Your Guide to the 2020 BW Project Delivery Conference – 3 Days, 40+ Speakers, 20+ Sessions, And A Whole Lot of Construction Technology

With our Project Delivery Conference less than a week away, we’re breaking down the innovative speakers, topics, and technologies that will be covered as we dive into the construction technology influencing pre-construction, construction management, and smart job sites. Each day of our building construction technology conference will have it’s own construction technology flavor, here’s five themes that we’ll hit on that will stretch across the 3-day virtual event:

  • Driving innovative practices to source, implement, and utilize technology more effectively.
  • Utilizing BIM and other visualization technology for more effective collaboration, guidance, and assurance.
  • Automating repetitive practices to streamline processes, optimize workflows, and save time.
  • Collecting, organizing, and managing massive amounts of data for more-informed, better decision making.
  • Leveraging technology during each phase to ultimately create a safer working environment in the field.

With that, let’s dive in and see what each day of the Project Delivery Conference has to offer:

Day 1 – Preconstruction & Planning

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE FULL AGENDA FOR DAY 1 OF THE 2020 BUILTWORLDS PROJECT DELIVERY CONFERENCE

 

Register for Day 1 of the Project Delivery Conference!

Driving Innovation & Building Tech Roadmaps

For an industry that has been traditionally slow to adopt new technology, the idea of driving innovation enterprise-wide can be daunting to some. How do contractors balance the various ideas from their project teams, strategy and push from leadership, and new solutions making noise in the market?

In the recent BuiltWorlds Benchmarking Surveys, we asked the contractors in the BW Member Network if they a had person, group, or department specifically responsible for innovation and tech implementation within their company. Based on the makeup of BW Membership, it was not so shocking to learn that almost all survey participants did in fact have a person or group dedicated to driving innovation, testing new technology, and implementing new solutions into their operations. In the morning of Day 1, we’ll hold similar conversations with more Construction Technology Leaders to learn how they’re addressing these issues within their companies.

CLICK HERE TO LEARN HOW E&C TECH LEADERS ARE DRIVING A CULTURE OF INNOVATION AT THEIR COMPANIES

To kick off Day 1 of the event, Gilbane’s Rawle Sawh (VDC Director) and Chad Knutson (Sr. VDC Manager) will detail their strategy for developing a company-wide technology roadmap with the most important factors in mind – field personnel. We’ll then move to a panel discussion with Dana Erdman (Director of Technology & Innovatoin, Bulley & Andrews), Dan Smolilo (Director of Process & Innovation, The Walsh Group), Andy Gajbhiye (Director of Construction Technologies, Joeris GC), and Chad Holbrook (VDC Director, W.E. O’Neil) as they discuss impactful strategies for driving innovation and effective processes for technology adoption across their construction practices. The morning will lay a firm foundation for industry players challenged with identifying, selecting, and implementing technology across their business practices.

The Digital Twin’s Preconstruction Impact

‘Biggest Bottleneck in Preconstruction’ based on 2020 BW Benchmarking Surveys.

The BW Benchmarking Surveys garnered many interesting sentiment-based results, especially when we asked BW Members to indicate what processes gave them the most trouble in preconstruction (see image on left). Moving into the afternoon of Day 1, we’ll hear from industry players, technologists, and other Built World thought leaders on how they’re leveraging BIM and other visualization technologies to optimize various preconstruction processes.

The benefits of utilizing digital twin and visualization technology in preconstruction have been well-documented. Namely, enhanced collaboration opportunities between project stakeholders are helping built industry professionals stay away from rework, keep budgets and schedules on track, and the delivery of high quality projects. And, when coupled with other innovative strategies, digital twin technology is driving efficiency throughout the planning process. To kickoff the afternoon, we’ll hear from Thornton Tomasetti’s Rob Otani (Chief Technology Officer) and Michael Bauer (Associate Principal) as they demonstrate Konstru, a 3D BIM collaboration platform that facilitates the integration of data between design and analysis applications, born out of TT’s R&D Incubator, CORE.

