Leaders of the Pack

BIM Show Live wouldn’t be BIM Show Live without Simon Rawlinson and David Philp.

Albert Einstein once said, “A leader is one who, out of the clutter, brings simplicity… out of discord, harmony… and out of difficulty, opportunity.”

And this is exactly what these two leaders of industry do at BIM Show Live, bringing harmony to our stage by cleverly fusing a diverse mix of content to create the perfect combination of technology and construction stories of yesterday, today and tomorrow.

Every show needs someone to lead from the front, guide us through the myriad of people, knowledge, education and experiences we are about to encounter as we wait to be amazed by the people and the projects we are here to see.

And at BIM Show Live, we are honoured to have two BIM legends take the reins and fulfil this role once again.

Switching places, on Day 1, the show will be opened by Simon Rawlinson, Partner and Head of the Strategic Research and Insight Team at ARCADIS. Simon leads internal and external research and thought leadership initiatives across Arcadis’s 28,000 strong network, spanning 70 countries – with many of Simons research projects supporting the development of construction industry strategies in the UK, Middle East and Asia.

Simon is also a member of the Construction Leadership Council, responsible for strategy and communication, as well as a member of the CIC Executive and the Strategic Forum for Construction.

Simon shared with us: “It’s a great pleasure to be invited back to BIM Show Live year-on-year, it has become a staple in my diary.

“With the show being in February, this allows us to review the previous year and use this to gain insight into what lies ahead for the next 12 months. So far in 2018 we have already seen significant industry changes with the introduction of a new government taskforce, run by the University of Cambridge’s Centre for Digital Built Britain (CDBB), the acceptance that BIM is shaping the future of offsite manufacturing and could be the answer to solving Britain’s housing crisis, and the soon to come new ISO Standards to replace the PAS1192 series.

“It’s show’s such as BIM Show Live which drives knowledge exchange and allows this type of information, and the continuation of the digitisation of our industry to be disseminated, understood and embedded in our businesses and project delivery.”

For Day 2, an equally impressive leader, David Philp, Global BIM/IM Consultancy Director for AECOM. With a career spanning over 25 years, David has worked for some of the construction industry’s most successful contractors and consultants. To list but a few of his achievements, David has an MSc in Property & Construction Management and is a University Medal winner, as well as gaining Virtual Design and Construction certification from Stanford University, California. David was Head of BIM Implementation for the UK government, and is currently part of the Centre for Digital Built Britain (CDBB) team at Cambridge University.

And did we mention he is an Honorary Professor at Heriot-Watt University, Construction Scotland Innovation Centre Board Member and co-author of the bestselling “Dummies Guide to BIM”.

Never one to disappoint David told us: “We’re going to funk-up BIM Show Live and for next year Simon and I are switching days!

“Since BIM Show Live began I’ve had the pleasure of opening the show on Day 1, looking out at all your eager faces, hungry for knowledge and pumped up with anticipation to see what’s new in the world of digital construction. But for 2019 that pleasure will now be all Simon’s.

“What I’m looking forward to most is that BIM Show Live creates not just a platform for learning, but it’s the real-time engagement, with first-hand experiences of game-changing technology, this is what excites me. Look out Day 2-ers, I’m coming for you.”