Chris Razzell & Jason Howden gave a slightly unconventional presentation at this years Revit Technology Conference in Auckland, New Zealand. Sitting on a black velvet couch, with gold sequined cushion they debated some of the BIG BIM questions that currently face the AECO industry, whilst getting the crowd to participate in that good ol; fashioned low tech way - by raising their hands. A modern twist was applied to presentation of the results however, by updating infographics live during the presentation. This powerpoint attempts to capture the essence of the conversation, the results from the live poll and we (Jason & I) hope this provides some insight to the challenges that our industry faces over the coming years.

1. Elephants
Chris Razzell & Jason Howden

2. Inspiration

3. Cory Doctorow talk – Digital IP
"Lawmakers treat the Internet like it's Telephone
2.0, the Second Coming of Video on Demand, or
the World's Number One Porn Distribution
Service, but it's really the nervous system of the
21st Century. Unless we stop the trend toward
depraved indifference in Internet law, making –
and freedom – will die."

4. Some themes for discussion…
The AutoCAD hangover
Why BIM is like salsa dancing

5. What tomorrow might look like…
_remote workforce
_online projects
_staff bid for work
_clients choose team
_experience rating

6. Attendee survey

7. Are we Master Builders or Master Debaters?
“Too much
time is spent
talking and
not enough
just doing it”

8. What are the philosophical cornerstones of BIM?
“Viz & 4D is often what
people think BIM is and
BIG BIM is what I’ve
always thought BIM was
meant to be anyway!”

9. What are the costs for NOT doing BIM?
“Government mandates
aside... BIM trained
staff don’t want to work
on 2D projects. Once
you’ve gone BIM, you
don’t want to go dim”

10. Is technology working for us?
Or are we working for technology?
“Historically Technology
departments had large
budgets, but minimal
business influence.
Budgets are smaller
now and IT need to add
value beyond hardware”

11. What will tomorrow’s Practices look like?
“Smaller, more agile
practices, partnering
with like minded
designers in more of a
co-operative model...”

12. Who will be the decision makers of tomorrow?
“Asian Women! I firmly believe
that women have a very
important part to play in the
future of our industry. We all
know that it’s the Asian
Century, yet many ASEAN
countries still don’t treat
women equally in the
workplace and retain the
grossly outdated opinion that
women should be subservient.
If Asia is to become the super
power that the world deserves,
it needs to listen to it’s women.

13. Is information really power if it’s not used?
“Many clients don’t know what’s available and what will be useful to
them in the future. Retro-BIM-ing can be done through laser
scanning, it’s not quite so straight forward with the data”

14. Just because we can, should we?
“YES!”
“We have to
keep pushing,
otherwise we’d
still be living in
the cave.”

15. Further reading
http://lineshapespace.com/better-faster-stronger-benefits-of-bim/

16. Questions?
Chris Razzell & Jason Howden