READ THE 'AI & MACHINE LEARNING IN CONSTRUCTION' RESEARCH REPORT FOR MORE PRECON INSIGHTS

We’ll then move to a presentation that will highlight the experiences, misunderstandings, and opportunities of Digital Twin technology. In this session, titled Digital Twin Visualization is our Superpower: Planning with a Time Machine, we’ll hear from Charlie Dunn of DPR Construction on how his team is leveraging digital twin technology during preconstruction to unlock a number of new benefits and drive efficiency throughout a project’s lifecycle. Aside from the opportunities to more effectively visualize and plan utilizing digital twins, BW Members will see the profound impact it can have when coupled with prefabrication initiatives, too. The presentation will be an excellent tie-in with our final presentation of the day, BIM in Scheduling in Planning. In this session, we’ll hear from Clive Jordan (CEO, Plannerly) and Darren Roos (Bernards Construction), as they lay out how they’re leveraging BIM models for more effective collaboration between project teams during the preconstruction phase.

BW Member Mixer

To wrap up Day 1 of the Project Delivery Conference, BW Members are invited to participate in yet another opportunity to connect during these uncertain times. Facilitated by the BuiltWorlds Team, the BW Member Mixer is an hour of facilitated, quick, small-group networking sessions in which BW Members are encouraged to learn, share, and connect with other built industry professionals.

Day 2 – Project Management & Operational Excellence

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE FULL AGENDA FOR DAY 2 OF THE 2020 BUILTWORLDS PROJECT DELIVERY CONFERENCE
Register for Day 2 of the Project Delivery Conference!

On Day 2 of the Project Delivery Conference, we’re covering Project Management, Executive Oversight, and Operational Intelligence, and investigating the emerging tech trends that are enabling them all.

Project & Process Management

As project management systems have become adopted at an extremely high rate, contractors are looking to get more from their solutions through integrations with other enteprise-wide and project-specific digital tools. One popular sentiment we have heard from our membership is around the effort to get BIM into the hands of their workers in the field for more streamlined collaboration and quality. Through Procore’s acquisition of BIManywhere in late 2018 and other providers’ BIM-related additions to their project management platforms, it’s clear to see the industry recognizing the positive impact that this can make.

    5.2 / 10

BW Members Rating for How Well Their PM System Integrates With Other Solutions

The lead session for the day will feature Aviv Leibovici (Co-Founder & CPO, Buildots) and Glen Roberts (Operations Director, Wates Group) as they discuss how industry players can more effectively manage the many different processes unique to construction. Following the day’s lead session, we’ll explore how project teams have implemented BIM-Based Project Management into their business practices. We’ve invited Chitwan Saluja (BIM / Digital Lead, Jacobs) and Phil Lazarus (Digital Delivery Manager, Jacobs) to discuss how they’re leveraging BIM throughout their projects for more optimized communication. We’ll explore the tools they’re using, what kind of projects they’re best suited for, and what other tech integrations they see plugging in down the road.

Data Analytics and Operational Excellence

Over 47% of BW Member are Using a Business Intelligence Solution

Jit Kee Chin (Chief Data and Innovation Officer, Suffolk) and Erin Roberts (Global Engineering & Construction Leader, EY) discussed leveraging predictive analytics at the executive level to spot early indicators of potential cost overruns, schedule delays, and safety incidents before they can have an extreme impact on any company’s bottomline at this year’s Digital Summit.

On Day 2 of the Project Delivery Conference, we’re hosting multiple sessions concentrated on how contractors can integrate their tech stack, put their data to work, and collect real-time insights from their portfolio of projects:

  • Building an Effective Data Management Dashboard – Rob Wagner (Sr. Project Manager & Operations, Del Amo Construction) and Matt Redman (Director of Technical Operations, Del Amo Construction)
  • Leveraging Data for Predictive Analytics – Meirav Oren (CEO & Co-Founder, Versatile Natures) and Nick Carbone (Data Science Manager, Suffolk)
  • Integrating the Contractor’s Tech Stack – Ryan Moret (Manager – Project Delivery, McCarthy) and Sri Murali, (Solutions Architect Manager, McCarthy)

As contractors search for more ways to effectively manage their data and glean insights, we’ll hear from leading technologists and industry players showcasing how they’re doing just that.

