Our Manchester seminar and networking event was a big hit with local construction and contracting companies – and we’ll be repeating it in London and Dublin in early 2020.
The bacon butties on arrival went down a treat at Old Trafford’s Hotel Football on 10 December and we had a great turnout – a mixture of existing RedSky customers and local constructors and contractors keen to learn more about how to take the next steps on their digital construction journey.
The keynote address was delivered by Rob Driscoll, Business Adviser to the Cabinet Office and Crown Commercial Services. He spoke about the construction industry being among the least digitised sectors in the UK economy and highlighted the importance of improving supply chain collaboration. Referring to digitisation as a positive disruptor in construction and contracting, he set the scene against the current macroeconomic and political landscape.
RedSky Product Manager Brendan Magill was up next. Emphasising the need for strategic planning in order to maximise the value of digital initiatives, he drew on his own experience in implementing an award-winning digital strategy for a large main contractor.
Project and Delivery Manager Glyn Hughes, who has implemented many IT-based change projects in construction and maintenance environments, shared best practice in managing the delivery journey. And the audience was fascinated to hear RedSky Consultant Mo Dawood talking about the transformative effect of his ‘lose the paper – find the data’ approach to change management.
Just before lunch Ole Kristian Kvarsvik, Managing Director of RedSky’s sister company Rendra AS, provided a convincing demonstration of how mobile BIM can dramatically improve collaboration on-site… this cutting-edge solution certainly generated a lot of interest.
A QSHE Director of a £200m company came along to find out more about RedSky and its capabilities. He said: “I found it useful because I think with RedSky there’s an opportunity to capture all data in one location, rather than having multiple locations doing the same thing. It’s about doing things once, rather than many times.”
Existing RedSky customer Luke Davis, Finance Director at Skipton Properties, said: “I found the event useful because it reinforced that what we’re doing is in line with RedSky and industry best practice.”
Matthew Hargreaves, Group Finance Director at John Lord & Son, had this advice to anyone considering attending the RedSky events in London and Dublin in the New Year: “It was well worth going along to support the event.
“Just as I’d hoped, it wasn’t purely a technical talk or a sales pitch for a new product; the discussions had a much wider perspective, including the economic side of things and many of the issues we face in the construction industry, such as the challenges around preservation and protection of working capital in the sector. It wasn’t all about finance either: I attended with our Managing Director and Company Secretary and we each found different parts valuable.
