BIM Chapters: Reflecting on BILT-EUR 2017 in Aarhus Denmark

I would like to share a few thoughts and experiences on the recent BILT-EUR 2017 conference in Aarhus Denmark.

Speaking Opportunities

I have fortunate to present at various conferences all over the United States, and even the world, on architecture and building information modeling. For instance, the Minnesota AIA Convention in 2016 on practical applications of...
VR in architecture and later this month on energy modeling. I will also be presenting at Lighfair, a large architectural lighting design conference, early next year. Additionally, I have presented in Canada, Ireland, Singapore, China, Australia, and most recently in Aarhus Denmark... which is what this post is about.

Presenting at BILT-NA in Toronto Canada

BILT-EUR - Aarhus, Denmark Conference

Just last month I presented at a BIM-focused conference, BILT-EUR, in Aarhus, Denmark. Two months prior I also spoke at the North American version of this conference, BILT-NA, in Toronto, Canada; click here for my post on that conference. This conference draws speakers from many well-known firms, and some not so well known, all working on very interesting projects and BIM workflows.

BILT-Eur fearless leaders - Silvia Taurer and Marcus Fich

General assembly in Aarhus Denmark

Aarhus Denmark is the European Capital of Culture for 2017. The venue was the Radisson Blu Scandinavia hotel and conference center in the heat of the city.

Here are a few photos in the grand circulation space.

Radisson Blu in Aarhus Denmark

My Session

Partly due to my 2016 trip to Autodesk’s Shanghai China research and development campus to collaborate and test new features for the Revit 2018 release, I was selected to present on the new multi-story stair tool. This session was a lab, where each participant was seated at a provided computer so they could follow along during the presentation.

A special thanks to the RevitCat, Tim Waldock, for reviewing my handout prior to the event and offering several suggestion.

My class had some dry spots... in fact, as seen in the image below, everyone completely fell asleep during my class. Really bad timing that the BILT photographer turned up just then! haha

A Favorite Session

There were many great sessions. But one that stood out for me was How Dynamo Can Help Revit With Its Topographical Issues by Jostein Berger Olsen of Sweco. He was a great presenter with a good sense of humor. On his blog, he offered the handout and the data sets! https://jbdynamo.blogspot.com/

BTW, a big thanks also to Jostien for helping me deal with some problems I ran into while trying his handout and data sets! I also got some help from Carl Storms!

Engaging Local Architecture and Engineering Students

This annual European conference is in a different location each year. During this conference, the organizers arranged to have local architecture and engineering students on-site, working on an assigned design competition. Of course, I spent some time talking to the students and their professors.

Speaking with architecture and engineering students

Always happy to help!

The next image is me with Danish professor Niels Ole Christiansen, who is also an author of a Revit book; we exchanged books!

Me and Danish professor Niels Ole Christiansen

To learn more about the VIA University College, visit: http://en.via.dk/programmes/technology-and-construction/architectural-technology-bachelor.

The Exhibit Hall

Conferences often have an exhibit hall where product vendors have an opportunity to engage with attendees about their offerings. Such was the case at this conference. I look forward to spending time with many of the software providers as I often consult and do beta testing for them. And just this week, a few weeks after the conference, I was given a live one-on-one demo by Xinaps as a follow up to a discussion I had at their booth.

A spacious exhibit hall often filled with food and drink

The Revizto Team; Rhys, Alex, me (honorary team member) and Arman (founder)

Me and the co-founder of Enscape, Moritz Luck

The Bike Culture

Being an occasional computer biker (year round), I must say the bike culture in Denmark is amazing. I will close out this post with a few bike-centric photos… the last one is my ride for coffee using a hotel-provided bike (notice the coffee in the bike basket!).