Top 10 Observations from the 2016 AGC IT Forum Conference
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2) The Exhibit hall was jammed with nearly 25 software vendors and service providers, all eager to share information about their products with the participants during breaks. Some of those informal meetings with the vendors and other participants are just as valuable as the more formal presentations.
3) This year’s IT Forum was a joint production with Northwestern University’s McCormick School of Engineering. For those who don’t know, McCormick has two Master’s level degree programs for construction professionals. Professor Ray Krizek, who was instrumental in designing the program, was at the conference to talk up his curriculum. Several alumni and instructors were on hand to answer questions and talk of their experiences.
4) Ken Julien, a senior partner from Plante Moran Management Consulting, took the stage on Friday, Aug. 5, to talk about the IT cost budgeting and also shared the results of the Burger Consulting/Plante Moran IT cost study. Julien concluded with a call to action asking for attendees to participate in the IT cost and benchmarking study and improve the overall database.
5) John Jurewicz, Jr., Walbridge Technologies in Detroit, along with two of his colleagues talked extensively about the role of Lean processes and how it impacts traditional processes. They made it clear that prefabrication figures prominently in the effort to reduce or eliminate waste. John brought the topic back around to the IT managers in the room to discuss the impact of Lean on IT Infrastructure.
6) Joe Oleksak, also from Plante Moran, delivered a presentation on cyberthreat and security that was eye-opening. He instilled both respect and fear in the audience. Oleksak was able to acquire a password and decrypt it with a super-powered desktop machine in under 10 seconds. It really drove home the point that most of the passwords we all use can be defined by one word: weak.
7) A perennial favorite was the Fab4, four of our distinguished committee members, all CIOs or IT professional talking on a topic of their choosing. This year the focus was on IT staffing and the changing role of IT within an organization. It was a thought-provoking session that pointed out the way in which the role of IT professionals has evolved over the years, moving from a focus on infrastructure and servers to software and the user community. Attendees got to see a number of different IT organization charts to help clarify.
8) Mark Sawyer from Trimble, a keynote presenter, gave an outstanding overview of IT trends impacting construction. He discussed McKinsey’s recent publication on the impact of technology on building, an outstanding forecast piece, and used a number of trends and statistics from the work. His talk, as intended, got the attendees thinking forward and provided insights into what may be yet to come. Sawyer was a self-effacing speaker, perfect for the construction audience.
9) Burcin Kaplanoglu was another Northwestern speaker who gave a compelling talk around Internet of Things (IoT), which will be arriving on our construction shores very soon. Kaplanoglu's talk pointed out that we cannot get to big data and true IoT unless we have the bandwidth to connect devices from the jobsite and elsewhere. Enter the promise of 5G.
10) The AGC IT Forum Conference, Fara Francis and AGC of America did not disappoint. This was one of the best conferences on IT for the construction industry, and many attendees shared the same sentiment. The IT Forum Steering Committee is already hard at work on next year's conference and looking to set the bar even higher.
