2023 edition of Digital Construction Summit records over 210 in attendance
The summit featured 24 speakers, one keynote address, three panel discussions, one fireside chat and two presentations
The Big Project Middle East editorial team has announced that the 2023 edition of its Digital Construction Summit (DC Summit) saw attendance from over 210 professionals. The event took place at the Habtoor Grand Resort, JBR, Dubai on the 26th of September and was extremely well received by attendees, the team revealed.
The event, formerly the Middle East BIM Summit, comprised three panel discussions that put project delivery, operational efficiency and health and safety (during construction and post construction) in focus. The event opened with a keynote address by Juan Tena Florez, Digital Services Director at KEO International Consultants who discussed why data management is critical through all the phases of the lifecycle, and how data becomes important as it advances and changes its nature.
The first panel discussion ‘Construction 4.0: Fiction or Future?’ was moderated by Babette Cilliers, Managing Quantity Surveyor, ISG, and comprised several speakers, including: Ahmed Balawi, Engineering Manager, Engineering Contracting Company; Allison Wicks, Founder, Director of Quality Integration, Qualitaz; Martin Angus, Digital Lead, AECOM; Samy Al Olabi, Director of Project Management; Project Controls, Claims and Disputes, OPMSconsult Project Management Solutions and Stephanie Sadaka, Enterprise Account Executive, Procore Technologies.
The second panel session – Enhancing Operational Efficiency with Technology – was hosted by John Shenton, Chair of Dubai Hub, CIOB with speakers, including: Debasish Roy, Associate Vice President, Pinnacle Infotech Solutions; Premanand Velumani, Solution Consulting Manager, Zoho Corporation; Rohan Chandavarkar, Associate Digital Delivery, AESG; Waleed Ishreim, Principal Sustainability Engineer, Project & Delivery Services, JLL, and Yasser Ahmed, Director of Digital Buildings and Software, Schneider Electric Middle East & Africa.
The final panel – Elevating Safety in the Built Environment – was moderated by Cristina Savian, Founder and Managing Director, BE-WISE, and comprised several speakers: Iain Taber, Senior Director, Health & Safety GDC+P, Equinix; Imad Itani, Innovation Manager, ALEC Engineering & Contracting; Lucynda Jensen, Project Lead, Project & Development Services UAE, JLL; Matthew Lloyd, Project Quantity Surveyor, Omnium International; Philip Rawlinson, Head of HSSEQ, Emrill, and Ross Hopwood, HSQE Manager, ISG.
The day also saw presentations from SoftwareOne (Ineffective information management in the Construction industry: Hype or Reality?) and Thinkproject (From Blueprint to Long-Life Value: Construction to Asset Lifecycle Management). The session were delivered by Walid Abdelaziz, Business Development Manager, SoftwareOne and Atif Rehman, Regional Manager Middle East, Thinkproject respectively.
Ahead of the presentations, Toufic Riman, Country Manager – Gulf at Autodesk sat down with Jason Saundalkar, Head of Content at Big Project Middle East to discuss digital transformation, the adoption and usage of technology in the built environment, and what the future of construction may look like.
“It’s always gratifying to see months of hard work translate into a successful summit. The content at the 2023 edition of the DC Summit has been very well received, with conversations on social media continuing beyond the event’s planned runtime. As the event also recorded over 210 attendees on the day, Big Project Middle East has solidified the summit’s standing as a key event for construction professionals in the Middle East, and is primed to expand its scope in 2024,” said Jason Saundalkar, Head of Content at Big Project Middle East.
The 2023 Digital Construction Summit is supported by:
Gold sponsor: KEO International Consultants, Procore, RIB Software, SoftwareOne
Strategic Partner: Zoho
Strategic Content Partner: ALEC
Technology Partner: Autodesk
Silver Sponsor: AECOM
Bronze sponsor: AESG, Thinkproject
Supporting Partner: JLL
Endorsements: Chartered Institute of Building
To learn more about the 2023 DC Summit, please click here.
