Tag: BIM

thinkBIM Summer Conference – Wednesday 12th July 2017

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**Suitable for clients, Facilities Managers, Estates Managers, Building Managers and anyone who wishes to know how to use digital to maximises building assets**

Wednesday 12th July 2017, 13.00 to 17.30 with registration and buffet lunch from 12.00

Squire Patton Boggs, 6 Wellington Place, Leeds, LS1 4AP 

This year’s summer conference has keynote presentations about BIM and digital adoption from both a client’s perspective and the latest BIM guidance published by the British Institute of Facilities Management.

Mark Stogell of PCSG will present on how Sainsbury’s has developed its digital portfolio as well as appropriate BIM processes for their assets.

Paul Thomas from Turner and Townsend, the author of the British Institute of Facilities Management BIM Guide, will give an overview of how BIFM are adopting digital data in their own processes and from design and construction teams.

So not only some great keynotes but also our fantastic blend of round tables discussions led by Bond Bryan Digital, Stroma Certification, Solibri, and BIM Academy.

We look forward to seeing you at our hosts Squire Patton Boggs for another great afternoon’s learning.

Click here to book your place!

Dark and true and technological is the North: Digitising the region

At a recent Constructing Excellence breakfast event we held, we were particularly struck by a statistic from a recent McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) study which proposed that in terms of digitisation, the construction industry lags dramatically behind those in other classically undigitalised sectors and in fact ranks only above farming and agriculture. Having been heavily involved in promoting digital construction across the region and beyond we felt that in light of this statistic it was important to explore our impression of where the industry is and specifically where Yorkshire and Humber currently places in order to meet the demands of the future.

Screen shot from MyConsole presentation at Constructing Excellence breakfast event on 26th April 2017.

We at Constructing Excellence Yorkshire and Humber (CEYH), part of the Leeds Beckett University School of Built Environment and Engineering have been running digitally focussed events through our thinkBIM network for over five years now and have overseen a massive growth in digital uptake across the region. Originally set up as a network to promote the advancement of BIM (Building Information Modelling) our remit has broadened to highlight new technologies and digital processes and their current and future uses.

When we started, the events were definitely for the innovators and early adopters, particularly in larger companies with SMEs being a little unsure of dipping their toe in the water; early problems being the choices of software available, balancing the cost of adoption with business needs and lack of clarity in contractual BIM requirements – all issues which we have had to address through events and targeted 1:1 support. As the network has expanded though, so has the industry’s understanding of the benefits of digital adoption, and this along with the publishing of the Digital Built Britain strategy in 2015 has helped to demystify some of the processes and improved knowledge and uptake of digital tools and processes across the region.

Even in these early days of digital adoption we saw how local organisations were at the cutting edge of the technological innovation that was unfolding. Not always on the large and prestigious projects but on smaller schemes like the laser scanning of the Orangery in Wakefield by DLA Design which showed what was possible already. We also witnessed the great work done by BAM at First Direct Arena working with their designers, structural steelworkers and precast concrete manufacturers who collaborated together using coordinated models form each organisation to resolve issues with the design, create and more effective design and improve the outcomes for the site team. By working together the team delivered an innovative and award winning venue for the city of Leeds.

Federated model image submitted by A1L2B, a Carillion Morgan Sindall Joint Venture, as part of their winning entry in CEYH Awards 2015

The region has also seen the digitisation of infrastructure schemes too. The award winning A1 Improvement scheme from Leeming to Barton, a Carillion Morgan Sindall Joint Venture demonstrated many new and innovative ways to use digital data to assist with stakeholder engagement as well as collecting real time digital quality records during the course of the works too. Over at Immingham, Costain used the combined, federated, model of their scheme to accurately and successfully plan a 76 hour possession over Christmas 2015 where the team jacked a 5000 tonne bridge into place under the busiest freight railway line in the UK. All this was achieved by creating a digital programme that was meticulously planned, checked and reviewed by the project team, Highways England and Network Rail.

Solius Group virtual reality demonstration at thinkBIM conference in April 2017

More recently the thinkBIM network has been able to lift the lid on the future with demonstrations of Augmented Realities and Virtual Realities. These technologies are actually starting to become widespread too as more and more businesses start to see ways to use gaming technology for customer engagement, construction rehearsals and health and safety briefings as well as for operations teams to better understand the assets that they are maintaining with a level of efficiency previously unheard of. #itsBIMupNorth not just a hashtag but proof that Yorkshire really is a centre of excellence for the digital delivery of projects.

But the key thing here is not the technology, but the people behind it. As Steve Jobs once said “Technology is nothing. What’s important is that you have a faith in people, that they’re basically good and smart, and if you give them tools, they’ll do wonderful things with them”. From a niche group of technically minded people the thinkBIM network has grown to reflect and support a much wider community focussed on working more efficiently and who adopt a whole lifecycle approach not just procuring data for the physical asset alone. And here-in lies the challenge going forward, ensuring the industry is constantly recruiting and upskilling the individuals and teams who are able to exploit the opportunity technology offers.

