0:27

Welcome to Future Construct . I'm Mark Odin

0:29

, the CEO of BIM Designs Inc . And guest host

0:31

of Future Construct . Today I'm

0:33

hosting Sarah Hedge , bim VDC

0:36

Coordinator at CDI Contractors . Welcome

0:38

, sarah . Thank you for making the time to join me .

0:41

Hey , thanks for having me . I'm glad to be here .

0:44

So , as we get started , I want to provide

0:46

our audience with some of your background . As

0:49

a native of Arkansas , known by many as

0:51

the natural state for its natural scenic beauty

0:53

, clear lake streams and abundant wildlife , you

0:56

graduated from the University of Arkansas with a Bachelor

0:58

in Science in Architecture Studies . During

1:01

your decade of BIM VDC experience , you've

1:03

completed over $1.5 billion

1:05

in design and construction projects . Upon

1:08

joining CDI in May of 2021

1:10

, you received your Certification

1:13

of Management BIM Accreditation one

1:15

of only 11 in the state and most

1:17

recently acquired your Certification of Management

1:20

LEAN Accreditation . On

1:22

a typical day , you can be found leading a wide

1:24

range of efforts , from technology testing to

1:26

hands-on job site training to subcontractor

1:28

trade coordination . You're

1:31

also an active member of the National Association

1:33

of Women in Construction and Committee Member

1:35

of the Women's Leadership Initiative of NWA

1:37

. With so much experience

1:39

, sarah , you've had a profound and positive impact

1:41

on the digital construction market and continue to do

1:44

so . Thank you for all of your many contributions

1:46

in the AAC space .

1:48

Thank you so much , I appreciate that .

1:50

So , to begin , I'd love to dive into more of

1:53

your story . Can you share with our audience your journey

1:55

from graduating with a BS in Architecture

1:57

Studies at the University of Arkansas to becoming

1:59

the BIM VDC coordinator at CDI Contractors

2:01

?

2:02

Absolutely I . Actually , when

2:05

I graduated I was working with

2:07

a furniture company doing interior

2:09

design , just trying to get as much work experience

2:11

as I can anything related to my

2:13

architecture background . After

2:16

a couple of years doing that , I was lucky

2:18

enough to land just a beginner drafter

2:20

role doing ammonia , refrigeration

2:23

, of all things for a food

2:25

processing company and spent

2:27

about seven years there just doing drafting

2:29

and eventually working my way up to be their

2:32

technical discipline drafting leader . So

2:34

I was managing several different groups within

2:36

that processing company . After

2:39

that I felt like I had had a good sense

2:42

of time with the design side of things

2:44

. You know , I wanted to see what else was out

2:46

there , and so construction just felt like a really good

2:48

next step for me . It was the side

2:50

that I didn't get as much of whenever I was

2:52

with my previous role , and

2:55

as much as it helped me having the design

2:57

background . I came into the construction

2:59

world really not knowing much of

3:01

what was going on , and the CDI

3:03

has really taken me under their wing and grown

3:06

me these last three years . So that's how

3:08

I ended up where I'm at today .

3:10

That's beautiful and what inspired your pursue

3:12

into the architecture sciences

3:15

career , architecture studies .

3:17

Yeah , as cliche as it sounds , I

3:19

was a kid that got like markers and crayons

3:22

for Christmas . I've always loved to draw

3:24

, I've always loved making things and

3:26

I've always thought it was really important to have beautiful

3:29

spaces . But that really drew me into

3:31

architecture and that's

3:33

why made me choose it .

3:35

That's awesome . Thank you so much , sarah . So

3:38

, as an active member of the National Association of Women

3:40

in Construction , or the NAWIC , and

3:43

also a committee member of the Women's Leadership Initiative

3:45

of NWA , also WLI

3:47

, how do you see your role

3:49

in fostering diversity and inclusion within the construction

3:51

industry and what initiatives have you been involved

3:54

in to promote women in construction ?

