BIM Forum Boston recap: Gilbane inspires with collaboration challenge

I recently attended BIM Forum in Boston, which is an AGC-sponsored event that brings together some of the top Architectural, Engineering and Construction firms from across the US. The focus of this forum was “Optimizing Design with BIM.” The sessions ran the gambit. It was everything from taking a page from Aerospace for Simulation Design to predictive analysis—even designing Cinderella’s castle in Revit, which won Disney an AIA TAP award for Design.
May 6, 2014
2 min read
66fb168346a023a09c13ca49 Bimforum Collaboration

 

I recently attended BIM Forum in Boston, which is an AGC-sponsored event that brings together some of the top Architectural, Engineering and Construction firms from across the US.  The focus of this forum was “Optimizing Design with BIM.”  The sessions ran the gambit.  It was everything from taking a page from Aerospace for Simulation Design to predictive analysis—even designing Cinderella’s castle in Revit, which won Disney an AIA TAP award for Design.

One of the sessions that really stood out to me was from Gilbane.  The focus of their session was Collaboration and how we are going to change the way we design and build in the future.  It is not going to be by doing what got us to our state today, which are siloed, interoperable procedures for building.  They discussed ways in which they are using technology and project setup to collaborate effectively.  One of the interesting spin-off conversations that came about after their session on the networking floor was, if you’re going to leverage technology to collaborate more effectively in the field, how do you find trade partners who are up to speed with BIM and can run at the same pace as your project teams? 

A few of the construction professionals that I spoke to freely admitted that this is a challenge; this is something we are struggling with, being able to find trade partners who are able to run at the same pace as our BIM teams.  I did speak with one particular contractor who said that this is part of their secret sauce, meaning this is something they use as a competitive advantage.  I wanted to pose this question to you, my blog followers.  I’m sure this is not unique to those at BIM Forum.  What do you do to find trade partners who can run at the same pace as your BIM teams?  Or is this even a challenge you’re facing in your geographical area? I’d love to hear how you solve this challenge and invite you to comment and share with the audience what it is that you do to partner with, find, train and to continue to build relationships with qualified trade partners.  

About the Author

Sasha Reed

As Vice President of Strategic Development at Bluebeam, Inc., Sasha Reed collaborates with leaders in the architecture, engineering and construction industry to guide Bluebeam’s technology, partnerships and long-term goals. She joined Bluebeam in 2007 and co-created the Concierge Approach, a distinctly branded process of customer engagement, product feedback and solution delivery to which much of Bluebeam’s success is attributed, and which today is replicated at every organizational level.

Sasha is known industry-wide as a “conversation facilitator,” creating platforms for exchanges necessary to digitally advance the industry, including the BD+C Magazine Digital COM Blog, which she authors and manages. She’s been a featured presenter at numerous national and international conferences, including the 2014 Design-Build Institute of America (DBIA), Federal Project Delivery Symposium and NTI Danish BIM Conference. Sasha also co-chairs the Construction PDF Coalition, a grassroots effort to provide a common industry framework from which to create and maintain construction PDF documents, serves on the City College of San Francisco BIM Industry Council, and is Advisor to the Board of Direction for the National Institute of Building Sciences BuildingSMART Alliance.

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