Blog: Highlights from the GRAPHISOFT Key Client Conference - Day One
Blog: Highlights from the GRAPHISOFT Key Client Conference - Day One
Blog: Highlights from the GRAPHISOFT Key Client Conference - Day One

22nd July 2016

Blog: Highlights from the GRAPHISOFT Key Client Conference – Day One

by Pantelis Ioannidis for JRA

Last week, I had the opportunity to attend the GRAPHISOFT Key Client Conference (KCC 2016) in Budapest. The KCC takes place every two years and GRAPHISOFT’s key clients from around the world are invited to present their work, ARCHICAD workflows and share their experiences. JRA is one of the biggest GRAPHISOFT clients in the UK and I attended this ‘ARCHICAD party’ on behalf of the practice.

I arrived in sunny Budapest on Sunday 12th June and headed directly to the conference venue. From here, attendees were gathered together to be taken to a ‘surprise venue’ for the opening dinner. I couldn’t have imagined a better or more beautiful place for the opening dinner than the Hungarian Parliament on the Danube where we enjoyed amazing views to the river and over the city.

After a fantastic opening night, the conferenced kicked off with David Philp, Global BIM Director at AECOM and Head of BIM at the UK Task Group on BIM development in the UK, the long journey to BIM Level 2 and the vision for BIM Level 3. He was followed by Viktor Varkonyi, CEO of GRAPHISOFT who gave insight on the current market situation globally, the position of the company and the focus for the upcoming years, making very clear that interoperability is top of his list.

The highlight of the morning was a talk given by the legendary HOK and BuildingSmart US chairman, Patrick MacLeamy. It was a great experience to listen to MacLeamy himself present the ‘MacLeamy curve’. The ‘curve game’ at KCC had just begun and a number of new acronyms were introduced. Apparently the terms to watch out for are BAM for Building Asset Model, BOOM for Building Operations Optimisation Model and an alternative for IFC, which could stand for International Friendship Club, instead of Industry Foundation Classes.

Later, the focus turned to ARCHICAD. Kazumi Yajima, Assistant General Manager / BIM Director of Kajima Corporation in Japan, presented the ‘Yajima curve’, revealing his theory and methods for BIM and ARCHICAD, showing a number of cool automated workflows which left people in the audience itching to try them.

We were also introduced to the new ARCHICAD 20 via a live demo from GRAPHISOFT’s project managers and developers. The 90 minute presentation was streamed live to thousands of people worldwide and the live audience enthusiastically applauded GRAPHISOFT’s show. The day concluded with Andrew Patterson, from Pattersons Associates in New Zealand, who presented the idea and the workflow used in the development of the Len Lye Centre, the signature building of ARCHICAD 20, the impressive, shiny and reflective building which we will be seeing on our screens for the next year or so.

The day ended with the Gala Dinner at Grassalkovich Royal Palace in Godollo, outside Budapest, where we had the opportunity for fine dining with wine pairing as we reflected on the innovations we had heard about that day.