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2nd Mar 2018

BIM Show Live 2018

Day 1

As the Beast from the East descended, the two-day BIM Show Live kicked off in Newcastle. Attending the conference on behalf of Henry Riley LLP were BIM Champions Adam Gibbins and Jonah Balmford.

Day 1 began with keynote speeches from leading BIM experts which focused on ensuring all users are Level 1 compliant. The ‘State of the Nation’ looked to address how the construction industry has changed over the past 12 months, from the disaster of Grenfell to the Carillion collapse, and the speakers looked at how digital construction could prevent such events occurring again.

As the final attendees battled the weather to arrive we turned our attention to “BIM and the QS”. A thought provoking session looked to shed light on how one firm has successfully implemented BIM across their projects. Key takeaways include:

  • Integration of BIM stems from gaining confidence from its use
  • Pre-agreed design freezes and dedicated Information Managers are key to ensuring the role of the QS is not compromised by deadlines
  • Overcoming the initial fear of change (a key factor in the slow uptake) and fully understanding the benefits of BIM are essential to a QS’s knowledge base
  • An increase in upfront effort (spending more time on the project at an early stage) helps reduce the effort required later in the project’s lifespan.

After lunchtime demonstrations from major software firms, the afternoon sessions looked at the industry as a whole and how augmented reality is shaping the construction industry. Discussions focused on what VR (or virtual resolution) and augmented societies would mean for the construction sector, and how the sector as a whole would cope with this change. Sublime, a firm that explores this question on a daily basis, believes that to address this, as an industry we must now realise the potential of BIM rather than analyse it further.

The mid-afternoon session focused on data attribution within BIM in order to maximise efficiencies both from a consultant aspect and ultimately a client’s point of view. Jason Whittall, of One Creative Environments, highlighted how BIM can also be used from a maintenance aspect. Given Employer’s Requirements are fixed early in a project’s lifespan, BIM allows maintenance schedules to be added into the model, thus reducing the number of defects reported and resulting in reduced maintenance costs.

After a break to visit the vendors on display, Jonah then attended a seminar on why the investment in BIM and digital construction may take longer to realise its returns than initially expected, and how addressing issues sooner rather than later can help an organisation develop. The talk by Lee Mullin from Autodesk, entitled “Why Michael Gove was right about BIM”, looked to dissolve the myths associated with expert opinions on BIM. Lee noted that a certain degree of scepticism is required in order to navigate through the issues that arise from incorporating BIM but that as people’s awareness develops, the benefits are not far behind.

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