HOK BIM leaders have been active on the conference circuit lately – spreading the word and sharing our take on innovative design and delivery processes. I attended my 7th BIMForum event in San Antonio, Texas earlier this month. This conference – organized by the Associated General Contractors of America – keeps getting better and better. Read my review on All Things BIM.

David Light, William Lopez Campo, Cara Di Pierro, and Joyce Chan from our London office participated in a popular event in the UK called BIMShow Live. Here’s a synopsis from David…

“Building information modeling is finally starting to get some good traction in the UK; however, BIM delivery has remained marginal & typically confined to large projects such Heathrow T5, Crossrail, Olympics etc. Last year the UK Government mandated BIM on all publicly procured projects over the value of £5 million.  This will be phased in over the next few years, with what is described at Level 2 BIM being required by 2016. At a bare minimum the end deliverable being requested is COBie UK2012, a COBie format formulated specifically for use in the UK. As you can imagine this has sent a shock wave through the UK construction industry as the AEC community grapples with what this new BIM requirement entails.”

“With obligation, comes conferences & last year was no expectation. Nary a month passed without a conference in which the merits of BIM were discussed. There seemed to be more talking than action, but there was one event that stood out above the rest: BIMshow Live. In some ways it was like a smaller Autodesk University, but the focus was the practical delivery of BIM.  I presented at last year’s inaugural event & was delighted when I was contacted by the conference organizers asking if I would like to speak again. Along with some of the BIM gurus in the London office, we submitted three classes and were pleased to learn that all three were accepted for this two day event!”

“On May 9^th & 10^th 2012 BIMshow live kicked off. On the first day, I along with Cara Di Pierro, BIM coordinator for the Francis Crick project, presented to a packed room a lecture entitled “Francis Crick – Virtual Design, the expectations, the reality”. We gave a realistic view of the challenges with managing large scale data requirements on this complex science & technology project. The icing on the cake was when we wowed the audience with the Naviswork model live!”

“On day two, the morning started with William Lopez Campo showing off his parametric design knowledge with a class titled “You Want to Model a What? Converting Real Projects into Parametric Relationships.”  As William suggests, designers are constantly faced with two related challenges: how to rationalize a form into buildable elements, and how to create geometric frameworks to represent design requirements. William gave an exemplary performance on how HOK’s London office goes about this challenge on its design projects. Later that day Joyce Chan, HOK London’s Sustainability leader & champion presented a lecture on “Integrating Environmental Analysis into a BIM Workflow.” Joyce reviewed some of the key environmental performance criteria required for early stage analysis and how each criterion can be tested throughout the design and post occupancy stage, a core concept of performance-based design within the HOK buildingSMART process.”

“Overall it was a fantastic event. I was really proud to see my colleagues sharing their skills & knowledge with others in the growing UK BIM community and we have received amazing feedback from other conference attendees. It was also a great opportunity to demonstrate why HOK still remain leaders in BIM with practical examples & positions us well as the go-to firm for great project design and delivery with BIM.”