3:56

Great question . So I've been a member

3:58

of NAWIC and WLI

4:00

for almost my entirety of being

4:02

at CDI now , so almost three years

4:05

. When I started with CDI

4:07

I was one of three females in the

4:09

office only one of two that

4:11

were actually in the field occasionally

4:14

. And now CDI

4:16

today has eight females on

4:18

our team , which I just think is amazing , and

4:21

they've been really persistent

4:23

about getting me involved in recruiting

4:25

. So I get to go to career fairs and explain

4:27

to people that there's a lot more to construction

4:30

than someone standing out there with

4:32

a set of drawings or holding

4:34

a shovel having to fill a

4:36

trench with gravel . You know there's a lot

4:38

more going on in the background , whether it

4:40

be project management , estimation , and

4:50

then to explain also to our NAWIC

4:52

and WLI chapters again that

4:54

construction is more than just hard hats

4:56

. A lot of people , when I mentioned BIMBVDC

4:59

, they have no idea what that means . So

5:01

it's fun to be able to teach them a little bit about what

5:03

I do and how it can make everyone's jobs

5:06

a lot easier .

5:08

That's great . I'm curious when

5:11

you are stepping out into the recruiting

5:13

sphere , what are

5:15

your primary observations ? What are you seeing as

5:17

the interests of potential

5:19

new hires , or even the next generation

5:22

? How

5:24

do you find that you can relate to them

5:26

and speak to them , and when

5:30

and how do you explain BIMBVDC

5:32

to them ? And when do you see that light bulb click in their

5:34

mind ?

5:36

Sure . So one of the things I always

5:38

try to do when I recruit is bring the

5:40

VR goggles . It's something

5:42

that we use as a company and it's something

5:44

that this generation that we're recruiting

5:46

especially in new recruits really seem

5:48

drawn to . When they see the goggles or they

5:51

see the scanner , they see a laptop

5:53

up with a lot of different lines drawn in different

5:55

colors . That's something that really resonates

5:57

with them , since they are so technology focused or technology driven

5:59

. So a lot of times

6:01

, if I can lure them into the table with that hardware

6:04

, it's a pretty easy sell to say

6:06

this is something that we can teach

6:08

you to do if you already don't know how to do or

6:10

if you are doing it currently . That

6:12

applies to what we're doing in our everyday world

6:15

, not just within BDC . A

6:17

lot of people think that they've got to have a construction management

6:19

background and , quite frankly , it's just not

6:21

the truth . We've got architects , mechanical

6:24

engineers , civil engineers

6:26

, finance backgrounds with CDI

6:28

. So it's more about understanding

6:31

how the pieces fit together , how

6:33

the team works to get the project built

6:35

, and really , if you just have

6:37

a good , a good

6:39

problem to solve , construction is a place

6:42

for you .

6:44

And so , speaking of aspiring individuals

6:47

that are pursuing a career in BDC

6:50

and coordination , what advice would you give them , based

6:52

on your own experiences and the evolving

6:54

landscape of the construction industry ?

6:57

I think my biggest piece of advice would be just

6:59

to be a sponge . Don't get

7:01

too tied to just the design world

7:04

or just the construction world . Learn about

7:06

everything that you can . Go on job visits , go shadow

7:08

someone that doesn't have the same role as you

7:10

. Learn from those

7:12

people and understand what their struggles

7:15

are , what their hardships are . You

7:17

know , one of the things that I think most BIM

7:19

and BDC managers deal with on a

7:21

daily basis is getting the team

7:24

in the field to actually use the

7:26

models , to actually use the coordinated files

7:28

that we're spending so much time on , and

7:30

so spending that time

7:32

, making that effort to get to know what

7:35

the troubles and the struggles actually are

7:37

, makes it much easier to relate

7:39

what I do to the people who aren't as

7:41

familiar with the technology I

7:45

love that yeah .

7:46

How have you seen success in helping

7:48

the field use the model ?

7:51

I will say I'm very , very lucky

7:53

that the teams that I work with in our Northwest

7:55

Arkansas office have truly embraced

7:57

my role . You

7:59

know our Litterock branch as well . We've

8:01

had a BIM BDC team

8:04

in our Litterock office for well

8:06

over 10 years at this point , and so CDI

8:08

is very cognizant

8:10

, very aware of all of the changes in technology and

8:13

they really try to push the limits with how they

8:15

use that in the field . And , like

8:17

I said , the teams that I get to deal with day

8:20

in , day out in Northwest Arkansas , they're always

8:22

willing to let me come in and show them something

8:24

new , to ask me how to make something work

8:26

. You know they can . A

8:28

lot of them can use the 3D scanner themselves

8:31

and understand not only how to use it

8:33

but what the output is and what

8:35

they're trying to gain with that information .

8:53

So I think I've just kind

8:55

of stepped into a good position where there

8:57

is eager to learn , as I am to teach . So

8:59

it's been a really good relationship

9:02

between myself and the field teams

9:04

because we're all trying to help each other out

9:06

and be successful .

