National BIM Conference

Saw a notification about it today through a CADalyst magazine email...
The conference is being held May 15th through 17th in Anaheim, CA. Looks like registration is under $600.
It is sponsored by National Institute of Building Sciences, Facilities Information Council, National BIM Standard, AECnews and CADalyst; the site for the event is www.bimconference.com

I'm not exactly sure what the AEC-ST exhibit is, but with the description in the CADalyst announcement makes it sound like it's something that would affect FMers:
"The National BIM Conference is part of AEC-ST - the only event addressing the IT needs of the entire facilities and construction team and covering the entire lifecycle of the built environment. AEC-ST is co-located with Ecobuild America which covers green and sustainable building. For more information on AEC-ST, visit http://www.aecst.com."

I'd love to hear from anyone who attends. What type of 'now' and 'future' projects others are doing, recommended resources, etc.


For the past two years at my Facility and Corporate 'Planning Conference', I've presented briefly on BIM as applied to our field (Facilities and MEP design planning, building, maintenance) to plant the idea in the heads of the executives and get them to start thinking about it as momentum grows with BIM adoption and education.

This year I won't be formally presenting, but, I believe I'll be speaking at least a little on CAFM again, as I've just gotten approval to roll out a pilot program for a small portion of my facility with the FMDesktop suite.
I've turned over a list of the information I intend to gather over the next few months.

I'm waiting for a purchase order number and then I will be ready to roll. I know that the FMD install is pretty simple already, and I can't wait to actually have 'work' time to fully explore it. I really hope there are some hands-on classes at Autodesk University 2007 for FM Desktop/Facility Manager/Facility Web, etc. I had some good FMDesktop classes last year, but, they were all lecture courses, and I learn better with my hands than with my ears. ;)

Wish me luck as I break some new ground, moving from CADD Coordinator to CAFM Technician (well, in skills only, not like my job or pay is actually changing, I'm honestly wondering how the !*$% I'm going to squeeze this work in with my normal duties :-o)