BE Conference 2004 Conference reporting by GIS Development Dear Readers, “Having the right technology might be important, but not as important as having the right combination of skill sets to address and deliver…” Greg Bentley, CEO, Bentley Systems Inc., indicated manifestly as he initiated his opening keynote speech to a huge hall of close to a 1900 gathering. His captivating and elaborate speech truly presented the need and quest to be empower enterprises systematically, for improving our own world and addressing its issues. A sure case of moving towards being ‘BE’ - ‘Bentley Empowered’ Impressive discussions and speeches enthralled the packed audience throughout the first two days as the comprehensive conference caught ground at the majestic Walt Disney Dolphin and Swan Resort, Orlando, Florida. The BE Conference is Bentley’s premier annual professional training and conference event. This year, it includes more than 400 training courses and technology updates, keynote presentations by Bentley executives, project presentations by Bentley users. GIS Development strives again to foster the growth and sharing of important happenings in the world of GIS and related technologies. In this continued effort it brings you a live update of the conference in two parts. The Part I below encapsulates the first two days of this significant event. Regards, Ayon Tarafdar, Assistant Editor, GIS Development ayon@gisdevelopment.net Welcome Address and Keynote – Greg Bentley Day 1 of BE Conference had three discussion forums in the form of seminars in the daytime followed by a Welcome Reception to the opening of the Meet in the evening. These three warm up seminars are touched upon briefly later. 24th May 2004 saw the opening and welcome ceremony in the morning. Tony Flynn, Chief Marketing Officer, Bentley opened the floor with a precise and interesting speech that basically talked of building systems that support our lives. Systems that are not merely business but the foundation of basic needs, health, education and knowledge base of societies. He invited Greg Bentley, CEO, Bentley to the floor next to address the hall with the opening Executive keynote. Greg Bentley spoke at length a speech entitled ‘Cycles of Opportunity’. He mentioned that opportunities come to us in cycles, in terms of its quality and quantity. Tapping onto such opportunities is rational and optimizing the opportunity cost is clever. However, the most important is to understand the potential of the opportunity and utilize it in the right manner and to the right extent. He mentioned that one of the aims of Bentley today is to ‘empower competitiveness’. Key Aspects Raised ‘Empower competitiveness’ : Every individual and every organization has inherent capabilities and potential. Lack of direction, tools and discipline often make them un-competitive and left out. Robust and total systems that address deepest problems and work flows and provide enterprises the structure to not only implement but also think ahead is about ‘empowering competitiveness’. It indirectly strives to empower ‘our’ competitiveness. He mentioned about the 4 main divisions of Bentley Systems that together are assisting various departments across the globe everyday to process and improve our life support systems – Bentley Buildings Bentley Civil Bentley Geospatial Bentley Plant He talked about Bentley’s performance in the last year with graphic representations for its investors and users. ‘Leveraging win-win economics’ : Architecture (A), civil design, construction (C) and engineering (E) primarily set the tone for development in contemporary societies. Having a synergy between these and taking them up together as a scientific block is important for a lot of reasons. Hence he spoke about AEC as an entity. The convergence of system tools, formats and languages for the easy overlap of these disciplines is what is the need of the hour. Even though this might be too far-sighted, it ensures an economic step of total win-win situation for the investor and the system solution providers. It reduced the return on investment. ‘What is the biggest challenge with CAD applications’? Greg made a very interesting presentation in the part where he questioned and dealt with the key industry roadblocks with reference to CAD, GIS or geospatial systems. He mentioned that 6 main issues still haunt this industry as in the following diminishing order of significance - 1. Standards 2. Training 3. Performance and output 4. Compatibility 5. Upgrades 6. Costs Standards and training forms the most important issues in this industry. The lack and discrepancy of standards or services, data and usage of tools form a mental block for any new entries. He mentioned that a study estimates that less than 50 dollars account for professional training in geospatial domain out of every million dollar spent by AEC firms. “Empowerment is not about owning the right tools but about knowing and having the right skill sets…”, he mentioned. ETS Programme He also mentioned about the new ETS (Enterprise Training Subscription) Programme, which is about to be launched by Bentley Institute that aims at training as the main arm of empowerment. He also talked of the basic potential in ETS training and its benefits of real-time mutual gain at ones own desktop without much movement. Finally he concluded on a positive note stating the importance of being interoperable and open in today’s situation. He made a mention of Bentley’s decision to remain integrated with Microsoft considering the consistency of either’s’ latent visions, i.e., expanding opportunities – or should I say - expanding the