9:11

And you're saying , in terms of teaching and learning , that brought to my

9:13

mind . What do you employ

9:15

and what resources do you go to to keep top of mind

9:18

and top of market in terms

9:20

of what's coming out ?

9:22

Yeah , so our BIM department meets weekly

9:24

and we're constantly talking about testing

9:26

new software , new hardware

9:28

. You know I follow a lot of things

9:30

on LinkedIn that try and keep me up to date

9:32

, make sure that we're trying the latest and greatest

9:35

, or at least looking at it to see what benefit

9:37

it brings to CDI . I'm

9:39

also looking enough to attend AU , so

9:42

we get to go to Autodesk University and see what

9:44

they've got coming out . But we deal with

9:46

a lot of different hardware and software and not just

9:48

Autodesk related , and we keep in close touch

9:50

with their reps so that we're always at

9:52

the forefront of technology .

9:54

Beautiful . So what are you seeing in the market

9:57

today ? And then the next question will be about what are you most

9:59

excited about seeing in the future . But what

10:01

are you seeing about the market today in

10:03

terms of software and hardware in the BIM VDC

10:05

space ?

10:07

Yeah , that's a good question . I

10:09

would say the thing that's really evolved

10:11

over the last few years and just seems to be getting

10:13

more and more amazing is the

10:15

rendering technology . I mean , you

10:17

can just do so much now with materials

10:20

, lighting , placement in

10:22

the models itself and then tying

10:24

that into technology that's coming

10:26

down the line . You know all of the AI that's

10:28

out and about in the world right now with things

10:30

like chat and GPT . I just see that

10:33

really starting to bleed over into the

10:35

BIMVDC world . It's

10:38

crazy how much it's changed even in the last

10:40

decade that I've been doing this job . The

10:43

scanning time has decreased from minutes

10:45

to seconds . You can take 360 photos

10:47

with the camera on your hard hat . The

10:50

possibilities are truly endless .

10:52

I love that . What you've been able to

10:54

do over your decade of experience in BIMVDC

10:57

is very impressive , especially with completing

10:59

over $1.5 billion in design and

11:01

construction projects . Could you highlight

11:03

one project that stands out to you and share the challenges

11:06

and successes you encountered during this execution

11:08

?

