List of themes for DBEI Insight

Distributed Teams (Jun 16 – 25): Whether they’re working from multiple offices, working remotely, or working from home, distributed teams offer special challenges of management, communication, coordination, and technological support. From delivering projects on time and on budget to preserving business continuity, and from small organizations to international firms, the need to have the right information from the right people at the right time to make the best decisions is universal. In this series we’ll look at the cultures, technologies, and professional practices that make distributed teams not just work but thrive when they take advantage of the best talent wherever it needs to be in a changed working environment. We’ll look at the implications and opportunities arising from COVID-19 prevention in the workplace, from space occupation and office redesign to permanent changes in commercial real estate management and work culture.

Interoperability (Jun 30 – Jul 9): When projects require upwards of 200 distinct software packages to get out the door, the best processes and procedures depend on reliable and lossless data transfer between many critical design, management, and delivery environments. In this series we look at the best tools and techniques to transport critical data through sophisticated workflows to support diverse projects. With a focus on practical, repeatable solutions, our speakers will show you how to leverage each software platform for its strengths while maintaining in its deliverables through its transfer to other environments for analysis and elaboration. Sometimes the most difficult part of a owning a large toolbox is knowing what to use when and how to make all the tools work best together. Join us to find out how you can get the most from your software portfolio by ensuring each software title reinforces the rest through interoperability.

Software Comparison (Jul 14 – 23): Choices, choices. Comparing software packages and approaches can be a laborious and sometimes bewildering exercise in feature matching, production testing, financial modeling, and cultural assessment. Not only does one size not fit all, but sometimes you need similar software packages that differ just enough to support everything your practice needs to do. From CAD to BIM to graphics, presentation, team management, data sharing, and cloud services, there’s an increasing variety of options from veteran providers and AEC startups. This series will help you understand how various offerings can help your practice, and what considerations you should apply before making an implementation commitment from a project or a firm. There’s no need to go it alone with our experienced speakers to help guide you in making the best software decisions for your projects and your business.

Standards (Jul 28 – Aug 6): The great thing about standards is that there are so many of them! Whether your firm is working a tightly specified contract or with a new multi-firm project team for the first time, without standards of data exchange and deliverables you’ll sink a lot of time and money in reconciling what you’re making with what they want, and there’s no faster way to turn what should be profitable work into a loss than reworking. By careful attention to standards of production of delivery across teams you can save time, patience, and money. In this series our speakers will look at prevalent data standards,process standards when to use them, when to deviate from them, and how to implement those business decisions for one project or a hundred.

Coding (Aug 11 – 20): Coding skills are highly sought after, and increasingly so in the AECO industry. We are surrounded by opportunities to automate using code, whether the code being written is to programmatically design a building or simply to remove the mundane from a repetitive task – it all provides the same benefit of doing a task faster. Not only do we have multiple opportunities to use coding, but along with this is the quantum of applications to use. But where does one start? What program is best for what situation? Can anyone develop code?
Huddle together with our speakers in branching out to explore differences in approach, APIs, low-code, no-code, re-usable scripts, and the divergent toolsets available. Merge minds with others on best practices in code-reuse, CI/CD, User Acceptance Testing, and strategies in deployment, to welcome the new age of AECO automation.

Education & Training (Aug 25 – Sep 3): In today’s AEC practice, there is a real desire and need to provide continued education and training opportunities for staff to ensure your practice is keeping pace with the rate of change.

When developing an education and training framework for a practice it is important to note, a one size fits all approach is not the answer, what works for one practice may not for another, therefore there are many things to consider:
• what form should the training take
• what content should there be – keep it wide or narrow the focus
• In-house or external,
• hands-on or lecture style
• identifying knowledge gaps

Reality Capture (Sep 8 – 17): Reality Capture is playing an important part within the AEC industry, allowing the capture of accurate data about real-world conditions throughout the full lifecycle of a project.
 
As the technologies have advanced, so has the awareness of the benefits to projects. No longer are we seeing reality capture focused on providing the quick analysis of existing and as-built conditions but its use being adopted on construction sites for a QA/QC role and even providing an avenue for asset management data aggregation,.
 
