are on their technological journey. Is this one of the areas that Digital Construction Week excels in?
This is 100% accurate and the SME side was a real big drive for us early on and so within the seminar programme there is a dedicated sessions for SME’s. The idea is you could come for half a day to the seminar programme, look around the exhibition, have time for a meeting in town and head home, all for the price of a train ticket.
There is no barrier to entry which I think has been a real challenge in the past, given some conferences cost a lot of money along with hotel prices. It’s just impractical.
The SME side of things is as important as anything in the discussion about collaboration and so we’d like to show that. BIM’s a great example, I think it’s quite a challenge for SME’s. There’s so much to get your head around, where do you begin? We wanted to break this down, because ultimately it’s about efficiencies. What SME wouldn’t want to be more efficient?
The thought tends to be BIM isn’t for some SMEs because it’s costly or they’re only one part of the process. We’re working with BIM4SME and the Regional BIM Regions to help our visitors understands what it actually means to them.
But it’s about stripping away the hype and getting to basics. The message we’re trying to get across is that it isn’t about huge investment, but rather is about becoming more digitally aware, and ultimately, about efficiency. We’ve also done things like make the two-day conference modular, so if you want you can just buy a one day ticket.
We have worked hard to strip away issues people might have with getting along and attending as well. The conference will open from 10am on the Wednesday so people from different parts of the country can get down in time. We’ve tried to be really conscientious about keeping the week open for the whole of the industry.
Is there anything else you’d like to mention?
There’s so much going on. Ultimately for us, this is the first event that will become annual and we’ll be looking to run and partner a number of events next year as well.
We’d like it to be something that can drive the industry forward, charting the change of the industry because for me, it’s really exciting. There are lots of conversations around virtual reality, IoT, Big Data, robotics, UAVs etc. They will become common place and we need to figure out how we will make that a reality by making them work for us.
We’re working closely with BIM Task Group, the Cabinet Office is supporting us too. We’ve really worked close with industry bodies and ultimately the message was to move away from being another BIM event or conference and hopefully that will be achieved. We’d love feedback from people as well about what they’d like to see in digital construction.
Digital is the lifeblood of the event and it feeds into so many different things. We’re really excited to see how this changes over the years and how needs change, so we’ll constantly evolve. It’s very exciting. Our Steering Group of 15-20 people have been massively supportive and we have a fantastic line up of names that have really helped to shape the event as something hopefully coming from the industry and not just from us.
Digital technologies and processes have been used in construction for years. There are so many great examples, we just want to give a platform for that and be a part of helping to keep driving the industry forward. And most of all please register and come see us at the show!
For more information about event series please visit the Digital Construction Week website.
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