It’s that time of year when our team in London head to one of the UK’s largest construction shows, UK Construction Week.

Running from Tuesday 8th to Thursday 10th October, Digital Node’s Managing Director, Rebecca De Cicco will join other key members of the team in delivering expert talks on BIM and the new international standard, ISO 19650.

Joining Digital Node will be the core team in the UK for Women in BIM (founded by Rebecca in the UK in 2012 and now has working groups and supporters around the world).

UK Construction week consists of multiple sections, covering: Building TechCivilsEnergy and Grand Designs Live.

On the Tuesday, in the Digital Construction Hub at 11.00am, Rebecca will be hosting a panel debate featuring Women in BIM industry leaders, discussing The challenges we are facing with the introduction of new technologies and how to harness innovation in construction.

On stage, Rebecca will be joined by Vicki Reynolds, Digital Manager at Multiplex, Katya Veleva, Associate BIM Strategy Consultant for Archilizer, Dr Jennifer Barrett, Senior Lecturer & Researcher at the University of Central Lancashire, Michelle Cochran, Head of BIM for Midas Group and Gergana Staykova, Senior Digital Engineer at Laing O’Rourke.

Collectively these digital construction specialists will be discussing how technological advancements have always driven construction forward, therefore how they find it difficult to understand why so many companies are slow to adopt new technology.

Rebecca commented: “Today we’re able to build stronger, taller and more energy efficient structures and thanks to technology, construction sites are safer and workers more efficient. It has allowed us to increase productivity, improve collaboration, and tackle more complex projects.

“We are now seeing technologies in construction developed at breakneck pace, what seemed like future tech perhaps 10 of 15 years ago, such as mobile apps, autonomous equipment, drones, robots, augmented and virtual reality and 3D printed buildings are here today and are being deployed and used on jobsites across the world today. As the pace quickens, we need to take hold of the power tech affords to us, use to our greater advantage and not be fearful of change.”

Following the panel debate, there will be a Women in BIM networking session at 11.45am in the UKCW Networking Hub where visitors to the event are invited to meet the people driving the new technologies which are shaping our industry. Vicki added; “We’re inviting people who attend the panel debate to join us for the networking where they can meet with our experts one-on-one and drill down into their knowledge and hopefully take-away key points they can apply to their own business.”

On Day two, Rebecca will be taking part in her second panel debate, hosted by BBC Presenter and Journalist, Steph McGovern, where they will be discussing building collaboration and diversity.

And to complete her appearance trilogy, Rebecca will be delivering a talk on The realities of applying ISO 19650 across the globe when she will discuss how BIM standards will ultimately drive consistency and the introduction of this new standard will eventually benefit all regions.

Rebecca added: “This event is key in the construction industry calendar and gives us the perfect platform from which we can share our knowledge of digital construction methodologies which are shaping the future in how we design and build.”

UK Construction Week takes place between 8-10 October2019 at the NEC, Birmingham.