A series of roadshows around the UK and Ireland that will lift the lid on digital technologies in the construction sector, and the relevance of BIM to our everyday lives, have been announced by Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE).
The roadshows, which started in Glasgow last week, will focus on the practical ways that BIM can be applied by each stakeholder in the construction process to work smarter and use digital assets more effectively, rather than the theory and technology behind BIM.
The all day events will take delegates through the process from start to finish, focusing on RIBA Stages 0 – 7, and introducing the different software applications, potential issues and opportunities that users will encounter during design and construction.
The roadshows have a particular focus on the journeys that each stakeholder involved will make while using BIM on a project, and what each stakeholder typically requires from BIM. This will both help all parties to understand how their peers are using BIM, and help them understand what other professionals involved in construction require from BIM.
Many presentations and seminars over recent years have focussed on the processes and forms of information exchange, but rarely looked at how they can be applied, especially for the bulk of the sector, that work on typical construction projects.
The reasons for BIM have been stated many times before. These roadshow events are intended to demonstrate how to use the technologies and processes to increase efficiency, accuracy and quality of information and to reduce the risk on projects, by exposing data in a structured way.
By sharing openly and using relatively simple technology and techniques, delegates will see how to use data from a single source to generate multiple outcomes.
CIBSE will also be demonstrating the new BIMHawk toolkit, which it is providing free to the industry to help make data more predictable, easier to transport and less of a burden for manufacturers.
Carl Collins, CIBSE Digital Engineering Consultant, said: “The World is changing and the construction industry has to change with it. We are increasingly moving from analogue to digital technologies, for reasons of efficiency and transparency.
“Plenty of time has been devoted to selling the concept of BIM and the technology behind it, but we’ve found there isn’t enough practical awareness of how it works, how it can help individuals and what it can do for a project. These roadshows are designed to fill that void, and to help people think creatively about BIM and how to use data in new ways.”
The CIBSE BIM Roadshows will take place over the course of 2016 and 2017, visiting Manchester, Birmingham, London, Edinburgh, Belfast, Cardiff, Newcastle, Leeds, Bristol and Dublin.
