Thirty three I.T. leaders from AEC firms across the country met in Austin, Texas April 25-26 to discuss current and future technology/business trends.
- Brad Peterson and Patricia Nolan of Workspot demonstrated VDI technology for the AEC space.
- Bill Leasure, Tim Lawrence, Rick Huerta and Tom Riley of Boxx and Nvidia presented Boxx’s product line and the integration of Nvidia’s RTX line of graphics products.
- A key presentation for the event was one of our own, Bryce Morrow of Beck, who presented his firm’s own experiences with cyber security.
- Chris Parish, Bret Thompson, and Paul Autry of PlanGrid provided a demonstration and roadmap of their work and resource management offering.
- Andy Yeomans and Cole McIsaac of SA Global — AEC 360 provided an overview of their implementation services with Microsoft Dynamics 365
Thanks to Greg Nichols for hosting a very successful event and moderating the membership discussions. Hope to see a good group in Boston for the fall roundtable.
Dan Gallivan, Director of Information Technology at Payette, is speaking at the Tech+ Conference in New York City on June 13th. He is a featured Tech Innovator for the event.
Thirty-five I.T. leaders from AEC firms across the country met in Washington D.C. April 19-20 to discuss technology and business trends.
- Keynoting the event was Dave Gilmore of Design Intelligence who encouraged attendees to challenge themselves to be leaders in their respective firms and in the industry.
- Kyu Choi of Microsoft provided an overview and roadmap of Microsoft Teams.
- Brian White gave an enthusiastic presentation of Veritas’s new suite of multi-cloud data management tools.
- Radical Galaxy, Bradley Snyder and Matthew Shaffer, demonstrated its offering in high-end, outsourced AR/VR.
- Timon Hazell, Senior BIM Engineer at Silman Engineers, led an engaging discussion on computational design using Dynamo and other tools.
- Jacob Slevin and Westin Conahan closed the meeting with a demonstration of Designer Pages, a cloud based solution for specifying interior design products.
Thanks to Bruce Barclay and Andrew Corn for hosting another successful event. We’ll see everyone in SoCal in the fall.
AECIT Leaders member Jim Williamson died Sunday, March 12, 2017 from a heart attack. Jim was a knowledgeable IT professional and life-loving individual who made friends with everyone he met. He leaves behind a former wife, a daughter, and a son.
Those who wish to share their memories of Jim are encouraged to submit them to Stacy at Mahlum Architects where Jim worked for the past 14 years. They will be passed along to the family and compiled in a memory book.
Let Jim’s death be a reminder to number our days. Life is but a vapor and there is no promise of tomorrow.
Seattle Times obituary.
College fund for his children.
Long-time AECIT Leaders member Markus Weidner has returned to Pennoni as the firm’s first Chief Innovation Officer.
Congratulations Markus.
Host Richard Hodge welcomed nearly 35 members to Philadelphia on October 20-21 for the Fall 2016 Roundtable. Four sponsors contributed to the success of the event:
- Justin Boitano presented Frame’s capability to deploy virtual desktops in the cloud capable of running design applications such as Revit, Civil 3D, MicroStation, and the like.
- ARC Document Solutions (James Mercado and Nick Miller) demonstrated Skysite, a hosted document distribution and project collaboration tool which ensures all team members have access to the latest documents.
- Angie Izzi discussed Autodesk’s initiatives for moving beyond transactional file-based workflows to a collaborative project design and delivery model including the role Forge will play in this transformation.
- Eagle Point Software (Brad Heil, Ray Thorn, and Tiffany Willard) demonstrated how Pinnacle Series software helps firms organize and deliver training materials, standards, and other documentation.
In addition member led discussions included:
- Sam Ishak reviewed a recent ransomware attack experienced by his firm including how it was dealt with and what lessons were learned to minimize future risk.
- Thursday afternoon field trip to Kieran Timberlake provided insight into several of their technology explorations.
- Ryan Welch presented KT’s research initiatives including work with Autodesk API’s.