Let us know your thoughts of where the industry is and where it needs to be and where you see the future of digital technologies for construction.

 

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#CEYH2016 Awards: Proud to be different!

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As I write this post we are now just under five days to go until we close for this year’s Constructing Excellence in Yorkshire and Humber awards and we are very excited to see what you have all been up to in the last 12 months. We are really heartened by the response of local companies so far and can’t wait to get stuck into the judging process and organising the rest of the evening. There is still time to get your entries in – follow the links below or visit our dedicated awards page here

Not just your average awards ceremony

Here at the CKE, we take the responsibility of providing the best possible platform to showcase your projects, organisations and individuals extremely seriously, which is why you will never see us run the same event twice! Just like our entrants we aim for our awards ceremony to represent the common themes of our awards in being innovative, collaborative and dynamic.

For instance, at last year’s awards we were the only region to run a selfie competition, which was so successful that it was adopted at the nationals. Not just an excuse to take silly pictures (although that is always welcome), the selfie competition helped to raise the profile of the awards across social media giving extra coverage to the companies involved. We will be running it again this year so don’t forget to bring those phones and snap away!

If you are still undecided, here are just three more reasons why our awards are different and how your business will benefit from being involved,

  • Our dynamic team are all from construction/engineering backgrounds. With over twenty years combined industry experience, we know how to sell what the industry does best
  • Our awards are an experience as well as a ceremony. Every year the team try to do something different on the night itself to ensure the event is memorable for all the right reasons and is a real reward for the individuals and teams who take part. With this year’s Swinging from the Rooftops theme, this year is no exception! We have a number of surprises planned for you on the night – we can’t wait for you to see them!
  • Our added value with our relationships to the National Constructing Excellence network, Yorkshire and Humber Constructing Excellence Club, Leeds Beckett University, Leeds Sustainability Institute and our thinkBIM, Green Vision networks. Going forward there will be plenty of opportunities for our entrants to showcase their work at our breakfast and twilight seminars, our half day conferences and through site visits.

How to enter

Fully inclusive and completely free to enter, we welcome submissions from any organisations, companies &/or project teams involved in delivering building & civil engineering projects in our region over the last 12 months. With 13 categories to choose from we are sure there is one for you! The closing date for entries is 29th April 2016 and all the forms can be downloaded from the links below.

Achiever of the Year

BIM Project of the Year

Client of the Year

Health and Safety

Heritage

Innovation

Integration & Collaborative Working

Leadership & People Development

Project of the Year

SME of the Year

Sustainability

Value

Young Achiever of the Year

We look forward to reading your entries!

With thanks to our sponsors

Sponsors-Collage-March2016

Unlocking your BIM specifications with Assa Abloy at our #ceyh2016 breakfast event

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On the 21st January 2016 we welcomed around 30 individuals from across the regional construction sector back to Addleshaw Goddard’s offices in Leeds for the first of our 2016 constructing excellence breakfast events. Our alliteratively titled “Starting to specify the specifics of your specification” (CEYH Chair, Tom Oulton, was especially proud of that title!) event explored the RIBA Plan of Works Stage 2 from the viewpoint of BIM and product specifications.

Our main speaker for this event was Andy Stolworthy, BIM Manager at Assa Abloy. Assa Abloy are a global supplier of intelligent lock and security solutions formed 1994 through the merger of ASSA in Sweden and Abloy in Finland. Andy joined ASSA ABLOY UK in September 2003 working in a number of technical and product management roles. In his current role, Andy is the Technical and Commercial lead on BIM for the company as well as being a member of the BIM4M2 Data Templates group working to develop a useable platform that can support BIM adoption with a number of industry bodies such as CIBSE. A twitter summary of the key points from Andy’s presentation along with images can be found in the storify below.

Following Andy’s presentation, CEYH Chair Tom Oulton gave an overview of some of the CE supported events happening in our region over the next few months including thinkBIM’s much anticipated 23rd March conference, headlined by David Philp and this year’s Constructing Excellence in Yorkshire and Humber awards. Further details at the booking links below.

Specificationswriteup

In the meantime we look forward to seeing you at our next breakfast event on 24th February which will cover CDM from a Client’s perspective with speakers from Turner & Townsend and Addleshaw Goddard. Details here

 

EVENT STORIFY

Getting our Construction Act together – First Humber region breakfast event of 2015/2016 hailed a success!

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Hullwriteup

The Constructing Excellence Yorkshire & Humber seminar held in Hull on Thursday 12th November 2015 was hailed a success by attendees as they left Gosschalks’s offices with plenty to think about. Over 60 construction industry professionals from the region registered for a place at the seminar, which was presented by Gosschalks’s contentious and non-contentious construction law team. The seminar covered complex issues surrounding payment and Pay Less Notices, and the recent case law developments that affect payment under the Construction Act.

This sparked a lively Q&A discussion among the attendees about the requirements for effective notices, and was described afterwards by one delegate as “an eye opener!”

