Big Project Middle East’s inaugural Digital Construction Summit saw attendance from several key personalities and decision makers from regional entities including the Dubai Municipality, Miral Asset Management, and many others. The event, which took place at the Anantara Downtown Dubai Hotel on 14 September from 9am to 5pm, recorded over 200 people in attendance.
The event comprised five highly curated panel discussions, eight presentations, a Dubai Municipality led workshop on 3D Concrete Printing, an interactive exhibition space and networking activities.
“It was a fantastic live event that gave us the opportunity to hear and exchange ideas with industry experts, and learn about the latest digital transformation solutions,” said Wajdi Mereb, Digital Construction and Digital Twin Expert at Miral Asset Management.
The event was endorsed by the Private Office of His Highness Sheikh Saeed Bin Ahmed Al Maktoum, as well as Dubai Municipality and buildingSMART UAE.
The event is an evolution of the successful Middle East BIM Summit, which first launched in 2015.
Firas Alsahin, Design Director at 4space, added, “I was delighted to attend the Digital Construction Summit; the event discussed many great topics and shared useful insights. I felt privileged to be part of a high caliber, regional experts panel to discuss the Metaverse’s impact on the future of construction.”
Commenting on the water sector and the potential benefits of digital twins, Umar Kazi, Utilities Director at AECOM Middle East remarked, “It was real pleasure to attend and moderate a panel on digital twin applications in the water sector. Water is a scarce resource and the water industry faces multiple challenges to conserve this precious resource. From the panel discussion it was obvious that the sector can hugely benefit from digital twins in terms of asset management, design and reduction in operational costs. Digital twins can also support the water sector to become more sustainable by implementing smarter solutions.”
Discussing the event and key takeaways, Prakash Senghani, CEO and Co-Founder at Navatech Group commented, “It was a very well attended event with a diverse set of participants from government, industry and academia. The main take away for me was that we’ve made great progress with digitalisation in the industry, but there’s still a long way to go. It showed me that we have to work even closer together if we’re going to meet the challenges such the digital skills gap, labour shortages and the impact of climate change.”
The Digital Construction Summit was sponsored by: Gold Sponsor: ASGC; Silver Sponsors: ASITE, The SNC-Lavalin Group, Topcon; Bronze Sponsors: AECOM, AESG, CUPIX, JT+Partners, Kairnial, KEO, ZOHO; Technical Partner: Bentley, ECC, OpenSpace; Exhibitor: Plan Radar; Knowledge Partner: BSI.
Lynne Davidson, Regional Marketing Manager – India, Middle East & Africa at ASITE remarked, “Another excellent event by Gavin, and the team at CPI Trade Media. They succeeded in bringing the industry together to discuss all aspects of digitalisation and the opportunities this brings to the region. Data continues to be the driving force of this digital transformation and the event featured a number of insightful sessions about the need to capture and use this data more effectively. We were delighted with the interest shown in the ASITE platform, and we’re looking forward to continuing these discussions. See you there next year.”
Carolina Fong Guzzy, Co-founder, Digital Engineering Manager at Accienta added, “The Digital Construction Summit encompassed key participants from the construction industry ranging from consultants, contractors, owners/developers and service providers. Every stakeholder shared insights on current approaches to change management, talent acquisition and retention, the latest technology applications, digital transformation methodologies and lessons learned.”
Mohammed Adib, Chief Design Officer at Dewan Architects + Engineers, commented, “The event was a very useful mix of attendants including contractors, designers, developers, suppliers and legislators. This is the perfect mix to get positive collaboration and take the construction industry into the next level of technological advancement.” Adib presented the firm’s newly formed Metaverse Architecture Department (MAD) and highlighted Babel 4.0 – a virtual space for members to meet and exchange ideas about design.
Guzzy concluded, “The event targeted present and future applications of construction technology in the built environment, from 3D printing to the Metaverse, digital twins, common data environment and cloud collaboration. It was a great transition from the successful ME BIM Summits. This is the event where industry professionals leading and changing our industry gather to interact and collaborate.”
To learn more about the Digital Construction Summit click here.