The Choices We Have

by Silvia Taurer
It has been a while since you last heard or read from me, but at last I have the opportunity to share some of my thoughts with you on the BILT Europe program.
Like you as a delegate, every committee member individually has a unique professional background and interest which comes into play when we look at our carefully crafted BILT Europe program and personally select classes for ourselves. Sometimes our class selection is to benefit our personal growth, to further our education or simply select classes to remain informed on the latest developments hitting the building industry.
Since I am one of five to see all the abstracts nominated into the program as a session, foremost I am excited by the sheer knowledge in store for us, but then it gets tough when I start selecting my personal program for the conference and I realise “No, I can’t attend them all…..”
As my background is around navigating a BIM consultancy through rough seas with full sails, my personal pick of classes focuses on informative, useful, practical but also strategic aspects of the industry as well as learning from presented case studies in how other companies navigate through project and/or data management. This year it has hit me hard that we have too many good classes I’d like to attend, but alas can’t multiply myself!
For me, I will kick off my Day 1 program attending the Panel Talk on the UN Climate COP24 talks in relation to AEC+O by Conor Shaw following up on getting to learn new workarounds from Tim Hoffeller in his Session “Is there anybody out there (doing PFV)?”
Magdalena Stelzer’s class on “Bringing BIM in Infrastructure to a new level using graph databases” will be a highlight for me as it ties closely in with an issue we recently experienced in a project and am looking forward to learning from her.
Day 2 starts off attending Susanne Lund’s Estimation class “Data Management that is rocking the building industry” proceeding to get inspired by Joel Martineau’s Leadership Session “How to stay ahead when nothing stays the same”. My personal winner in the category of, how the hell did they do this in such a short time-frame, remains Aaron Levy’s class “Jerusalem LRT Depot – the structural giant” and for me a simple must! I conclude my day with Maarten van den Berg’s Session “Managing Material Exchange, let’s kickstart the circular economy in BIM”. Maarten here touches on a sensitive problem to our industry: waste and pollution. We need to start somewhere to think more sustainably and am glad he is addressing it to us.
Day 3 is really tough for me, I simply can’t make up my mind! Whilst am certain that I will attend Michael Boyd’s case study “Coordinate, cooperate then collaborate, a case study of 18-19 Hanover Square”, my pick for Session 3.2 is in dire straits. Here I have the chance to get geeked out by Jon Mirtschin – learn the latest development and research facts on environmental performance of buildings by Martin Roeck or get an awesome case study by Arik Shiby and Moty Vaknin. I can’t decide yet, so gentlemen plead your case with me!
Speaker Spotlight Interview with Jon Mirtschin on his sessions at this year’s BILT Europe
However, signing up for the class from Dan Chasteen on “The future of teaching things” in Session 3.3 was a natural choice given my background and work with BILT Academy. To conclude my conference program, I look forward to attending Scott Beazley’s “Practical BIM techniques for contractors to quantify for 4D scheduling and 5D costing”, a coryphée in this subject and worth hanging on to his every word.
Let me say this: this year’s program excels yet again in all educative aspects and it’s worth noting that even by writing down my current selection of classes I’d like to attend, does not diminish my eagerness to attend all others but simply just as you do, lack the time and as emphasized previously; can’t multiply myself! Oh the awesome choices we have!
I look forward to seeing you all in Edinburgh!
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