Digital Construction North (DCN) has revealed the 50-plus best practice CPD-certified sessions for this year’s event on 18 November at Manchester Central.
The sessions take place across four stages: information management; innovation; technology; and transformation. There are nearly 70 speakers drawn from organisations including Amodal, AtkinsRéalis, BAM UK, Defence Housing Service, Glider, Kier, nima, Okana, Ramboll, RLB Digital, Scottish Futures Trust, Sisk and Skanska.
Here are some of the sessions that caught CM Digital’s attention:
10am – From 0.170 to 0.026: How Glencar Construction built a reporting culture that rewrote their AFR safety record.
Directors and managers from Glencar and innDex will deliver a candid look at the groundwork behind the contractor’s safety transformation: a 78.2% rise in observations and good practices reported, and a 54% reduction in near-misses. They will argue that getting the data foundation right – structured, consistent, trusted reporting – is what moved the number.
10.30am – Embedding UCL’s uplifted employer’s requirements across capital delivery
Amodal founder and MD Thomas Whiting and UCL head of data and digital estates Joe Jones will explore how UCL is embedding requirements into appointment documents, assuring information at key gateways and completion, and supporting stakeholders new to CDE and ISO 19650 working.
11am – Site data capture and quality assurance on MCFC north stand extension
Sisk DPD lead Nidaa Alazmeh details the digital approach the contractor took on the extension of Manchester City’s North Stand.
11.30am – Creating radiologically informed intelligence with autonomous robotic patrol data
Matt Harrison, robotics and technology software lead at AtkinsRéalis, will focus on the wider opportunity created when data from multiple sources is combined: using routine robotic patrols not just to capture isolated sensor readings, but to build richer, spatially aware operational intelligence.
Noon – Towards a public sector digital estate: Scotland’s lessons for clients, estates teams and the supply chain
Scottish Futures Trust and Okana will present the findings of the Scotland’s Journey Towards a Public Sector Digital Estate report and examine what they mean for clients, estate and facilities teams, project teams, information managers and the supply chain.
12.30pm – AI competency and the professional brain
Most AI governance in the built environment relies too heavily on a single control: a competent professional reviews the output. In this session, vBrief co-founder and CEO James Wright-Zhang will show why that is only one facet of the problem and what the overlooked, and increasingly important, facets mean for your practice, policies and risk register.
2pm – Hill Dickinson Stadium: DfMA on the dock
BDP Pattern associate director Nick Tyrer will detail how the designer used computational design to embed Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DfMA) throughout the project, achieving around 70% offsite fabrication across the facade, roof, and seating bowl.
He will show how parametric workflows drove complex decision-making, de-risked construction, and helped deliver a stadium built for the Premier League.
2.30pm – Cloister to COBie: Structuring seven centuries of heritage data
Can a single repair to a 700-year-old cloister change how a national institution manages its data? Representatives from the UK Parliament and Donald Insall Associates will reveal how a small masonry repair at St Stephen’s Cloister Court – part of the Palace of Westminster, and home to one of the oldest surviving fragments of the estate – became the test case for turning centuries of narrative heritage information into structured, reusable asset data.
3.30pm – A common case of the Golden Thread Part Six Syndrome
RLB Digital head of information management strategy Emma Hooper will explain how ISO 19650-6 supports the management of health and safety information needed to meet CDM duties, while the golden thread supports the information requirements of the Building Safety Act for higher-risk buildings.
She will explore where these concepts overlap, where they differ, and how they fit into the wider information management landscape.
4.30pm – Procuring smart building technology
BSRIA publications manager John Taylor will introduce a framework for making informed decisions when purchasing smart building technology. It will give practical guidance on the culture, system and process changes needed to optimise building operations, reducing energy and maintenance costs, and enhancing sustainability and occupant experience.
As well as the speaker sessions, there will be 50 exhibitors, including the likes of Bluebeam, Dalux, Egnyte, innDex, MSite, Newforma, Procore, Prodtex, RIB Software and Trimble.
Due to venue capacity, tickets for DCN are limited. All registrations go through a vetting process, and places will be approved on a first-come, first-qualified basis. Tickets are free for industry professionals.