11:08

Sure , I'm actually going to share two , if that's okay

11:11

. I'm a little bit partial to two of them . The

11:13

first one I want to mention is the

11:15

very first project that I modeled

11:18

entirely in 3D . It

11:20

was , at my previous job

11:22

, a read processing facility

11:24

, about a $300 million

11:26

project , and it was the first ground

11:29

up facility that this company

11:31

had chosen to do in well over 50 years

11:33

. Not only did they decide

11:35

to do a brand new facility , they

11:38

decided that they were going to go all in and

11:40

do it 100% in 3D . Our

11:43

drafting team at the time had very

11:45

little to none experience no

11:47

experience doing 3D drafting

11:49

, 3d modeling . It was a huge

11:51

challenge for our drafting team

11:53

and for the company as well to really understand what

11:55

they were fighting off . Anyone

11:58

who's done 3D modeling knows it's not something you just

12:00

wake up and decide to do one day and then throw

12:03

on a very expensive project . We

12:06

had a lot of challenges really starting to get things

12:08

going building up our libraries , building up our

12:10

family and truly building up

12:12

some buy-in from the end users

12:14

and from our higher ups . At

12:16

that time there just weren't a lot of other

12:18

people in the industry that were using 3D modeling

12:21

and making them understand the benefits that

12:23

it was going to bring in the long run , while we

12:25

were fighting so many uphill battles

12:27

initially , was very challenging

12:29

. With that being said , the project

12:32

did end very successfully . Not

12:35

only was I able to complete my

12:37

task , as I believe I was a refrigeration

12:40

drafter at the time , but because

12:42

of the quick amount of

12:44

time that we had to get this project done

12:46

, I had picked up on a

12:48

lot of things . We were all , as

12:51

a team , able to help each other out to

12:53

finish on time , to finish under

12:55

budget , which you know is very important . I

12:58

really hold that project near and dear to my heart because

13:00

I think it was a good push for the

13:02

company to say that 3D is here

13:04

, it's not going anywhere . I

13:08

think that project is what made them really embrace

13:10

the technology . That's my first

13:12

favorite . My second favorite

13:14

is one of the very first projects that I did

13:16

with my time at CDI . It

13:18

was an underground utility

13:20

tunnel that was being laid

13:22

out first so that we could

13:25

build a research facility

13:27

on top of it . This

13:29

was , like I said , my very first project with CDI

13:32

, my very first time to really show the team

13:34

what I could do . So because of that

13:36

, there is a lot of me getting to

13:38

use technology that they hadn't seen

13:40

before or at least maybe

13:43

didn't even know about prior to me being

13:45

there . We were getting to use scanners . We

13:47

were getting to push in full points back and forth

13:49

between Revit , with our field engineers , and

13:52

the superintendent and I worked very closely

13:54

together to actually redesign

13:57

the tunnel itself so

13:59

that it would lay out the way that it was supposed

14:01

to , based on the Asphalt conditions , and

14:04

while it might not have been a very big project , monetarily

14:07

, it was huge and it was very critical

14:09

in making sure that we got that

14:11

done so that the rest of the project would

14:13

be successful , because it was going to be done in three

14:15

phases . So it

14:17

was just really an awesome

14:19

moment to see that come to fruition , to

14:22

know that we worked together as a team like

14:24

my second week on the job to

14:26

make sure that it could get done so

14:29

that we could carry on and keep

14:31

going .

14:32

Well , I can just see that collaborative spirit in

14:34

you , sarah , so I'm glad that others are able to see

14:36

that as well . I'm curious

14:38

on the first project where you said , hey , the company

14:41

had decided to go all in , it was their first

14:43

ground up in 50 years and

14:46

yet you still faced buy-in challenges

14:48

. So , and

14:51

I imagine you also faced not

14:53

having that company , not having any prior

14:55

experience , maybe some process challenges

14:57

and standard operating procedures challenges

15:00

. So speak a little bit , if you could , about

15:03

some of those challenges and what you did to overcome them

15:05

.

15:06

Absolutely . At the time , the

15:08

team that I was with . They were really hands-on

15:11

All of us were , the Jocke team was

15:13

, and so I feel like everyone really

15:15

put in the extra effort and the extra time to

15:18

not only learn the software but write

15:20

the procedures as we went . I

15:22

mean , it was very crucial that we all

15:24

understood . None of us were professionals

15:27

, so we were learning and building on the fly

15:29

and we were under a very serious time and budget

15:31

crunch . And not only that , but it required

15:33

that everyone in the department get new technology

15:36

so that we could actually handle the size of the models

15:38

that we were building . So

15:41

it was really nice to see the group

15:43

come together to start to see

15:45

the buy-in from the executive team . I

15:48

think for them , what was most eye-opening

15:50

using that technology was understanding that

15:52

it's not just about having a cool model

15:55

to look at . At the end of the day , it's not about being able

15:57

to throw it into rendering software

15:59

or put it in the VR goggles . What

16:02

was most appealing to them as

16:04

the owner and as the end user was that

16:07

they could finally in

16:09

depth explore the safety aspect of

16:11

what they were doing , because they were able

16:13

to eat a lot of those 3D models and

16:15

for me I think that's what really was

16:18

a tipping point for them , that

16:20

got us that buy-in to keep

16:22

going .

16:23

I love that . Yeah , and with new tech

16:26

and new processes and to finish under

16:28

budget . That's a major accomplishment , Sarah . Incredible

16:31

, Absolutely .

16:31

Thank you ?

16:32

Yeah , it's also noteworthy

16:34

that you received your certification and management

16:37

BIM accreditation upon joining CDI in

16:39

2021 , being

16:41

one of the 11 to do so in Arkansas and

16:43

then , more recently , adding that and acquiring your

16:45

certification management lean accreditation

16:47

further to your experience

16:50

. How have these certifications enhanced your role

16:52

, what did you learn from them and what motivated

16:54

you to pursue them ?