Friday’s business meeting included discussion of website member profiles and forthcoming data visualization. Long time member John Robison announced that Dawn Bridge will be assuming the primary member role from KTGY and he will assume secondary membership status. We thank John for his contribution to the group over the years, including the past several as board president, and look forward to his participation at future meetings. Tim Rice will assume the role of president. Ron Heims is vice president and treasurer, Susan Koenigs is secretary, and Matt Birk is membership coordinator.
Host Darren Burns welcomed 19 members to Vancouver on October 1-2 for the Fall 2015 Roundtable. In addition to stunning views and fabulous weather, six vendor presentations contributed to the success of the event.
- Erin Rae Hoffer of Autodesk discussed disruptive technologies and the role Autodesk hopes to play.
- Deltek presented their Vision product roadmap. Features and modules available this fall in 7.5 include improvements to project planning, expansion of approval workflows, asset management module, greater functionality in iAccess, and enhancements to Touch Time & Expense. The acquisition of HRSmart for human resource functions was announced.
- Luke Wignall gave a very informative presentation around nVidia’s Grid card as a facilitator of high performance graphics in a virtual desktop environment.
- Former AEC|IT Leaders president Chris Pinckney discussed his new company, 280blue, and their strategy for facilitating collaborative interaction between technology startups and I.T. professionals.
- Hummingbird drones gave a fascinating talk about their use of drones in the effort to identify wildfire hot spots in remote wilderness and their goals to expand their technology to other survey applications including buildings.
- Boris Mann demonstrated some of the wearable technology Human is working on including the intersection of virtual reality and augmented reality.
In addition to vendor presentations, Brendon Mullins and Aubrey Tucker discussed their virtual reality R&D efforts at Stantec. The group also enjoyed a visit to the Vancouver Aquarium, a virtual flight over Canada (hang on), and a fantastic dinner Thursday evening.
Friday’s business meeting included rollout of the new logo and website, discussion of additional features members would like on the web site, and announcement of an incentive program to encourage members to contribute content. Kansas City was confirmed as venue for the Spring 2016 meeting and Philadelphia will play host in fall 2016. Members who were unable to come to Vancouver are encouraged to attend in KC.
Hosts Steve Edwards and Dean Mueller welcomed 23 members and four guests to Chicago on April 16-17 for the Spring 2015 Roundtable. Four sponsors also contributed to the success of the event.
- Zoom presented their cloud video conferencing and online meeting solution. Several members are Zoom customers which lent to good discussion and use cases. Zoom also received a favorable reaction from those that had not been exposed to it previously.
- OpenAsset showed their new cloud based service and features. They also covered their development track and discussed their retreat from the BIM cataloging software they had developed. It was a good explanation and the membership appreciated their candor and support in the short term.
- Hedvig presented their storage offering designed to leverage commodity storage hardware. While initially suitable for teir 2 and 3, teir 1 is anticipated in the future. Mike Rinken of Mazzetti has been working with Hedvig on a pilot and will share his experience as it progresses.
- Newforma introduced Shari Zedeck as their new product manager. In addition to reviewing features of version 11.5 they heard directly from members on their needs and discussed plans to address concerns. The group sent their wishes to Bob Batcheler for success in his future endeavors.
In addition to vendor presentations, member discussion over the course the two days touched on a wide variety of topics including virtualization, cloud storage and licensing, work anywhere and mobile, data protection, and more
A highlight of the event was the tour of the Microsoft’s Technology Center, a collaborative environment providing access to a variety of innovative technologies. The group viewed demonstrations of Microsoft’s expanded data mining tools, context aware speech recognition, creative applications of Kinect, amongst other things. Members came away with a new appreciation of Microsoft as an innovator.
After a full day on Thursday attendees enjoyed dinner followed by a comedy show at Second City. Only time will tell whether we saw the next John Belushi, Gilda Radner, or Bill Murray.
Friday’s business meeting included presentation of ideas for a new logo and website. Chicago guests were encouraged to join the group and ways to increase membership were discussed. Vancouver, BC was confirmed as venue for the Fall 2015 meeting and Kansas City will play host in Spring 2016. Those who were unable to come to Chicago are encouraged to attend future roundtables.