BIMvoice

When I look at everything that is changing, I sometimes feel overwhelmed.

AI, tools, standards. There is always something new to learn, and it can feel like I am falling behind.

Someone told me they will start learning when things calm down. I understand that feeling, but I don’t think we can wait for a quiet moment.

What helps me is choosing one thing I can finish today. One message, one student’s question, one model to check, or one thing I want to understand better.

I don’t have to do everything today. I just need to take the next step.

1 week ago | [YT] | 5

BIMvoice

Tomorrow morning I'm taking the bus to Bucharest for the 10th anniversary edition of BIMcon, organised by buildingSMART România.

I'm taking part in the section on education and certification. I want to talk about what makes certification useful in the work we do every day.

Since July, I've had more than a hundred calls with people considering the buildingSMART certifications. Some were responding to requests from clients or tenders. Others wanted to understand the standards better and have a recognised way to show what they know.

Those conversations have given me plenty to think about. Preparing for certification takes time and effort, and people deserve to understand what they can gain from it and how that connects to their projects.

Olivia Traistaru will also speak in the same section, sharing her perspective as a student. She was learning with me long before I started offering Practitioner training, and became the first BIMvoice student to achieve the certification.

I'm looking forward to hearing her experience shared with the room, and to meeting people who care about where openBIM education goes next.

If you're coming to BIMcon, send me a message. It would be good to meet in person.

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 1

BIMvoice

Twenty years ago last night, my wife and I kissed for the first time.

She has spent more than half her life with me. When I think about that, I feel very lucky, and very grateful.

She has been beside me through different countries, changes of direction and all the years when I was still trying to find what I wanted to do. My decisions affected her life too, and she gave so much of her time and energy to supporting me and our family.

We couldn’t have known, that evening, everything we would experience together or that we would one day become parents to our son.

Looking back makes me wonder which things we start today will still be part of our lives twenty years from now.

About three years ago, I started teaching openBIM. I hope I’ll still be doing it in twenty years, looking back with gratitude at the people I’ve met, what we’ve learned from each other and the work we’ve done together.

I’m still near the beginning of that story, and my wife has been beside me as I’ve started it too.

I talk a lot here about my work and what I’m building. Today, I wanted to recognise the woman who has shared so much of the life behind it.

I love her, I’m grateful for the family we have together, and I’m looking forward to everything we still have ahead of us.

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 18

BIMvoice

If I were paying for an openBIM delivery, I would want to know how the people delivering it had prepared for the work.

A requirement for IFC tells the team which format to deliver. It doesn't tell me whether everyone understands what information belongs in it, how to check it or what I need to use it for afterwards.

That's why I believe clients have an important role in developing openBIM competence across their projects.

It can start with their own people. When a client gives its team time to learn and apply the standards, it shows consultants and contractors that this knowledge matters in practice.

For someone new to openBIM, that may mean structured training and support from an experienced colleague. For someone who has worked with it for years, it may mean updating their knowledge or having their competence assessed against shared criteria.

Experience matters, and people will need different kinds of support.

The more people on both sides of a delivery understand how the information is organised and checked, the better the chance of finding misunderstandings before they become a problem for the client.

That's where I see the value of investing in people. The client gets information that others should be able to understand and use, including when the original project team is no longer available.

We put a lot of thought into what we require from a model. I think the people responsible for delivering it deserve the same attention.

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 8

BIMvoice

AutoCAD was king, and a lot of people didn't see much value in learning Revit.

I remember the resistance, and today many people cannot imagine doing their work without it. Something they once questioned became part of their everyday life and career.

I think about that when I speak with people about the buildingSMART openBIM Practitioner certification.

The answer I hear most often is that nobody asks for it, so they don't see the value. Some are interested, and a few decide to go for it anyway.

I like to call them pioneers, because they are willing to make that decision before it becomes an obvious one to everybody around them.

I don't know whether Practitioner will ever become a common requirement. But I do believe that understanding how to organise and exchange information will become more important as we use more AI in our work.

The openBIM movement has been working towards this for years. Progress has been slow, and now we want to automate processes that we still haven't agreed on between ourselves.

