This was my third Digital Construction Week event however my first representing Man and Machine and it was great to see that the core driver for the event was recognising the need for change. Change is something that the Construction Industry is unaccustomed to but is in dire need of.  With so many great speakers it was going to be impossible to see them all as well as doing a little networking with existing clients and colleagues, making new connections and exploring the innovations from various suppliers and service providers.

Man and Machine had 5 staff attending the event this year including Gareth Spencer – BIM Consultant, Jonny Pye – Applications Engineer, Connor Wakefield and Dom Pavlopoulos – Sales and Account Management and myself, Richard White – BIM Consultant.

I managed to catch a couple of seminars in the Construction Innovation Hub and BIM Village on Applying Government Soft Landings approach by David Philp – CDBB and Stephen Batchelor – DfE explaining the reasons behind client engagement on projects for ensuring a useful information handover for operations and also a seminar by Racha Charour – HOCHTIEF, on the Security Minded approach to project data implementing PAS 1192-5 (soon to be ISO 19650-5). Both seminars provided a view of how information management is being changed dependant on the approach utilised.

It was also great to see all the interesting stands and service providers including some of our key partner companies showcasing innovation and new products. Autodesk had a stand showcasing BIM 360 Docs and their recent acquisition of PlanGrid to add to their digital information management portfolio.

Leica had a fantastic stand showcasing all the latest scanning technologies including the new BLK 360 Go handheld scanner which I got to hold for the first time. An exciting product which I can’t wait to see in action hopefully soon.

GliderBIM had a very vibrant stand being manned by the team including John Hall illustrating how their software can be utilised in the CDE environment and transferring over to the Operations and Maintenance, information management and interrogation.

It was great to meet up with lots of ex-colleagues at the event, reconnect to find out where their work has taken them and meet lots of new people that I hope to connect with again in the future.

Finally, the show wasn’t all information management and seminars. It was great to see the return of the neon drone racing course incorporating some VR training areas and drones with camera mounts being viewed with first person headsets. Who said construction technology was boring?!