Recently, our team in the UK attended the two events described below to hear from construction industry leaders, learn about current and anticipated trends, and connect with peers.
“It was great to meet with people in person again,” said Steve Deadman, our Customer Success Manager for the EMEA region. “During the pandemic, we maintained our connection to the industry virtually, but nothing beats a face-to-face meeting to speak openly, confirm understanding and build or strengthen relationships.”
London Build Expo - Held in mid-November at Olympia London, this award-winning show attracted 20,000 house builders, housing associations and local authorities, developers, sub-contractors, architects, engineers, distributors, suppliers and manufacturers. The conference, viewed as one of the best in the world, featured 300 speakers and 300 exhibitors. - Digital Construction Week - Held in late November at ExCel, London, this exhibition featured more than 120 hours of talks and workshops focused on innovation and technology in the built environment as well as 200 companies providing information on their products and services for digital design, construction, engineering, manufacturing and operations.
Key Takeaways
“Ideate Software develops Revit plugin tools that address challenges faced by the construction industry,” said Nick Johns, UK/EMEA Territory Lead. “By attending these conferences, we gained valuable knowledge that will help us understand our customers’ goals and create solutions that will help them reach those goals.”
Here are a few insights gleaned from the events:
- Change in the construction industry continues to be slow. Companies are not interested in technology for technology’s sake; they want to see proven benefits before taking big steps.
- One industry leader estimated that a construction company can reduce the number of hours spent on building projects by 50 percent by deploying technology, automating repetitive tasks and digitizing processes.
- The technologies trending upward are BIM, digital twins, augmented reality and virtual reality.
- A speaker predicted that if construction companies don’t invest in digital technologies now to save time and money, they will pay later in terms of longer build times, more mistakes, increased risk of on-the-job injuries and employee/customer dissatisfaction.
- All construction companies in the UK need to pay attention as details of the new Building Safety Bill are announced. The bill is scheduled to go into effect in April 2022.
Visit our website to learn more about our purpose-built Revit add-in tools. Give them a try with free trial versions or subscribe today.