The Construction Industry Council has outlined details of the 11 regional BIM hubs that are due to launch with a series of free half-day seminar events starting on 25 September.
The hubs are being set up after the government’s BIM Task Group, based at the Cabinet Office, felt it needed to improve communication with the industry because “the BIM message was being diluted the further you travelled from the M25” said CIC events and communications manager Liz Reading.
The CIC was asked to take on the role of co-ordinator as it already had a network of regional committees, and would be seen as impartial “honest broker”, without any links to BIM software companies or training providers.
Anyone interested in BIM can attend meetings and seminars at their regional hub to find out more about the BIM Task Group’s progress, and local projects using BIM. The hubs will also feed responses and issues back to the Whitehall-based group.
Reading said that some hubs already have plans to meet regularly, while others have made less progress. Each hub will have a chair – also described as a BIM champion or BIM ambassador – who may or may not also chair the CIC regional committee. The hubs will draw on the administrative support of the regional committees, but will operate separately.
The 11 hubs are: Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, North West, North East, South East and London, South West, East Midlands, West Midlands, Eastern Region and Yorkshire and Humber. The CIC has asked member institutions, including the CIOB, to pass on member contract details in each region.
The project will kick off with free half-day workshops entitled “A BIM Focus” in 16 locations this autumn, commencing on 25 September 2012 in Newcastle. For more information, email bimhubs@cic.org.uk