WANT TO SPEAK AT THE PROJECT DELIVERY CONFERENCE OR ANOTHER BW EVENT? APPLY TO SPEAK HERE

 

WakeCap Workshop

We’re excited to have WakeCap, an IoT-based, hard-hat embedded product, lead a discussion on unique and disruptive approaches to construction site safety and productivity. This solution has become even more useful to industry players trying to safely return workers to jobsites, but has always provided unique safety and productivity insights for users since its inception. The workshop will consist of a brief overview and demonstration, move into a project-specific case study with leading industry player Luis Miguel Monteiro (Project Director, Besix), and wrap up with an interactive Q+A with the audience. Solutions like Wakecap and other technologies (see Day 3 below) are yet another method for contractors to collect unique information and incorporate data into their decision-making moving forward.

BW Member Virtual Happy Hour

To close out Day 2 of the Project Delivery Conference, BuiltWorlds is hosting a BW Member Virtual Happy. For this session, we’ll be dividing attendees into a few digital breakout rooms – depending on their interest and expertise – where they’ll be joined by like-minded built industry professionals for a facilitated discussion by a BW Member Topic Expert.

Day 3 – Smart Jobsites

On Day 3 of the Project Delivery Conference, it’s all about construction technology in the field.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE FULL AGENDA FOR DAY 3 OF THE 2020 BUILTWORLDS PROJECT DELIVERY CONFERENCE
Register for Day 3 of the Project Delivery Conference today!

The Connected Jobsite

On top of the slow-to-adapt reputation that the construction industry already has, implementing new technology on the construction jobsite comes with its own unique set of challenges. The adoption rate of jobsite tech has varied from solution (see image above), but success has been found in a number of areas.

To kick off Day 3, we’ll hear from Andy Lambert (Group Program Manager, Milwaukee Tool) as he presents how contractors are leveraging several different solutions on the jobsite, the critical insights that can be gained from doing this, and how they’re managing to keep track of all this tech.

Later in the morning, we’ll hear from Chris Weaver (Director of Technology, Andy J. Egan Co.) and Jake Olsen (CEO, DADO) about how voice-enabled, mobile-first field management software is enabling more streamlined communication, collaboration, and documentation between the office and the field. In the afternoon, we’ll hear from John Niles (Virtual Construction Manager, HITT Contracting), Paul Gromadzki (Director of Enterprise Solutions, DroneBase, and (Lamar Milstead, Director – Sales & Partnerships, AirMap) on how they’re leveraging drones on the jobsite for more effective progress documentation, quality control, and other important construction practices.

The Construction Supply Chain

The Construction Supply Chain has long-served as a bottleneck for successful projects, creating unexpected delays and unwanted problems. In this session, we’ll hear firsthand how Kiewit is partnering with Jovix to implement a Digital Supply Chain program, and putting this new technology-enabled innovation into action across a global Supply Chain on a large-scale capital Project. Learn how they are digitizing Procurement, Supply Chain, and Field Materials Management processes to give the construction industry visibility into material flow throughout their Supply Chain ecosystem.

A Safer Jobsite

Jobsite Solutions Rate from 2020 BW Benchmarking Surveys

For many industries, the COVID crisis has magnified how technology can be utilized to ensure worker safety, but for the construction industry this has always been top priority. So, to wrap up the Project Delivery Conference, we’ve put together three sessions to discuss how different solutions are making on their own impact on safety:

  • Leveraging Technology for a Safer Jobsite
    • Mike Themanson (National Safety Director, Clune Construction)
    • Michelle Gray (National ESH Leader, DPR Construction)
    • John Platt (Project Manager, Bechtel)
  • Digital Solutions for Safer Equipment Operation
    • Chris Machut (Chief Technology Officer, Netarus HoistCam)
    • Raynald Morris (CTO & VDC Director, WM Jordan)
    • Geoff Bean (Virtual Construction Coordinator, WM Jordan)
  • Robotic Solutions in the Field
    • Andra Keay (Managing Director, Silicon Valley Robotics)
    • Andrew Cameron (Project Manager, Hensel Phelps)
    • Michael Jacobs (CEO, Applied Manufacturing Technologies)

The conversations will range to broad discussions about safety management programs to specific solutions contractors are using to monitor and prevent incidents. Aside from the critical safety components these solutions provide, they’re also allowing contractors to collect valuable data insights for productivity and project efficiency.


Don’t forget to visit the BuiltWorlds Events page to register for the 3-Day Project Delivery Conference and other upcoming BuiltWorlds Analyst Calls, Digital Events, and More!