Jason KunkelNovember 1st, 2017
I had the pleasure recently of being asked by Autodesk to present on their COBie Extension for Revit and Classification Manager for Revit at a conference. We have close ties to these tools and present on them a lot so this seemed pretty standard for us, until we figured out where the conference was. I had to dust off my passport, because it was time to head to Denmark for BILT Europe 2017.
The BILT (formerly RTC) conferences are some of our favorites over here at CADD. They are always well planned, the attendees are all just on the right side of nerdy, and the sessions are excellent. To top it off, it turns out that Denmark is the birthplace of Lego, and like many architects and designers out there, Lego is embedded into my DNA.
I flew into Billund with a day to burn and as if planets aligned, it turns out that the week before the conference, the recently complete Lego House was open for business. I spent a whole afternoon experiencing the architecture, trying out the exhibits, and just sucking in the mix of fun, design, and technology.
Turns out that was an outstanding appetizer for BILT itself. It's always exciting to share knowledge with willing participants, but for me, it's even better to learn something new. And spending time meeting, talking with, and learning from industry folks in a completely different country was eye-opening in terms of what they need and how they do things.
Some issues are definitely universal (I'm looking at you, coordinates in Revit), but there is certainly items that were a different focus compared to the users in the States. I learned a ton about IFC. Back home, IFC is mainly mentioned in passing. Turns out across the Atlantic, it's treated more like a religion, and I had some excellent sessions with its strongest preachers. Data is stressed far more in the BIM lifecycle, and that was exciting to work and learn from folks who have been designing in a data focused workflow.
Turns out, the Venn diagram of Lego fans and design technology nerds has a pretty large overlap, so if you find yourself in Denmark, be sure to swing by Billund for a day, and if you find yourself near a BILT conference, be sure to attend.