For me, that's a reason to take these skills seriously already.

How long are you willing to wait for someone else to tell you they matter?

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 1

BIMvoice

“A hub for connecting knowledge with people.”

That's how Sarah Asad described BIMvoice Academy after using the community to help with her thesis. Reading her message made me very happy.

She told me the BIMvoice community helped her during her thesis, deepening her understanding of the IFC schema and openBIM.

She watches the talks on YouTube, finds the guests on LinkedIn and connects with them to discuss interoperability and digital construction. The conversations continue long after the recording ends.

In her words: “For me, BIMvoice has become much more than a learning platform. It has been a hub for connecting knowledge with people.”

I spend a lot of time on BIMvoice, and it means a lot to know that what we share helped with her thesis and introduced her to people she could learn from.

Thank you, Sarah, for taking the time to tell me. And thank you to everyone who joins the talks, shares their experience and helps others in the community. Her message is for you too.

P.S. If you'd like to join us, BIMvoice Academy is free, and we already have close to 1,500 members.

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 5

BIMvoice

The Balkan Architect Summit starts today, and I'm happy to be part of it!

My recorded session, Data First BIM, is already available to ticket holders. Tomorrow I'll join live for a conversation and Q&A.

Thank you, Milos Temerinski, for inviting me and bringing us together. I'm looking forward to meeting everyone and answering your questions.

The live sessions run on 15 and 16 October, with access to the recorded presentations included.

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 11

BIMvoice

“Personally, I don't need this certification. But the contract requires it.”

A consultancy owner told me this on a call. He has ten years of experience working with IFC and IDS, but the investor requires the BIM Manager and BIM Coordinator to hold the Foundation certificate.

Before your next bid, check which certifications the client requires and who needs to hold them. Give your team time to prepare.

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 0

BIMvoice

On Saturday three BIMvoice students sat a buildingSMART exam. All three passed, and one of them made history for us. What a weekend.

The day started with Dragan Budimirovic and Khalid Mahrous, who passed the Foundation exam. That makes 15 BIMvoice students who sat it, and all 15 passed at the first attempt. Congratulations to both of you!

Then came 👩‍💻Olivia Traistaru, a very dedicated openBIM ambassador. She passed the openBIM Practitioner exam, the applied level, and she is the first BIMvoice student to do it.

A few firsts came with her result:

• Olivia is the first student certified as a Practitioner after training with a registered training provider from the buildingSMART Romania chapter.
• BIMvoice is the first training provider in Romania to produce a Practitioner.
• And the second in the world to do it on the English route.
• As far as I can see, Olivia is also the first professional in Switzerland to hold it. I don't find anybody else from Switzerland in the buildingSMART professional registry, so if I missed somebody, tell me, I would love to meet them.

Thank you, Olivia, for pushing through while working full time and doing a master's on the side. You are a true example of dedication to openBIM and to everything else you do, and I am very proud of you.

Thank you also to buildingSMART România for the support throughout all of this. They did a great job.

Dragan, Khalid, Olivia, thank you for trusting me with your training. I am very proud of all of you, and 10 October goes into the BIMvoice history books because of you.

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 9

BIMvoice

In 2009, right after graduating, I was delivering advertising newspapers in Torino for €25 a day, with an injured left foot.

Around that time I started playing poker, and it became my full-time job for roughly three years. Later I was delivering newspapers again, working nights while attending a course to get certified in AutoCAD and Revit.

I already knew how to use the tools. It was my early days in Norway, and I needed something recognised locally so someone would give me a chance.

That chance eventually came, detailing bridges. It still took me years to find the work I wanted to do (BIM and then openBIM).

Today I teach people with years of experience and backgrounds I admire. I help them understand and use openBIM, and prepare for their certifications. I love this work so much that some days I don't know where the hours went.

If you're doing a job today that feels far away from the life you want, I know how that feels. I couldn't see all of this from a newspaper delivery round either.

Keep looking for your chance, and keep preparing for it.

4 weeks ago | [YT] | 11