16:57

Yeah , I think that one

16:59

of the things I love so much about CDI

17:01

is not only are they constantly looking

17:03

at the technology that's coming , but they're very

17:06

heavily invested in growing the

17:08

people that they have . They really believed

17:10

in me when I went to them and said , hey , I need

17:14

to take this test that have this accreditation

17:16

. Not only does it show that

17:18

I actually know what I'm doing , but it helps

17:20

me to stay fresh and to keep

17:22

a new perspective on different ways that we can do

17:24

things . There's so many ways to implement BIM

17:27

and VDC technology . I think that going

17:29

through those courses and taking those

17:31

exams really gave me

17:33

the confidence that I do know what I'm

17:35

doing after the song . I

17:38

just think it's nice that I've got

17:41

that in my back pocket . That way

17:43

, when people are learning new things

17:45

that we're doing for the company , they understand

17:47

that I'm not doing this selfishly . I'm doing

17:50

it truly to better the project and to better

17:52

the teams that we have out in the field

17:54

. As far as the lean accreditation

17:57

, we have some leadership

17:59

in the company that really started

18:01

honing in on different

18:03

lean methods with this last project

18:05

that we've been working on . I felt that it

18:07

was really important for me as part

18:10

of the project team to be able to bring that

18:12

to the table so that I could bring value

18:14

, not only through BIM and VDC , but so

18:16

that I can understand their processes and think

18:18

of ways to make them more clean and concise

18:21

, so that when it was time to train or

18:23

it was time to knock something out for them from

18:25

a BIM or VDC standpoint , I

18:27

was being effective for them and timely

18:29

for them so that they could stay on the schedule as well

18:31

.

18:32

So do you feel these certifications enabled

18:36

you to bring that knowledge and

18:39

value back into CDI and that you're

18:41

in a position at CDI to be able to influence those

18:43

processes ?

18:44

Absolutely . They are very

18:46

, very persistent about having

18:48

training so that everyone is cross-train

18:51

in some way . We do

18:53

that monthly throughout the company

18:55

in northwest Arkansas and then we do

18:57

it once a month as well on different

19:00

job sites . So they're always looking

19:02

for someone to step up and say this

19:04

is what we should be working towards or

19:06

maybe this is what we could be doing better

19:08

. They're constantly pushing the envelope , and

19:11

so having those accreditation really gives me that like

19:13

to stand on when I say maybe we

19:15

should think about doing things this way .

19:19

I love that , Sarah . On a typical day

19:21

for you , it may

19:23

involve a wide range of activities like

19:25

technology testing , hands-on job site training

19:27

and trade partner coordination

19:29

. Can you walk us through a day in your life

19:31

as a BIM VDC coordinator

19:34

and how you balance your diverse responsibilities

19:36

?

19:37

Sure , to be quite honest

19:39

, I don't know that I have a true day in the life it

19:41

is so different every day . But

19:44

typically I like to come in and check out what's on

19:46

my schedule , just make sure that I've got an understanding

19:48

of the flow of things . If

19:50

we're in the middle of a project that's got coordination going

19:53

on , I'll spend a lot of time actually reviewing the

19:55

3D model , making sure that there

19:57

are no issues , or , if there is an issue , I've

19:59

got no to it to actually bring it up with the group

20:02

later . And then , when we do have that coordination

20:04

call , it's really important to me that everything

20:06

starts and ends on time . I want

20:08

to be really respectful of the fact that other people

20:10

have different meetings and plans

20:13

throughout their day . So if we're going to start at three

20:15

o'clock , we're starting right at three o'clock and we're

20:17

going to end right whenever the meeting says it's going

20:19

to end , and I think that some

20:21

of the lean coming back to me here . But

20:23

I really want to spend

20:25

the time to make sure that the people that are going

20:27

to be using the models in the field are getting

20:29

the most value for what we're doing . So

20:31

it's important to me when I have those calls , that

20:33

not only are we including the people that

20:36

are doing the modeling , but we want the project

20:38

managers on the call , we want the superintendents

20:40

on the call , we want the trade foreman on the call

20:42

, we want all involved parties , the design

20:45

team , all of the CDI internal

20:47

team , from field engineer to superintendent

20:49

, and I've been really supported in that fact

20:51

. You know , before I was

20:53

in this role at Northwest Arkansas there

20:55

was no BDEC manager and

20:58

they were able to rely on our Litterock team . So

21:00

being able to bring that to them

21:03

and then not have to wait

21:05

for things to get done and me be able

21:07

to give them a quick turnaround is really important , because

21:09

the faster we can move behind

21:11

the scenes , the more they can stay on schedule

21:13

in the field .

21:16

Well , I appreciate that so much and that's really

21:18

great meeting excellence that perhaps came

21:20

out of that lean certification , for

21:22

example , identifying the stakeholders and ending and starting

21:24

on time and enforcing those

21:27

criteria as part of great meeting excellence Such

21:30

an important foundation that

21:32

all of us can learn from . When

21:35

you're coordinating with trade partners , how do you ensure that

21:37

effective collaboration and communication among

21:39

different stakeholders and what strategies have

21:41

you found most successful in streamlining coordination efforts ?

