NBS Construction Leaders' Summit 2020

It's our NBS conference on the mornings of Tues 13th and Wednesday 14th October.

This year it is 100% online. Just over six months ago we would have booked a nice venue, limited places to 200 or so and put on the event in person.

In the current climate though - it has to be online. 

A slight negative is that networking and discussions may not be quite the same as 'in person'. However,
(a) without having to have the speaker physically there means that the quality of speakers we have is exceptionally high; and
(b) we don't have to cap the attendance. So with over two weeks to go we have over 1,000 delegates booked on already!

Our dedicated conference website is below - you can book on there:
- https://www.thenbs.com/events/cls2020

So, in this blogpost, I wanted to list out some of the speakers. At NBS we brainstormed a shopping list of who we thought the best speakers would be for a digital construction conference in 2020 - and when we asked them, to our surprise, all of them said yes. Seven highlighted speakers below...

1. Nadhim Zahawi MP

Government is the biggest construction client in any country. So it's going to be great to hear from the very top, the Minister for Business and Industry and co-chair of the Construction Leadership Council, Nadhim Zahawi MP.

I'm used to seeing him on BBC Question Time and Sky News - so it will be incredible to have him open up the NBS conference for us.

2. Dame Judith Hackitt

Undoubtedly the biggest changes to construction in this generation will be those that come in to place as part of the Building Safety Bill. It was Dame Judith Hackitt that led the team authoring the 'Hackitt Review' that shaped the bill. Personally I think that this will be a bigger push to digital than many of the various BIM initiatives. To legally have to keep a digital record of building information through the major gateways from planning to occupation is going to really shake up the industry and greatly improve it.

3. Phil Bernstein

Phil was the exec at Autodesk back in 2002 that thought it would be a good idea to buy Revit. Rumour has it that he was also the person who came up with the label 'BIM' to explain what was happening as the industry was moving from 2D documents to object-orientated digital information. I've heard Phil speak two or three times and he's well worth listening to. He'll be joining us from the USA.

4. Paul Morrell

I've listened to 100s of speakers over the last twenty years, and I'd say that Paul is probably the best and the most inspirational in my opinion. As Chief Construction Advisor to UK Government, I still remember him in 2010 at the BSRIA conference launching the UK Government's BIM Strategy. I also remember being on the same platform as him at the ICE 2012 event where Level-2 BIM was really getting into gear. Paul will be joining us from France.

5. David Rockhill, Mckinsey

Every BIM conference I have been to for the last five years has featured research from Mckinsey showing the connection between 'going digital' and productivity. It'll be good to hear a full presentation on this from David Rockhill. David has most recently focussed on digital transformation and business-building for infrastructure owners and construction companies.

6. Anne Kemp, UK BIM Alliance

Following BIM Level 2, it was time to take the UK PAS 1992 suite of standards and turn them into international standards to really put the UK at the vanguard of global BIM. Anne was the person that probably did more than most to win hearts and minds internationally and get the ISO 19650 series pushed through as a BIM standard for the globe.

7. Mark Farmer - author of Modernise or Die

Mark was commissioned by UK Government to review construction. In 2016 is 'Modernize or Die' review shook things up a little. Mark made ten recommendations. The Government agreed to implement nine of these.

I've heard Mark speak a few times - definitely worth listening to him.

Don't miss out, sign up for tickets now:
- https://www.thenbs.com/events/cls2020