Conference Agenda
There are still a few opportunities for A/E firm professionals to participate in the conference program. If you have an experience about best practices and/or innovations in technology in the AEC industry that you are willing to share with peers, please contact events@zweigwhite.com. Conference presenters receive free registration among other benefits!
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
7:30am – 8:30 am Continental Breakfast
8:30am – 8:45am Welcome and Opening Remarks
8:45am – 12:00 noon Morning Conference Sessions
Architecting For Failure, Cloud Architecture is Different!
Michael Stiefel, Consultant, Software Architecture and Development
While Cloud Computing offers enormous economic savings, and scalability for large amounts of users and data as well as over large geographic areas, you have to think differently about how to build these applications. Distributed applications are susceptible to a wide variety of outages because you cannot avoid the effects of computer networks and scarce computing resources. Traditional on-premise applications have always been subject to some of these problems, but cloud computing exposes them publicly in ways that cannot be hidden. This talk will explain how to architect and build applications to be resilient under these conditions. It will also explain what aspects of traditional software architecture and design are the same, and which areas must evolve.
Concurrent Design/Large Scale Collaboration
Dennis R. Shelden, Associate Professor of the Practice of Architecture Design at MIT, and a Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Gehry Technologies
Distributed group authorship is transforming 3D design, creating new opportunities, innovations, and competitive pressures. Designers have the unprecedented opportunity to comprehensively control the design and construction process through digital tools that allow the tight integration of the intelligence, analytics, and constraints of virtually all aspects of a project. Over the last several years, designers have used source control systems for the delivery 3D models of increasingly complex projects. This session will present recent project work that demonstrates these new methods of concurrent design in the context of professional practice, and will describe new web technologies that move beyond source control to make flexible, global 3D collaboration possible for all as well as speculate on the application of such open platforms for the transformation of construction automation, services sourcing, and building delivery processes.
Advanced and Centralized: A Collaboration, Archiving, Knowledge and Data Management Solution
Alec Lorentiu, Associate and Director of IT-IS, Morrison Hershfield
Like many firms, improving collaboration internally and with clients, partners & sub-contractors, managing records in a compliant manner, and maintaining an internal Knowledge Portal that is comprehensive and current is a priority at engineering firm Morrison Hershfield. In these challenging economic times it is important to leverage solutions that are easy to implement, easy to use and can provide a major benefits, including an impressive return on investment. In this presentation, Alec Lorentiu will describe the systems he implemented for Morrison Hershfield and the features that fulfill those specific objectives.
12:00pm – 1:00pm Networking Luncheon
1:00pm – 4:00pm Afternoon Conference Sessions
How IT Can Support a Marketing Information System that Improves the Efficiency and Communication
Bob Dubinsky, Vice President, Corporate Resources and Becky Bozadjian, Director of Marketing, VHB
The marketing department uses information differently than engineering users or even functional group users like finance and human resources. On the marketing side, it’s all about content and deadlines. Tons of written and graphics materials– new project experience, new people – and the material is “living” – it constantly needs updating or customization. On top of that, marketing is very fast-paced and extremely deadline oriented. People expect to find exactly what they need and fast. These presenters will share VHB’s system of integrated cooperation between the IT and marketing groups to develop an effective marketing information system, including dedicated roles, systems, protocols and more to keep their marketing engine running!
Virtual Desktop Forum
“Within the office we find it is a great way to share software for programs we have limited licenses for. Outside of the office there is a visual latency that has found to be distracting with some users...”
“We are using virtualisation quite extensively...”
“We have about 50% our employees utilizing virtual desktops on a regular basis and chose a remote connection based on cost, compatibility, and ease of use...”
Is your AEC firm using Virtualized Desktops… and actually successfully using them? There are a lot of competing technologies out there – VMWare View, Xen Desktop, Parallels Hypervisor, even simply Windows RDP. In this panel discussion, IT directors from several different firms will talk about how well it’s been working in their firms including the pros and cons of specific products they are using.
Panelists:
Doug Dahlberg MCSA, MCSE, MCTS, MCITP, Director of IT, Wolverton & Associates, Inc. , Duluth, GA (Consulting Engineering/Land Surveying, 84 Employees, 2 Office Locations)
Ali Daher, Chief Information Officer, SSHIC, Kuwait (Architecture/Engineering/Planning & Construction Supervision Services, 460 Employees, 20 Office Locations)
Aaron Brasslett, Manager of Information and Financial Services, Kleinschmidt, (Engineering/Environmental, 129 Employees, 10 Office Locations)
Bradley Cambridge, AIA, APA, LEED AP, Project Architect, Quinn Evans Architects, Washington, DC (Architecture, 65 Employees, 2 Office Locations, 2 Studios)
5:30pm – 7:30pm Cocktail Reception
Thursday, June 7, 2012
7:30am – 8:30 am Continental Breakfast
8:30am – 8:45am Welcome to Day Two
8:45am – 12:00 noon Conference Sessions
12:00 noon Main Conference Ends
12:00pm – 2:30pm Working Lunch Discussion Groups (optional)
Join speakers and fellow conference attendees for an informal lunch discussion session on one of the following topics:
Roles, Responsibilities, and Qualifications for IT Professionals In Today’s AEC Industry
Does your firm have a set job description for IT staff? How do you vet applicants for open technology positions? What capabilities should any IT professional have in our industry? What kind of experience and education should be required? Other professionals need to fulfill continuing ed requirements every year. Given the ongoing changes in technology applications and systems, should this be required for IT professionals as well? Can an IT professional from another industry easily step into a role in an AEC firm?
How To Support Remote Staff
Whether it’s people working onsite at a project, from branch offices that could be located in another country, or working from home, these days the “office” can be almost anywhere. What challenges are presented for IT staff because of the ever-expanding opportunities for those who work in non-traditional settings?
When Disaster Strikes
When the system goes down, when an employee downloads a file with a virus, when your web site gets hacked…securing and/or recovering data is mission critical for the IT manager. What safeguards have you implemented for your firm to avoid the worst-case scenario? What worked best and what have you tried that didn’t work? Share your horror stories and compare notes on the best systems and strategies.
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