21:45

I would say that earlier the better . Always

21:48

, as soon as you can start coordination , you should

21:50

do it . Don't wait until

21:52

the very last minute to decide to get everyone

21:54

involved . I'm also a really big

21:56

fan of communicating . I'm

21:59

the type of person that will send you email

22:01

after email after email and then call

22:03

after call after call . It's really

22:05

important to me that I follow up on things

22:07

that are loose ends and thankfully

22:09

I've got amazing teammates that help

22:11

me do that . I mean , we've got minutes

22:13

after minutes after minutes that we take

22:15

after each meeting . So you

22:18

know , just being able to go back and keep

22:20

record of anything that we've done or decided

22:22

as a group and then to share that information

22:24

with whoever was on the call , I think he's key

22:27

. But I cannot stress the over

22:29

communication enough , and I think

22:31

having an agenda is really important . I mean

22:33

you can go in and communicate all you want , but if

22:35

you're all over the place , nobody's

22:37

going to be able to focus , no one's going to know what's going

22:39

on . So being able to keep a very

22:42

strictly loose is that

22:44

a term An agenda that you can follow

22:46

but have some room to wiggle a little bit

22:48

I think that's really

22:50

key and just making sure that people know

22:52

that they're being heard . I

22:54

don't think there's anything worse than going into a meeting

22:56

and voicing your opinion about a concern and

22:59

nothing being done about it , so

23:01

that's where that follow up really is key

23:03

when it comes to our coordination meetings

23:05

.

23:07

Thank you so much for sharing that . I just

23:09

love the advice and the

23:11

execution of that as well , sarah . So great

23:14

, especially all of that

23:16

. And then to add to that , you know helping

23:18

make sure that others feel heard , which is so important

23:20

. Appreciate that so much . Yeah

23:23

. Given your involvement in

23:25

technology testing , how do you see emerging

23:27

technologies such as AI and machine

23:29

learning impacting the future of BIM and BDC ?

23:32

I think , if anything , it's going to make things

23:34

better . I know a lot of people are kind of hesitant

23:36

with AI , and I get it . It's kind

23:39

of scary , it can be

23:41

misused , but I really do

23:43

think it's going to make a huge difference in the way that we

23:45

do our work , whether that means

23:47

expediting it or making smarter

23:50

decisions . It's

23:52

so amazing what all it can

23:54

do , and it's just going to be endless amounts

23:57

of information at our fingertips . So I

23:59

really hope that everyone is

24:01

able to lean into it and

24:03

embrace it , because I don't see it going anywhere

24:06

.

24:07

Yeah , thanks so much . I'd like to point

24:10

to the webinar that

24:12

I recently hosted with Applied Software

24:14

, graytek , just a couple months

24:17

ago , on how

24:19

AI is going to impact BIM and BDC

24:21

. I was pretty excited

24:23

about the interaction

24:25

and activity and the

24:27

Q&A that came out of that . Definitely

24:30

, you know , encourage the leaning in , so

24:32

I'm glad that you appreciate that as well

24:34

and the massive change that you see . Are

24:38

there specific technologies that you find particularly

24:40

promising or transformative ?

24:42

I think AI I mean honestly it's just

24:44

exploded . I think AR

24:47

is still really powerful as well

24:49

. You know VR gets talked about the

24:51

most , I think . But

24:53

AR , I think , is not going anywhere either

24:56

. It's going to be around for a while . It's going to continue

24:58

to make very successful

25:00

projects even more successful just because

25:03

so many people are not as visual as

25:05

those that are building it . So I'm excited

25:07

to see what happens .

25:10

Yeah , I was actually just thinking about this . Actually

25:12

, the AI , ar and VR where

25:15

AR and VR , augmented

25:17

reality and virtual reality both have

25:19

a hardware component to

25:22

the system , whereas AI can

25:24

be it can be hardware , yes , but it also

25:27

can be entirely software based and

25:30

so I've been intrigued in seeing the proliferation

25:33

of AI move so much faster

25:35

than AR or VR

25:37

other hardware based technologies , and

25:40

it's been , you know , in my

25:42

thought process of that I was really

25:44

, you know , I came to the conclusion of you know

25:46

, the software can just move faster , right , it

25:48

can just spread faster , it can get around

25:50

faster than the physical equipment that

25:53

hardware requires . And yet you look

25:55

at , you know what's coming out , like the rabbit

25:57

V1 , for example , which is a combination of hardware

25:59

and software , a combination of

26:02

you know , holding a device while you

26:04

, you know , talking to it and using it through through

26:07

AI . You know LLMs

26:09

and LAMs , so

26:11

pretty neat , pretty neat stuff coming out , and

26:13

how quickly it's proliferating is amazing .