• Where will the use of reality capture stop, or will it?
• How is it being adopted and adapted on projects and for what benefit?
• What are the challenges in the adoption of using Reality Capture on projects?

Data Management (Sep 22 – Oct 1): They say data is the new oil, with a rush for acquisition of data of all forms. Put your miner’s hat on in our discussion of data security, metadata definitions, data management systems, parts and modules, project or asset information such as inventory SKUs, Mean Time Before Failure or itemized costs. With all of this data at hand data analytics and visualisation means are needed to make sense of it all.

Let’s talk replication issues for those in distributed setups, delve into Common Data Environments and the federation of data, and debate on migration issues for those embarking on the ardous and often perilous journey from legacy systems to the latest in Cloud environments.

Construction (Oct 6 – 15): Construction is where the rubber meets the road, where Design Development ideas become reality, and where project costings and time schedules need hawking over for efficient execution on the ground. Meet the latest tools and techniques for installation of temporary structures, scaffolding and castings in situ, continuous clash detections and resolutions, and Project Management of site works related to the erection of buildings. Topics around site safety, personnel management and issue management, use of UAVs and laser class equipment for monitoring and verification of As-Builts compared to Design will also be covered. Put on your hard hats, get our speakers as your guide, and let’s build!

Sustainability (Oct 20 – 29): The Paris Climate Agreement set in motion sustainability targets with the vast majority of countries putting action plans in place, but what does that mean for the Built Environment industry? We talk not only about idealistic smart and sustainable cities, energy simulations of any sort, pre-fabrication modules, manufacturing production and disassembly, transportation and mobility, and emissions control – all of which all pertain to the Circular Economy – but we get down to the dollars and cents and what it means for owners and the running costs involved in such implementations. In setting the path for our future generations, we occasionally need to acknowledge those who have gone before us, traditional owners of the land and their cultures. Let’s come together and discuss the myriad topics in the continuation of the greatest Story – the Story of Us.

Legal (Nov 3 – 12): The Paris Climate Agreement set in motion sustainability targets with the vast majority of countries putting action plans in place, but what does that mean for the Built Environment industry? We talk not only about idealistic smart and sustainable cities, energy simulations of any sort, pre-fabrication modules, manufacturing production and disassembly, transportation and mobility, and emissions control – all of which all pertain to the Circular Economy – but we get down to the dollars and cents and what it means for owners and the running costs involved in such implementations. In setting the path for our future generations, we occasionally need to acknowledge those who have gone before us, traditional owners of the land and their cultures. Let’s come together and discuss the myriad topics in the continuation of the greatest Story – the Story of Us.

Civil Infrastructure (Nov 17 – 26): Civil Infrastructures are all facilities and systems helping society to function, connecting buildings, people and nature, for both public and private projects. Our speakers will address challenges and solutions in the use of digital technology and BIM in Civil Infrastructure to create roads, railways, bridges, tunnels, water and energy supply, waste treatment, communications networks, airports, and dams, among many other types of projects. In this series we’ll look at:

• Creation and management of existing conditions models and where it overlaps with GIS.
• Parametric modelling and large-scale model management.
• Design and analysis workflow using digital information, evaluating multiple design and engineering scenarios.
• Data management inclusive of GIS.
• Standards and information requirements.
• BIM enabled construction.
• Inspection techniques such as UAV and laser scanning
• Interoperability and common data environments

XR (Dec 1 – 10): Enhancement of sensory perception using photorealistic rendering and computer altered reality experiences. These techniques have merits for realist design exploration for clients and project stakeholders; improved communication, collaboration and analysis of building design and functional aspects; digital fabrication, manufacturing and assembly; increased accuracy and efficiency in the construction site; health and safety planning and training; operational maintenance training; simulation and analysis; gamification.

Next Generation (Dec 14 – 17): Upcoming trends and emerging technologies for 2021 (and beyond?) in the realm of digital transformation in the AECO industry. It applies to processes, standards, hardware, software, robotics, computer science, work environment, skills or even gadgets, if they have a place of use in this industry. Existing or older technologies or methodologies that will finally take off could also be considered. Equally, we consider here innovations in business practices and contractual arrangements or anything which alters the shape of the future AECO industry.