I’ve just returned from the second installment of the Smart Building Conference, which took place in London on October 15th. Organized by Integrated Systems Europe, the event covered an emerging market for smart building initiatives, with various building systems such security, audiovisual, IT, HVAC, lighting, business systems, control systems, emergency paging, energy efficiency management, and building performance analysis coming together to work synergistically. To make Smart Building a reality, different industries will have to converge, integrating the various technologies that make buildings smart. A wide range of speakers offered their expertise throughout the day on various topics such as market research, energy solutions, sustainability, building automation, energy management, control systems and architectural and design technologies.

As one of the featured speakers, I offered my input on Building Information Modeling, a 3D design, modeling and simulation tool for the architectural, engineering and construction industries.  Building Information Modeling (BIM) is a key tool that is instrumental in designing smart buildings that offer benefits from pre-construction phases right through occupancy; even well after the building has been completed as a “digital owner’s manual” for performance assessment and facility management over the buildings life cycle.  Sharing the “I” in BIM — the information — is an effective process to bring together all stake-holders to design, build and operate the intelligent environment.  One of the goals for building smart is to tie all the various systems — including AV — together to work as a holistic approach to managing a building and with BIM we can do this. With BIM, we have the technology to design not only smart spaces, but smart buildings, smart campuses and even smart cities.

The event was well organized and was very successful; it drew an attendance of over 150 delegates. The next Smart Building Conference will take place in Amsterdam on February 3rd, on the eve of the Integrated Systems Europe 2014 Exhibition.