26:16

Yeah , and I think something else that will probably

26:18

start to see more of are the smart lenses

26:20

, like the visors on your hard

26:22

hat or the hollow lens Goggles

26:24

. You know it's always

26:27

been around , it hasn't been super

26:29

prominent , but with the way that

26:32

the hardware list software

26:34

is evolving you know , ray-bans

26:37

, putting AI or

26:39

not AI , ar into glasses now

26:41

and so I just think we're going to continue to see

26:43

more of that evolution the software being

26:45

put into everyday things that we're already using

26:47

. So that's going to be really cool .

26:51

And Sarah . Having completed over $1.5

26:54

billion in design and construction projects , you've likely

26:56

overcome your fair to serve challenges . I know we've

26:58

talked some of those challenges that you've encountered

27:01

, and what challenges do you foresee

27:03

for the future of the MVDC coordination

27:05

and how do you think professionals in the field can proactively

27:08

address and overcome these challenges ?

27:11

I think it goes back to the fact that change

27:13

is hard . People get

27:15

comfortable using what they know and what they

27:17

like , and so when a new technology

27:19

comes around , you know

27:21

six months after you've learned the first one . That's

27:23

kind of deflating . I mean , it's really

27:25

frustrating to have to learn what you think

27:27

is something brand new all over again . But

27:30

I really do think that the way that things are evolving

27:33

I mean , four year olds can

27:35

use iPhones , so it's just more

27:37

and more intuitive every day I

27:39

think that it's only going to continue to

27:41

improve as far as a user experience , and

27:44

that's why I think it's so important in

27:46

a role as a VVDC coordinator

27:48

to understand that you're not just there to

27:50

do the dog and pony show . So

27:53

much of what I do is teaching

27:55

people and having that empathy to

27:57

sit beside them and walk them through

27:59

step by step and make them understand . It's

28:01

OK if you don't understand this right now or if

28:03

you don't know how to use this right now , but

28:06

this is what it's going to do for you long term , and

28:08

I found that by doing that , I'm

28:10

much better received

28:13

by those that I'm working with and

28:15

they're more apt to use it and apply it in their

28:17

day to day job .

28:19

Yeah , and in the execution of the BIM process

28:22

and the technologies that create the BIM process

28:24

are so fundamental , so important

28:27

to our industry . And

28:30

what I've really enjoyed about speaking with you

28:32

about is all of the soft skills that you

28:34

bring to it , for example , the empathy , the

28:36

meeting excellence , you know , really understanding

28:39

the importance of everything

28:41

around the process . So it's been , it's

28:43

been really enjoyable and learning that

28:45

from you today , sarah . And

28:48

as a final question of the show and a tradition of

28:50

future construct , if you could project yourself

28:53

out 25 years and wanted to have any

28:55

device technology that would benefit

28:57

you personally , what would it be and what would

28:59

it do ?

29:01

Oh gosh , I would love to have

29:03

some sort of button , like

29:05

on my car keys or on my phone , probably

29:08

an app that would teleport me . I

29:11

feel like I spend so much time getting

29:13

back and forth between places . It

29:16

would just be so convenient to be able to whip

29:18

out my phone , open an app and

29:20

be on vacation or be

29:22

back , you know , with some family members somewhere

29:25

. That would be my ultimate goal

29:27

.

29:28

Very cool , yeah , some type of you

29:30

know teleportation device that saves you from

29:32

so much time spent traveling , especially

29:35

getting through TSA and the airport and all that

29:37

fun stuff .

29:38

Getting in line at Chick-fil-A at the drive-thru

29:40

. I mean there's a lot of options

29:42

that would be very useful .

29:44

For sure . Okay , very cool . Well

29:46

, I hope hope you see that very soon

29:48

. Sarah and I really appreciate your time today

29:50

and thank you for audience at Future Construct

29:53

. Appreciate everybody so much .

29:54

Thank you so much for having me Absolutely

29:57

.