Record attendance at the BIM in Infrastructure Transport & Energy 2023 congress

From March 22 to 23, 2023, the BIM in Infrastructure Transport & Energy 2023 congress took place in the historic freight depot in Radebeul near Dresden. The congress was organized by the Technical University of Dresden, the Association of German Railway Engineers (VDEI) and buildingSMART Germany. The program was once again top-class and included presentations and discussions on applications of BIM/IIM data models for rail, road and energy infrastructure.

Almost 400 participants gathered at the Saxon Economy Conference Center. The record number of participants shows that there is a great need for a joint discussion between different players in order to apply and fully exploit the advantages of BIM in practice.

The exchange between business and politics on the topic of digitalization and BIM was particularly important. Issues such as common standards for BIM, speeding up approval procedures, digitizing analogue processes, recruiting staff and increasing the attractiveness of engineering professions were the central themes of the event.

Ines Fröhlich, State Secretary, Saxon State Ministry of Economic Affairs, Labour and Transport, officially opened the congress; she was followed by Ingrid Felipe from the Management Board of DB Netz AG and Dr. Frank Golletz, CTO of 50Hertz Transmission GmbH. On behalf of the organizers, the participants were warmly welcomed by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Birgit Milius, VDEI President and Univ.-Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dipl.-Wirt.-Ing. Jens Otto, Faculty of Civil Engineering, TU Dresden, as well as by buildingSMART Managing Director Gunther Wölfle.

Dr. Veit Appelt, BIM lecturer at the Chair for the Design of Road Traffic Systems and the Chair for the Design of Railway Systems at TU Dresden, TU Munich and Ruhr University Bochum, gave a strategic presentation on BIM training in Germany and internationally. He presented trends and perspectives and took part in a lively discussion on how to make the engineering profession more attractive to young people, including through increased digitalization. Click here for the course: https://tu-dresden.de/bu/verkehr/ivs/gsa/studium/lehrveranstaltungen/bim_im_verkehrswesen

The program of the two-day congress included numerous specialist presentations on planning and maintaining the infrastructure as well as the opportunity for a direct exchange with experts and partners from Deutsche Bahn AG, the federal government's Autobahn GmbH, universities and energy distribution network operators.

The highlight of the first day of the congress was the political panel discussion "How do politicians support digitalization in Germany?" in the afternoon. Stefan Schnorr, State Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Digital and Transport, delivered a statement from the heart of German transport policy and invited everyone to the subsequent discussion round. Other participants were:

• Ines Fröhlich, State Secretary, Saxon State Ministry of Economic Affairs, Labor and Transport
• Stephan Krenz, Chairman of the Management Board of Autobahn GmbH des Bundes
• Tim-Oliver Müller, Managing Director of the Federation of the German Construction Industry
• Torsten Herbst, Member of the Bundestag, Parliamentary Secretary of the FDP parliamentary group
• Florian Böhm, Ministerial Councillor, Head of the Office of the Federal Government Commissioner for Rail Transport at the BMDV

The second day of the congress was divided into three parallel workshops on the following topics:

• BIM basics, digital twin and inventory
• Planning and approval workshop with BIM
• Construction and maintenance workshop with BIM

The two-day specialist congress was aimed at employees of Deutsche Bahn AG, Autobahn GmbH, energy transmission and distribution network operators, industry, engineering and planning offices, software suppliers and cooperation partners, representatives of colleges and universities, the construction industry and federal and state authorities.

The event was recognized as further training in accordance with the further training regulations of the Saxony Chamber of Engineers and the Bavarian Chamber of Engineers.

Photos: Christian Schneider-Broecker/VDEI-Service GmbH