BIM and FM. Are we winning yet?

On the 3rd of June we welcomed around 40 industry professionals to Old Broadcasting House at Leeds Beckett University for the second twilight seminar of our summer series exploring the links between BIM and Facilities Management. We were thrilled to see many new faces in the room with nearly fifty percent of the attendees from a FM background which was a huge  increase from our 2014 asset managemet series where only a smattering of individuals raised their hand during our straw poll of FM professionals in the room.

Progress for thinkBIM then but is that reflected in the FM industry and their adoption of BIM? These were the key questions and themes explored by our two speakers, Mark Whittaker from BIFM North & Integral UK & Martin Ward from Styles and Wood & iSite. The title of this write-up was inspired by this series of tweets after the event which neatly summarises where our seminar showed the FM industry was at, some traction finally but still work to go.

Great job today by the looks of it @Whitbags at @thinkBIM do you think we are winning? #bim4fm

— kath fontana (@kathf48) June 3, 2015

@kathf48 @Whitbags personally I’m really proud of tonight’s #tbim2015 we definitely got some #facman traction tonight

— ThinkBIM (@thinkBIM) June 3, 2015

@thinkBIM @Whitbags brilliant, IMHO this is just what’s needed, real in the same room 0-7 dialogue

— kath fontana (@kathf48) June 3, 2015

@kathf48 @thinkBIM Sometimes I think & hope we are & then I see some tenders & feel we are back at base camp again looking up at Everest

— Mark Whittaker (@Whitbags) June 3, 2015

This great slide from Martin Ward particularly resonated (and not just for the Bowie references). What needs to ch-ch-change for BIM adoption in FM to happen?

Our full storify of the event including the live tweets & links is below. Have a read and tell us what you think? Where do you think the FM industry is and where does it need to go?

Please note that if you would like to see a copy of the slides from either of our presenters please email ckeevents@leedsbeckett.ac.uk

Join us for GreenBIM on 1st July!

We will be continuing discussions around these themes at our greenBIM conference on 1st July at Squire Patton Boggs in Leeds. For that event we are thrilled to have our International Keynote delivered by Bill East, the owner of Prairie Sky Consulting and one of the foremost authorities on COBie. Our UK keynote will be delivered by Nitesh Magdani, Director of Sustainability at BAM Construct UK who will present on the themes of BIM, the links to sustainability and the whole life cycle of projects. As usual we will be running our highly successful and often evocative round table discussions and will be rounding off with our new Room 101 feature which will be an opportunity for attendees to get off their chest their pet peeves  about BIM and sustainability. What needs to go to room101 to move our industry forward. Full details and booking here