The upcoming IBC/buildingSMART BIM Worldwide: Solutions for Canada Symposium will focus on a pocket of the construction sector that have not been quick to adopt the digital process.
"It’s really targeted to people who are going to be the decision makers," said John Dickinson, one of the chairs in the buildingSMART Canada chapter.
"They’re involved in smaller companies whom we’d like to see as the next adopters of Building Information Modeling."
The event, which will be held on Oct. 30 at the Allstream Centre in Toronto, will explore the benefits of using BIM on international projects and how it can grow in Canada.
Dickinson says symposium speakers will come from all over the world to share their expertise and experiences on how they’ve utilized BIM in their work. Panelists are broken down into two categories; one group are speakers from countries considered early adopters of BIM and the second group consists of individuals who’ve worked on government-mandated BIM projects.
"Both of these bodies have different perspectives on how BIM is rolled out into their communities," said Dickinson.
"It’s actually been there and in practice long enough now that it isn’t just for the mega projects."
Dickinson says there’s a perception among smaller companies that BIM is ‘out of their league’ and he hopes the symposium will make it feel more attainable.
"It might be on the school around the corner, it might be on the shopping mall," he added.
"We have these people coming in who can actually speak from their own experiences as to how BIM is being done for the benefit of the people who are providing the projects and the people who are commissioning the projects."
He adds that it’s important for Canada’s construction industry to become more digital in order to remain competitive with other international companies, whether Canadian companies look to tackle local or global projects.
"The Canadian construction sector is behind in terms of adopting new procurement processes and practices. They’re not very digital, they’re still driven by paper, "he said.
"If Canadian companies want to go out into international industries, they’re going to need to up their game."Canada’s construction sector is five to 10 years behind other international BIM adopters, says Dickinson.
Speakers at this year’s symposium include, Tomi Henttinen, bSFinland (Finland); Cheng Tai Fatt, Building and Construction Authority (Singapore); Jons Sjogren, Norway Homebuilders Association (Norway); Inhan Kim, buildingSMART Korea, KyungHee University); Brian Oakley, Alberta Infrastructure (Canada); and more.
"As part of fulfilling the IBC/ buildingSMART Canada mission to foster BIM in Canada, this one-day event will provide valuable information for all construction project stakeholders, and will give some great insight into how to adopt BIM in their own environment," said Bob Hildenbrandt, current vice-chair of the Institute for BIM in Canada, in a press statement.
"There are a number of countries that operate in a fully BIM-oriented environment, and their lessons learned will provide great insight to all project stakeholders."
The event will also be an opportunity for neworking between exhibitors and participants to how BIM is used in their own companies.
Registration for the symposium is now open and more information can be found online at www.buildingsmartcanada.ca/BIMworldwide.
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