Three colleagues from our Steel Structure Design Office recently participated in an exciting conference. The 6th Annual Digital Construction Summit in Prague focused on creating a modern and sustainable built environment by integrating and accelerating digital technologies in order to improve efficiency, reduce risks and better manage the full lifecycle of buildings.

After the trip to Chicago, our colleagues took part in another international professional conference. This time the company was represented at the 6th Annual Digital Construction Summit in Prague by Kocsis András Balázs, Lead Business Development Designer; Cseresznyés István, Project Lead Designer; and Gyuricza Arnold, Project Lead Designer.

The 6th Digital Construction Summit is an important forum for collaboration among construction professionals, contractors, technology companies and university researchers. This year's topics included the digitalization of construction processes, the future of the construction industry and the development of so-called smart cities.

One of the Summit's key themes was digital three-dimensional and multidimensional modelling (BIM), an increasingly widely applied methodology in the construction industry and a mindset that is of particular importance to us as well. The speakers demonstrated how BIM can improve the efficiency of construction processes and how design and construction can be better coordinated, providing useful and interesting information for all participants.

What was the purpose of the visit?

"The purpose of our visit was to become familiar with new digital technologies and with the mindset of foreign market players, and to map new directions that may serve as examples to follow even across the entire group of companies. The programme was highly diverse and covered design, construction and operation alike. It was both interesting and inspiring to hear about the innovation directions of our international colleagues and to understand their visions and approaches. Among the topics discussed at the conference, there are some that I believe may bring interesting opportunities for the future operation of bim.GROUP," said Kocsis András Balázs, emphasizing that participation in the event also offered an opportunity to draw inspiration for advancing digitalization in the construction industry.

What was the most important lesson of the conference?

"The most important lesson of the conference was undoubtedly that, alongside the BIM mindset and digitalization, which are gaining ground in Hungary as well, special attention must also be paid to sustainable construction, since this is clearly a shared existential issue. We should not build something more efficiently if it is not sustainable in the first place. With the emergence of artificial intelligence (ChatGPT), revolutionary breakthroughs may also be achieved in construction, just as the appearance of the internet brought such changes a few decades ago," Gyuricza Arnold said in his assessment of the conference.

How much opportunity was there for professional exchange?

"The presentations themselves were very interesting and of high quality. In addition, during the breaks between presentations and at the end of the day, we also had opportunities for smaller and larger in-person discussions, where we could share our thoughts and experiences in relation to sustainable construction, design, operation and the BIM models that support them," added Cseresznyés István regarding the experience.

In addition to BIM, another important theme of the event was the future of the construction industry, with speakers discussing the changes expected as a result of the industry's digitalization. The presenters agreed that construction will undergo significant transformation in the coming years and that numerous new opportunities may open up for the sector. New technologies and innovative solutions that can accelerate construction processes were also presented, and experts discussed the advantages of applying special sensors, artificial intelligence, robotics and virtual reality.