cycles of opportunities. Guest Speaker – Col. Gregg Martin, Commander, 130th Engineer Brigade, US Army Col. Greg made an elaborate and passionate speech that spoke of his enduring experience of the recent Iraq war. He spoke on his own personal capacity on the basic post-war strategy of rebuilding the nation of Iraq. His emphasis was on re-construction, re-habilitation, renovation and re-installation of systems in the very lowly development conditions of Iraq. He showed a video of the post war efforts and mentioned the heavy role of geospatial sciences, communication tools and the need for integration in times of significance and emergency. Vertical Sessions The sessions in BE Conference were parallely run as four main groups as the four main divisions of the organization - Bentley Buildings, Bentley Civil, Bentley Geospatial and Bentley Plant. I will bring you a brief of the Bentley Geospatial Agenda Session. The total sessions parallel in over 8 halls. Bentley Geospatial Agenda Around 400 attendees gathered in the Southern Hemisphere Salons of the resort where the Bentley Geospatial Session started. Geospatial Keynote I – “What is the name of this industry?” Carey Mann, Bentley Geospatial, started in an exciting nature. He put forth a dilemma that there is alack of identity of the geospatial industry. What is the name of this industry? He mentioned that various descriptions are fitted to describe the geospatial industry. Each stand at various distances from the total or the actual thing. The different sub-domains often used to answer the above are- Mapping AM-FM GIS Geomatics Geo…? He mentioned that geo-technologies encompass a wide range of tools and the industry is a conglomeration of all these that broadly address the AEC. Bentley looks at a ‘New Geospatial Paradigm’. This paradigm shall allow one to create a Spatially Enabled Managed Environment that includes the 5 pillars of – Production mapping Geospatial Engineering Integrated AEC Geospatial Content Management Interoperability Geospatial Keynote II – “It’s all about creating a Spatially Enabled Managed Environment” Styli Camateros, Vice President, Bentley, spoke elaborately next on translating the mission of creating a Spatially Enabled Managed Environment. He took up each of the 5 pillars mentioned by Carey Mann and went into demonstrative details of each. Various presentations by senior personnel followed him stating the key 2004 updates of each of the 5 pillars and the ongoing work for the future. Some important mentions were - Concept of ‘propagation’ in the geospatial tools Concept of ‘feature collection’ as an important functionality The intended launch of Bentley Electric and Bentley Work Print The intended launch of Bentley PowerField The relationship with PDF XML based feature modeling The intended launch of Bentley Coax, Fiber and Inside Plant from C.I.S (all probable in Q3) Finally he mentioned about 2005 updates and gave glimpses of the impending long work on the front of Oracle 10g and the depths of integrated AEC. It also mentioned that Bentley would soon develop a connector with Oracle 10g and a specific XFM environment for editing the associated topology model. BE Awards Ceremony and Dinner This Day 2 also features a thrilling ceremony of BE 2004 Awards to honour the great work of Bentley users. As soon as I finish the days brief, I shall move into the gala dinner and ceremonies programme where the master of ceremonies, Alan Farkas, is supposed to announce the winners of the 2004 BE Awards during this special evening. The reception promises festivities, followed by a banquet, live music, and the presentation of extraordinary projects. There are 138 nominees from across the globe for this award and I managed to catch a glimpse of a few Asian names amongst it too – Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, Korea Land Corporation, Shanghai Turbine Generator Co Ltd, etc. I will update you al on this in Part II of the reporting tomorrow. Technology Exhibition 32 exhibitors displayed their products and services along with the four main sponsors or the event. The exhibition area was lavishly set over an area of over 2500 sqm. A detailed list and information of them are available here. A brief of Sunday 23rd May Geospatial Research and Technology Seminar Organized by Sisi Zlatanova from the Technical University of Delft and supported by the AGILE organization, this seminar featured the work of academic researchers and industry practitioners. The agenda included technical presentations on innovative research projects and a panel discussion on the geospatial lifecycle. Architectural Research Seminar The Building Research & Technology Seminar was an opportunity to learn about the work academic researchers and industry practitioners in an intensive, information-packed overview of developments at the intersection between research and practice, and between computing and building. Following the keynote by Greg Lynn, new technologies were discussed, such as computational geometry, GenerativeComponents, exploratory architectural design, digital fabrication and building engineering, parametric technologies, and immersive virtual reality systems. Where the Code Meets the Road Join Keith, Barry, and Ray Bentley, Bhupinder Singh and other members of Bentley’s software teamed for a look at the latest on the V8 generation. Hosted by James Dyer, this informal discussion addressed Bentley initiatives, products, and solutions available today and in the future. In case of problem in viewing this report kindly Click Here Comments : Info@GISdevelopment.net © GISdevelopment.net. All rights reserved.