I AM [actually] AN ARCHITECT

This week I attended the ENR FutureTech conference in San Francisco, and moderated a panel on Millennials in the construction industry.  The subject was how to balance the knowledge from older generations with the technical alacrity of the young.

Things of note:

• Panels are not the most effective format
• I met James Vandezande, BIM boss at HOK and author of the blog “All Things BIM” and learned that saying “BIM model” is gauche amongst BIM geeks because it is repetitive
• I felt immense gratitude at not having to work at one of those large, stuffy firms anymore.  When it comes to technology, they have the resources to be developing new, exciting things.  But because they’re lumbering and big and important and all that, they don’t have the luxury of being nimble and carefree about that technology.  It causes them to focus on the wrong things.

For instance, there was a big divide between companies who issue a standard phone to their employees and those who help pay the bills for employees’ personal cell phone.

People said it’s too difficult for their IT department to provide support for all these different phones.  People said they are concerned that they can’t wipe someone’s cell phone clean when they leave, posing the danger of losing intellectual property.  See this article if you’re interested in this debate, which I could not be less interested in.

No wonder progress is so slow in this world.  Remember that quote:

Don’t take yourself too seriously.  And don’t be too serious about not taking yourself too seriously. - Howard Ogden

My take: Your IT department doesn’t need to provide support for people’s phones.  People need to be big boys and girls and figure out their own phones.  If they can’t, they can put on their big boy pants and go to their nearest phone store and ask for help.  As for the lost intellectual property, whatever may be on someone’s phone when they leave is of far less concern than the knowledge in that employee’s head.  Better to spend your time figuring out how to retain good talent.

• So far, firms are not measuring morale or life-work balance when calculating ROI

There was some discussion on ROI of various technologies, but several speakers noted that just because you save 10 minutes of time through more efficient technology doesn’t mean you’re spending that 10 minutes doing something else useful for the project or making money.  This is true.

If, however, you happen to work in a firm who’s CEO set “working less” as one of the firm’s values, the ROI would have to count that saved 10 minutes.

• There is a lot of technology happening that I know nothing about.  Wow.  It’s a self-selecting crowd who chooses to attend a conference about technology in construction, so even though I was one of the youngest folks there, I felt a little obsolete at times.
• Software companies who serve the building industry (of which there are not many) are only focused on large companies right now.  That makes some financial sense, except that over 90% of architecture firms fit the government definition of “small business.”  Similar with subcontractors.  So for new technologies to be embraced by our industry, they have to be accessible to and useful to small entities.

This is why our company has been using a bunch of services/apps that weren’t designed for architects.  They’re the best we can do right now.

Overall: Cool conference.  Simple, well-executed (except panels are a little boring), good A/V people.  It made me really excited for the conference that we’re organizing for entrepreneurial women.  Check out our Women’s Entrepreneurship Retreat, March 9-11 in Monterey, California.