“Delegate feedback welcomed the change from our old format of a series of small workshops,” said Smith, who chaired the event. “By holding one big conference we successfully encouraged greater interaction between a wider group of BIW users and with more BIW staff.
“Delegates came from more than 50 different organisations, including construction industry clients, contractors, consultants and suppliers, and from all over the UK – two even flew down from Inverness.
“The day also saw over £250 raised for the CHASE Ben Hollioake Fund, a Surrey-based hospice charity that we chose to reflect the cricketing venue of our event and our Surrey head office location in Woking.”
During the day, delegates listened as Smith described corporate and product developments at BIW, heard case study presentations from Bovis Lend-Lease, HBOS, Mace and Gleeds, and received an inspirational keynote address from Mike Lee, CEO of VERO Communications - talking about London’s winning bid to host the 2012 Olympics.
Workshops included detailed presentations on the next release of BIW Information Channel, and exclusive previews of BIW’s new financial control, tendering, process management and mobile working products. Throughout the day, BIW consultants also answered numerous questions about Channel functionality and about BIW’s PlanWeaver system.
“We have carefully collated the feedback we received from delegates and BIW staff,” says Paul Wilkinson, BIW head of corporate communications and organiser of the conference. “Users welcomed the mix of formal conference sessions, repeated workshops and ample opportunities for networking and asking questions.
“We have already started formulating plans to make the next edition of the conference bigger and better.”
- ends - Notes to editors:
- Project collaboration services from BIW Technologies (www.biwtech.com) were first employed in 1999 on UK construction projects for Sainsbury’s. BIW believes it is the European leader in web-based collaboration systems for the construction and property industry, measured by numbers of users, usage and volume of data.
- BIW and BIW Information Channel are registered trademarks or trademarks of BIW Technologies Ltd.
- Recognising the cricketing heritage of its conference venue, BIW organised a prize draw to support the CHASE Ben Hollioake Fund (www.benhollioakefund.com), a charity named after the Surrey and England cricketer tragically killed in a road accident in 2002 aged just 24. In association with CHASE Hospice Care for Children, the Fund is aiming to provide a hospice centre in south London for life-limited children who are not expected to live past the age of 19. BIW’s draw prizes included a cricket bat signed by Ashes hero Andrew “Freddy” Flintoff, and one signed by Surrey County Cricket Club players.
- Paul Wilkinson’s book, Construction Collaboration Technologies: The Extranet Evolution, was published by Taylor & Francis in September 2005, and has been endorsed by the Network of Construction Collaboration Technology Providers (NCCTP – www.ncctp.net) as the UK’s first detailed guide to construction project ‘extranets’.
