Digital Construction Conference; Sponsored by Autodesk

Argent – Claudine Blamey, Head of Sustainability and Digital Strategy

Argent is well-known for delivering some of the best mixed-use developments in the UK. The developers are always at the forefront in delivering smart technology and working within sustainability targets. With a number of ongoing projects, such as Tottenham Hale and Brent Cross Town, Claudine joins us to offer insight into the advancements Argent has made regarding construction technology and will highlight innovations that ensure their developments are sustainable and fit for our future cities.

University of the West of England – Dr Manuel Davila Delgado, Associate Professor and Vision Network Lead

Dr Manuel Davila is an expert in developing novel digital solutions for the construction and engineering sectors. His interests and expertise are a mix of Machine Learning, 4D technical simulations, AR/VR, BIM, structural engineering and optimisation. His research has helped many leading development and construction firms adopt novel and emerging technologies, and develop digital solutions that enable data-driven decision making.

Transport for Greater Manchester – Anna Craciun, Innovation Strategy Officer

Anna is the lead on innovation initiatives for TfGM including autonomous vehicles and regulatory reviews. She has been involved in their Covid-19 response through innovation trials with SMEs.

L&Q Group – Johnny Furlong, BIM Strategy Manager

Johnny and Kirsty lead on BIM Strategy for L&Q Group, one of the UK largest housing associations with thousands of homes in their development pipeline including the massive Greenwich Peninsula project. They have been collaborating to build holistic solutions that are sensible and easy to use, focusing on delivering digital strategies that work to provide ‘the Golden Thread’ of information through the complete supply chain. They’ll join the conference to discuss their work using BIM and how they are achieving ‘the Golden Thread.’

Lendlease – Matt Warren, Head of Digital Engineering

More information to follow.

Construction Innovation Hub – David Philp, Impact Director

David has been involved in delivering innovative digital change, BIM and digital asset management strategies across the globe from UK, Hong-Kong, Singapore, Australia and the Baltics.

He was seconded in the UK Cabinet Office in 2011 as Head of BIM Implementation and has been a key contributor to the UK public sector BIM mandate (GCS 2011-2016) and continues to support this through his role as Impact Director at the Construction Innovation Hub.  He was also seconded into the Scottish Future Trust (SFT) as Chair of the Scottish BIM Delivery Group. Additionally, David is Vice Chair of the Construction Scotland Innovation Centre as well as being Director for Digital Consulting, Strategy and Innovation at AECOM Europe.

A Fellow of the ICE, RICS and CIOB he is a visiting professor at Middlesex University and honorary professor at Heriot Watt University. David is also a member of the BSI BIM Standards Committee.

Environment Agency – Karen Alford, FCRM Manager – Digital Asset Data and Information

Karen specialises in asset data and information and will give an insight into the Environment Agency’s digital journey. The Environment Agency has been putting a lot of effort into digitising previously analogue information and data, and applying a common digital transformation strategy. She will share some thought leadership on her work to implement BIM across the organisation’s more than 500 projects, and use the technology to develop client capability.

Transport for the South East – Rob Dickin, Transport Strategy Manager

Transport for the South East serves a region of more than 7.5 million people, and are focused on growing a sustainable economy whilst tackling issues such as congestion, air quality, employment and energy usage. Rob will discuss how they plan to use smart and digital technology, and plan to place future mobility at the core of their approach to realising these strategic priorities.

CITB – Marcus Bennett, Innovation & Strategy Lead

Marcus leads for the CITB on technology in the built environment including offsite, immersive & virtual reality and digitalisation. He will discuss how digital construction in the construction industry compares with other sectors and how its wider adoption has the potential for positive transformation, and how the current situation has emphasised both the need to be digitally adept and how technology can allow us to respond.

Urban Splash – Jason Byrne, Head of Digital

As well as being one of the UK’s most active and respected regeneration and development companies, Urban Splash have a reputation for innovation and the use of technology. They have been leading the way in virtual house viewing, rolling out virtual desktop videos and a 360-degree CGI experience – technology that has been given a renewed relevance during the current crisis. They are also developing pixel streaming technology that will allow customers to design the layout of their home before construction by the company’s modular division.

Centre for Digital Built Britain – Alexandra Bolton, Executive Director

Alexandra Bolton has been CDBB’s Executive Director since the Centre came to Cambridge in August 2017. She works across CDBB’s programmes, including the National Digital Twin Programme and the Construction Innovation Hub, to advance the digital transformation of the built environment in order to improve people’s quality of life. She will provide some thought leadership on how digital technology can be used to enable the industry to get back to work more quickly, and how it can give the industry the resilience to thrive in a post Covid19 world.

IBM – Paul Surin, Global Lead BIM & Built Environment

Paul has a successful track record of innovating and transforming business models challenged by new technologies in housebuilding, building services and development. He has extensive knowledge of virtual design, lean construction, blockchain, AI, MMC, manufacturing processes and industry 4.0. He will provide his perspective on construction and development’s future challenges.

District Technologies – Lee Vanessa Butz, Founder

Fast becoming one of the UK’s most eminent voices on the integration of technology into the built environment and a pioneer within the smart city movement, Lee Vanessa is ideally placed to share a vision of what the UK development scene will look like in the next 30 years.

Kingspan – Brian Glancy, Head of BIM Strategy

Having been at Kingspan for 14 years, Brian leads on BIM strategy and the broader digital built environment. He will share details on the work the company is undertaking around BIM to work more efficiently and have an improved customer experience, and will the key obstacles which need to be overcome in order for the sector to move forward.

The Scotland 5G Centre – Michael Burns, Business Development Manager

The Scotland 5G Centre was set up in October 2019 to accelerate the adoption of 5G and realise its economic and societal potential for Scotland. Last year, a study by Deloitte estimated that significant changes to wireless technologies in Scotland, including revolutionary 5G networks, could increase GDP by more than £17 billion – equivalent to 8.3% of the country’s total economic output – and create an additional 160,000 new jobs by 2035. Michael will be at the helm of their major development programme and will talk our audience through his plans.

Autodesk – Paolo Martinez, Product Marketing Manager

Paolo leads the Product Marketing strategy in EMEA within the Autodesk construction portfolio. Most recently, he has been working on the integration and amplification of the messaging for Autodesk Construction Cloud™, which combines advanced technology, a unique builders network and predictive insights to connect people and data across the entire building lifecycle, from design through operations.

Autodesk – Dimitris Vernon, Manager, Customer Success

Dimitris leads one of the Autodesk Construction Solutions Customer Success teams for EMEA. His team develops and maintains trusted relationships with customers to help them realise the business benefits from Autodesk solutions.  They support project teams by identifying their unique challenges and objectives and defining capabilities and workflows that drive the achievement of desired business outcomes. Dimitris is currently based in Barcelona and his team is spread across Barcelona, Zürich and Dub