Over the last two weeks, #TeamTotalSynergy was at three architecture, engineering and construction industry events in London.
Although Synergy has been around since 1999 and is the market leader in Australia, we’re still growing int the UK market, so it was a great chance to talk to architecture, surveying and engineering professionals face-to-face about how Synergy can help them be more effective and efficient in delivering projects for the built environment design sector.
RICS Digital Built Environment Conference
As the name suggests, this conference was themed around the digitisation and technology being used to deliver projects and services in the built environment.
Session topics included Internet of Things (IoT), smart buildings, data, AR/VR, and the use of the cloud to not only collaborate, but actually conduct business. It was a fascinating day and the perfect place for us to highlight our cloud document and project management, and cloud project collaboration portal.
Around 150 delegates filled the room at the Victoria Park Plaza Hotel in London, with various technology installations lining the walls of the networking area. Synergy spent the breakout sessions talking to architects, surveyors, project managers, building consultants and more built environment design professionals about achieving business and project efficiencies using cloud-based project delivery and business management software.
With insightful panel discussions around data — including where to hold it, how to keep it secure and how to surface it for decision making — and the benefits of using cloud tools to collaborate with project teams and stakeholders, there was no shortage of questions for our team about how Synergy helps in these areas.
We had loads of fun, met a lot of interesting people, got the CEO of RICS to throw one of our paper planes across the room. Our paper planes were actually competition forms to win some Architectural Lego. Here’s RICS event winner Bruce Haswell building Sydney in under a minute:
Sydney – built in under a minute. By @BruceHaswell, our #RICSTech DBE Conference Architectural Lego winner. Love your work, Bruce! @GleedsGlobal @RICSnews #moretimefordesign #moretimeforlego
https://t.co/jhGZtwS2oH
— Total Synergy (@totalsynergy) June 23, 2018
Most importantly, contributed to the thirst for knowledge on all things tech, digital and cloud among built environment professionals.
We loved the event and it’s clear that RICS is a highly engaged association for built environment industry professionals — we hope to visit a few more events in support of RICS members in the future.
Vision London 2018
Vision is a conference that celebrates innovation in creating better places and smarter buildings. Synergy went along to meet and chat with architects, engineers and built environment professionals about using cloud software to deliver better projects and get more control and visibility over projects and the business to free up time to focus on design.
Over the course of the two-day event, our team, including CEO Scott Osborne who flew to London to support these events, met with architects, engineers, building designers, surveyors and other consultants who stopped to check out our product, talk to our team and enter our competition to win some Architectural Lego. To win, all the guests had to do was join our newsletter by filling in their details on a Synergy paper plane, and glide it into our landing box.
The end of the first day saw the bar open and the drinks flowing, which provided a great setting for a paper plane throwing competition in the high-roofed hall of the Business Design Centre in Angel, Islington. With planes going high, low and wide, it was like a scene out of Star Wars (without the Death Star).
We had a clear winner in the paper plane design for the fastest and furthest flight. (Our graphic designer who created the planes will be dismayed to know it wasn’t his design that won — a room full of built environment design professionals means designs are always going to be challenged!)
A big thanks to all who took time to chat to us and joined in the fun of the plane throwing. Keep an eye out for Wingman doing unauthorised tower flybys at your next event.
Institution of Structural Engineers Small Practitioners Conference
The Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE) Small Practitioners Conference is a full day conference for structural engineers working in and running small practices. The day features opening and closing sessions and three workshop streams for the delegates:
- Maintaining your business
- How to grow your business
- Planning for retirement/closing your business down
The conference was sold out with over 100 people filling the room at the Institution of Structural Engineers’ HQ networking, listening to talks relevant to their current stage of business, and participating in discussions to get a real feel for what other structural engineers are experiencing in business.
Our CEO and founder, Scott Osborne, was one of the busiest on the day, speaking at three sessions across two streams. A room full of structural engineers has a lot of meaning for Total Synergy and Scott — our very first client was a structural engineering firm. They’re still a customer and close friend of the company 20 years later, so Scott had a lot of relevant experience to share.
First up, he delivered a presentation on cash flow and forecasting, doing his best to make a dry topic entertaining. The discussion at the end of the session around billing and getting paid told us this was a topic that was well received by all.
After lunch, and probably one of the biggest sessions of the day, was business strategy — planning for growth. Scott had the whole room’s attention as he gave some great tips on setting your business up to make the jump to the next level.
Lastly, Scott delivered a session on business risks. With today’s business landscape fraught with risks, change and uncertainty, advice on what to expect and how to plan for and mitigate these risks was well received.
The event as a whole was very insightful — it’s great to see such a well put together conference offering real advice to a group of structural engineers hungry to learn.
During the breaks, the Total Synergy team had lots of great conversations about project delivery and had a chance to show off the Synergy cloud application to everyone from sole traders up to directors of mid-size consulting engineering firms.
The Institution of Structural Engineers HQ is a fantastic venue and the organisation is doing a great job championing key messages designed to educate, inform and improve the standing of its members. We look forward to more events with the Institution of Structural Engineers in the future.
