BIM in Birmingham Past Events

BIM in Birmingham 2018

The event welcomed over 500 architecture and design students from the UK and South America alongside 200 built environment professionals. This made the two days one of the largest BIM Expo’s in Europe. The BIM Expo looked at endless possibilities within BIM (Building Information Modelling) involving demonstrations, presentations of live and past case studies, workshops and a variety of other educational activities to help guests both learn about BIM and aspire to achieve best practice.    

The RIBA BIM Expo featured over 20 key BIM pioneers alongside special guest keynotes from the Heatherwick Studio and Gensler. The RIBA BIM Expo showcased a unique insight from world class designers and BIM managers practicing BIM on projects across the world.

Over the last two years, Victoria Farrow, Programme Director of the BA (Hons) Architecture course at Birmingham School of Architecture and Design and Conor Nolan, Project Manager at the Royal Institute of British Architects have worked to develop and shape an event that looks to meets the needs of industry professionals and students. Following the huge successes of the January 2017 event, the pair decided to work on engaging even bigger numbers and offering opportunities for more students and practitioners to become involved in BIM 2018. 

BIM in Birmingham 2017 

In 2017 Birmingham City University hosted the UK’s first Building Information Modelling (BIM) Expo and Camp. A joint collaboration between the Association of Academic Educators (aae) and the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) the event aimed to educate, inform and showcase work from talented BIM Managers from across the West Midlands.

Over 250 attendees from the built environment, including practising architects, students of architecture, interior design, landscape and other student and academic groups had the unique opportunity to hear from over 20 pioneers currently working in industry from across the UK including a keynote presentation from Cristiano Cecatto of Zaha Hadid Architects.

“Birmingham’s inaugural RIBA BIM EXPO and aae BIM CAMP got 2017 off to a flying start.” Conor Nolan from the RIBA said afterwards. “It was great to see architects, developers and students from across the West Midlands come together to learn from these BIM specialists and the feedback has been fantastic. The event gave a range of local practices a valuable opportunity to showcase and share their expertise whilst also raising student’s awareness of potential career opportunities locally.  I am looking forward to next year and learning more about our pioneering uses of BIM within the West Midlands and around the UK.”

Victoria Farrow, the event organiser for the day, added: “Having the opportunity to provide both students and practitioners with free access to such a rich body of information and knowledge has been fantastic and is very important. BIM is not something that the profession can choose to engage with or not. Simply put, we have to. The association of architectural educators and the RIBA found common ground in our agendas for learning and development and therefore to make this event happen and has been a great achievement. I hope that in future events, we can continue with our goals to make learning and advancing in BIM high on the agenda. I am incredibly proud to be able to offer this insight to my students at the Birmingham School of Architecture and Design and to bring this opportunity to the door of practitioners.”

 “Their contribution added an important flavour to the day. One of enthusiasm and engagement – qualities that I don't think you can get enough of and something that continues to radiate from our school. Collaborating with industry to bring together innovative practices and technology is high on the agenda for us therefore to achieve this level of innovation in an open forum has been really desirable.”

BIM in Birmingham commenced with a local event in 2016. In 2017 and 2018 the event expanded and as such BIM in Birmingham has had a number of collaborative partners with various organisations, sponsors, practices and guests. We would like to thank these parties for their efforts and enthusiasm and for helping the development of our network. We are continuing to expand this event and therefore welcome interest from any potential partners or sponsors in the future. Please get in touch with Victoria Farrow for further details on Victoria.farrow@bcu.ac.uk.