As Autodesk University continues to connect you with great classes and sessions, we hope you’re enjoying virtual experience and taking advantage of all AU has to offer. Day 1 was filled with amazing keynotes and new construction announcements. On Day 2 we shared some insights from some great sessions that took place. Now on day 3 we have some more great sessions to check out covering diversity, BIM 360, as well as the insurance and risk management.
Here we’ve recapped some sessions that took place on Day 3:
All of these sessions and hundreds more are still available on demand. You can visit our Session list and Construction Hub for much more Autodesk University Content!
Moderated by Clifton (Cliff) Cole, VDC Director, PENTA Building Group and involved looking at the impact of diversity in AEC-related roles and how to include minorities into the industry. Cliff was joined by Vincent Spencer, Architect, K12 Public Private Charter Expert, Lorrin Blair, Manager of Technical Solutions, Autodesk and Virtual Construction Manager, Dwayne Sellars, Senior VDC Manager at W. M. Jordan Company, and Kim Bates, Vice President, CIO at Webcor.
They began the Q&A with the question, “Any tips for proactive outreach to build a diverse recruiting pool?”
Vincent began this discussion by emphasizing the importance of reaching out to local school districts and being involved in career fairs and any program that is available in your area, “Our focus was to reach back as far back as 3rd grade to create awareness on AEC opportunities.” He stated. Cliff then mentioned the importance of exposure to the industry, “We need to show them [students] that there are different trades in the industry.” Dwayne followed stating that, “There are so many levels and layers in the industry, people usually hear construction and they think boots and a hard hat and so often that is not the case anymore.”
They later transitioned their conversation to “In what ways has focusing on diversity, equity, and inclusion made your business better? Bottom line and culturally?”
Lorrin began the discussion by emphasizing when you have diverse people, you have diverse ideas and are able to solve issues in different ways. Cliff commented saying, “If you’re trying to retain your employees, they will want to have diversity and inclusion. Doing so will help them feel like they can be whole and be themselves.”
This discussion included many more powerful insights and conversation topics. Make sure to watch the full session on-demand here.
This panel is moderated by Kinjal Ajmera a licensed architect and BIM Manager at HNTB and the purpose of this panel is to help answer any questions regarding BIM 360 and how to get the most out of it.
Kinjal started the discussion by talking a bit about the projects she’s helped work on, highlighting how she worked on the new Raiders stadium in Las Vegas.
Questions then shortly began to come in starting with, “Most companies I work with use BIM 360 for just Revit design. What is the best way to corroborate that with teams that are non-designated?”
Kinjal began to explain that BIM 360 requires entitlements and they can be costly depending on how your office breaks down that cost, “It’s an investment that each company makes, it’s the basic software the company has put as part of the overhead and as a part of their budget. Because it’s a basic tool, just like Revit is, BIM 360 is very quickly becoming that especially now when we’re all working from home,” she explained.
This question was later followed with, “How do you convince management to add licenses?”
“You want to show the return of investment by using technology,” She said. She then began to explain how new technology adoption would come at a cost and so you would need to justify that. “Bring up points like how many hours are you spending every week to transfer models? When you add up the hours and tell your managers that it will be automated and basically be eliminated, that’s a really good answer.”
Want to hear more? Check out the full session here and learn more about BIM 360 and how to implement it to your team.
This panel was hosted by Kyle Mcgee, Strategic Partnerships Manager, Autodesk. He was joined by Rose Hall, VP, Head of Construction Innovation, AXA XL Insurance, TC Neuhs, Director, Financial Operations & Purchasing, Urban Atelier Group, and Zac Hays, Director, Product Development for Preconstruction, Autodesk Construction Solutions. In this session these panelists participated in a discussion about how evolving technology and insurance products have shaped the construction risk management practice in recent years to become a more strategic function of a contractor’s business model.
Zac started the session off by asking the panelists, “How would you paint a picture of risk management practices 10 years ago?”
TC started off the conversation with describing it as very instantaneous and sharing how the profiles were paper based and kept in a file within a purchasing department, “We collected paper financial information from subcontractors. They completed a paper based profile system that we kept on file. Looking back on it now it almost seems archaic,” he explained. Rose then began to describe how there were a lot of moving parts10 years ago. Kyle then commented, “It was reactive just because of how limited it was.”
As the conversation continued the topic shifted to, “How would you describe a best in class Tech Stack + Insurance Portfolio for your modern contractor?”
Zac started off by saying how it has to be cloud based, it has to be connected, and the workflows in your tect stack have to be connected because it’s easy to adopt. He also mentioned, “any good risk management system is connected on something like LinkedIn or Facebook a network.”
TC then mentioned the importance of commitment and efficiency when you adopt new technology. “If you’re not committed, it does not get properly implemented. Having things align, promotes successful technology implementation.”
Learn more about how insurance products have helped shape risk management with the full session you can watch here.
Keep on the lookout for recaps of day 4 of Autodesk University coming out in the next couple of days. Subscribe to our blog to stay on top of all our new updates.