Matthew Fletcher, Partner and Head of Construction and Litigation at Gosschalks, said: “We were delighted to deliver this event with the Constructing Excellence team and play host to their first East Yorkshire event in a number of years, and we were thrilled by the positive feedback the event generated. Our aim was to get those who deal with payments under construction contracts thinking and to understand the potentially heavy financial implications if they fail to issue timely notices. We provided up an update on several key cases where it has been necessary for the Technology & Construction Court to interpret the revised payment procedures contained in the Construction Act. Construction companies really don’t want to be caught in the Act!”

Chris Groves, Partner and non-contentious and construction contracts expert at Gosschalks, commented:  “We addressed many of the consequences encountered when failing to issue time sensitive payment notices. This is a major issue for a lot of construction businesses and is something on which we are happy to share our expertise and advice. We’ve already been approached by a couple of individual companies who would like us to present this briefing at their premises.”

Liz Schofield, from  Constructing Excellence Yorkshire and Humber added, “We are really pleased to be bringing events back to the Humber region for the first time in over a year and were delighted to see a sixty plus audience comprising of an impressive mix of key people from the construction industry based in and around Hull and East Yorkshire. We are very much looking forward to partnering with Gosschalks to hold more events in this region in the New Year”.

A summary of the tweets and images from the breakfast event can be found in our storify summary below. Our next Constructing Excellence event will be on 21st January in Leeds and will focus on RIBA Stage 2, Specifications and BIM in Manufacturing – details and Booking here. Any questions, contact Liz and the CEYH team on +44 (0)113 812 1902 or ckeevents@leedsbeckett.ac.uk

For further information about Gosschalks events and services, please contact Claire Hill on +44(0)1482 590204 or clh@gosschalks.co.uk

Constructing Excellence Members’ Forum – Autumn 2015

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Details have just been released about this year’s members forum event which is taking place on 14th October at Pinsent Masons LLP in London.

Date: Wednesday 14 October 2015
Venue: Pinsent Masons LLP, 30 Crown Place, Earl Street, London EC2A 4ES
Timing: 12.30 – 4.30pm (including lunch)

This Members’ Forum will focus on our members’ theme groups and aims to help members get more value from these. Last year we held a similar event to showcase the groups and consult on any new topics which members felt should be theme groups. This year we again want to showcase the groups’ work, and attendees will hear about new outputs being launched from the Asset Management, Procurement and Collaborative Working groups. Other themes currently include Sustainability, BIM, Funding & Finance, and the Nuclear sector. Our objective is to improve members’ engagement with these themes, and to ask whether these are the right topics for 2016. We look forward to an interesting afternoon and hope as many members as possible will be able to attend.

Please note that, as usual, in the morning we will have a meeting of our members steering group. Each member is entitled to nominate a rep to attend these meetings, they are not a closed shop and new people are welcome at any time. The meetings are always in the morning of the forums (i.e. 3 per year), take 2 hours or so, and are where we develop and direct our work programme to add value for members. Please contact the office if you would like to attend or to be included in the distribution list for future meetings.

Please also note that our Annual Conference will take place at Lord’s cricket ground on 11 November. Each national member is entitled to two free places (additional places and non-members attract a fee). The theme will be learning from other industries, with speakers from IT and aerospace amongst others. You can book for the Annual Conference on EventBrite.

AGENDA

1. Welcome and Introductions Don Ward, Chief Executive
2. Innovation in Practice Demo project Öppen – John Rich, SRA Architects
3. New outputs from our theme groups; 3.1. Asset management John O’Brien, LCMB 3.2. Collaborative working Kevin Thomas, Visionality
4. Breakout session and plenary feedback See below for details
5. Glenigan – KPI findings Tom Crane, Glenigan
6. Close Murray Rowden, CE Chairman

BREAKOUT SESSION “WHAT MATTERS ABOUT…”

Prior to the afternoon’s breakout session, attendees will be invited to add their thoughts to flipcharts on what is important to them about Asset Management, BIM, Collaborative Working, Funding & Finance, Nuclear, Sustainability and Procurement.During the breakout session, the Theme Group Chairs will each facilitate an individual session during which they give a brief update on their group, and use the flipchart data to prompt further discussion/ideas, and help to prioritise and shape the work plans for the next year. Attendees will be free to move amongst as many tables as they wish during the course of the session. There will also be a table for “Missing Theme Groups/New topics” for those who want to discuss or at least propose new topics for CE attention. To book onto the event, please contact Deborah Hynes on 07968 206 115 or deborah.hynes@constructingexcellence.org.uk

UPCOMING MEETINGS

Sustainability Theme Group Meeting – 8th October

Members Steering Group – 14th October

Members’ Forum – 14th October

National Awards – 23rd October

Annual Conference – 11th November

BIM Theme Group meeting- 2nd December

Collaborative Working Champions Meeting – 3rd December

Nuclear Theme Group Meeting – 10th December

Parliamentary Reception – 15th December