18 Dec Pipelife BIM Dating Event – a marvelous feat for all who took part!

Posted at 08:50h in Press Release by
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On Thursday, 16 November, management and board members, as well as BIM users (designers, planners, engineers) from the installation sector, met at Mindcenter close to Utrecht, in the Netherlands, during the first of its kind “Open your mind with BIM” event from Pipelife. In collaboration with the partners from Itannex, Pipelife had prepared a truly exciting program, offering something for everybody present! Moreover, the event center itself with its contemporary and original space design guaranteed that creative, relaxed and collaborative atmosphere needed for everybody to feel comfortable and open up during the communication flows. The goal of the event was to elaborate on the question of “Why BIM?” – why Pipelife is developing BIM packages, why the industry is working more and more with BIM, why BIM might be the future for the building sector in general. Together with “WHY”, discussed was also the “WHAT” – what are the advantages of using BIM, what is Pipelife doing in order to ensure best possible BIM experience for all stakeholders involved, what is there to come in the future – in the industry and from Pipelife.

Additionally, practical tools were given to help installation companies and users get on with the implementation of BIM. By having expert BIM consultants at place, the event provided a unique opportunity for all participants to attend the special “tips & tricks”  sessions that followed.

The Open your mind with BIM event included a morning and afternoon program.

The morning program was especially intended for the management and board members.

Plenary sessions

After the kickoff, the plenary program started. Laurens Oude Lashof, Senior BIM Consultant at Itannex, gave a presentation titled “The Importance of BIM for Your Organization”. Laurens literally took the participants into the world of BIM content and made it very clear what he thought was good and bad content.

Dr. Hans Voordijk of the University of Twente then extensively discussed the BIM maturity in the installation sector. The results of the research show that on almost all criteria (data, strategy, organizational structure, ICT, people and culture, BIM processes) the BIM maturity of installation companies is at or below the average level. In addition, in his presentation Hans quoted frequently heard BIM barriers from installation companies:

  • Clients want BIM, but they themselves do not know what they want with BIM.
  • Standards for information exchange are not well defined or implemented.
  • There is limited availability of standard objects from open product libraries.

Bjorn Kamphuis, BIM Manager at Kuijpers, sketched the practical side of applying BIM in an installation company in his presentation “It’s Headwinds That Take the Kite Off”. Among other things, he discussed the positioning of BIM within Kuijpers, what the results have been since the introduction of BIM and his tips for improvement.

The morning session ended with a passionate and inspiring lecture by Maarten van der Boon on trends and innovations. In his presentation, Maarten outlined four main aspects of the 12 technological developments that are coming to us and what that means for people and for organizations.

User choice rounds

At the beginning of the afternoon, the majority of the managers left the Mindcenter with heads full of ideas, and in their places came the users.

The afternoon program was kicked off by Mark van Loon, General Manager of Pipelife Netherlands, after which Laurens Oude Lashof went deeper into the importance of good BIM content in his second presentation. After the presentation, the participants had a personal program where they could follow three selection rounds:

  • Updates Revit 2018 and tips & tricks
  • How can designers work more efficiently?
  • Demo prefab tool
  • National BIM implementation plan and BIM protocol
  • Applying NLRS in projects

After the official program, there was still time and chance for a snack and a drink.

As a conclusion, we are happy to say that the “Open your mind with BIM” event was very successful.

Patrick Verschuur, International BIM Manager at Pipelife, said: “The event went well and above expectations. A good number of participants both in the morning and in the afternoon were able to experience the importance of good BIM content. In addition, we have been able to promote our 360.pipelife.com platform well. And last but not least, we have made some new contacts.”

 

In our Facebook gallery you can see more photos from the event!