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Get ready to dive into the exciting world of digital tech companies in the built environment with our new livestream from The Architecture Social. In this episode, our host Stephen Drew will be joined by Sarah Marshall and Robert Wood from Glider Tech to discuss what it’s like to work in a tech company that’s revolutionizing the way we manage data and deliver digital solutions in the world of architecture.
Curated content, insights and opportunities to accelerate your career in Architecture, Design, Development and Real Estate to the next level.
What it is like to work at a Digital Tech Company within the Built Environment?
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[00:00:00]
Stephen Drew: Hello everyone. Tech BIM. Close that BIM model. You don't need that up. We're gonna be talking about BIM, talking about big data, ai, whatever it is. We will discuss and peel today's topic. 25 seconds. Okay, three o'clock. If you're here and you should be working, I won't tell your boss. Don't worry. Let me get my bowels ready.
Bell one. Oh, dropping my bowels. All right, five seconds.
Hello everyone. Welcome to this livestream special four o'clock. Who would've known. We will tide you over to the end of the day, but I have an [00:01:00] awesome topic that I wanted to unpack with you all, cuz sometimes we talk about these creative digital companies in the Architecture profession, and sometimes I see Architectural technicians.
Technologists and part twos who are enthusiastic about digital BIM working in that sector and asking me how do I get into it? It's, rather than me saying the answer to that, I have two awesome guests, which are gonna unpack the topic with me today, and I'm super flat day here. So on my immediate right.
I've got the lovely Rob Woods. How are you today, Rob? You all
right?
Rob Wood: Yep. Doing well.
Stephen Drew: Brilliant. Yeah, I'm all right. My, I dunno if my camera looks a bit slow, I look like I'm the Pinocchio animation, but we'll get, as long as you can hear me, we'll get through it and then below us, I have the awesome. Sarah Marshall as well.
How are you, Sarah?
Sarah Marshall: Hi guys. I'm good. Thank you.
Stephen Drew: Brilliant. Okay, so [00:02:00] Rob and Sarah and I, we all know each other because Rob and Sarah work at a company called Glide Tech who do some really interesting stuff. Now. It's been years, guys since I've loaded up Revit. In fact, I was trained, I think in. 2014. So I'm a bit rusty, but Rob, I think you know what Ggl detect does.
Can you tell me in one or two words a little bit more about the company, if that's okay?
Rob Wood: Bit of a tagline. So Glider Tech we are a. Technically a software company, but we manage digital assets, handover information everything along the sort of entire life cycle of a built asset. And the development team side of Glider have come up with glider BIM, which is our software built in house which is a digital information management platform for the entire lifecycle of built assets.
And we manage all the data. All the o and m stuff across the whole side of things. Yeah, it's [00:03:00] quite expansive subject. It's really interesting and yeah, can hopefully tell you a bit more throughout this and a bit more of how we got into it.
Stephen Drew: Amazing. Thank you. And kickass job there of describing it. You are. Now, if you keep going like this, Rob, you will get promoted to the presenter and then I can take a si
Rob Wood: about that.
Stephen Drew: I dunno. You're doing well on it. We've already got some comments coming in live, so Sandra says hello and cool.
It's nice to know that a few people are watching, isn't it? Not just my mum that does help. I'm gonna put the quick link of glider up before we move on, but I find it fascinating and the Architecture Social, I used to be a part too, but you, both of yourselves, Are Architectural technologists.
Now, what I'm keen on, and we can talk about Glider in a little bit more detail later, but Architectural Technologies, when you study an Architectural technology you probably didn't think at the time [00:04:00] that you were going to be digital design delivery specialist that you are now for Glider tag. Can you tell me a little bit about that journey away from mainstream?
Architecture into something specialized like this perhaps. Rob, do you wanna jump in first?
Rob Wood: I'll go first if you want. Yeah, sure. So my journey of it was quite interesting. So I started Working for a company called DLA Architecture right back when I started in the industry. And I was working there four days a week and I was doing university part-time one day a week doing my Architectural technology degree and worked with them.
For six years doing all the standard Architectural tech side of things. Detailing, doing specs, all that side of it. And then when I left them, I moved over to arcades. We're a big consultancy and we worked in the Architecture side of the UK business there. And because while I was at dla, I'd done a lot of Revit and I'd [00:05:00] had an interest in BIM anyway, I moved over to arcades with the idea that gonna try and push BIM a bit more, push the use of Revit and other softwares.
I'm really just pushed my self into that direction a bit because it, I had that interest. Ended up doing BIM coordination. Moving that onto BIM management. And eventually moving over, wanting something a bit different, a bit new got in touch with yourself and moved over to Glider where it's a diagonal route for me because I've always had that BIM trajectory, but moving my way across and then into.
The asset side of things. Yeah it's really interesting because you've gone completely away from the de the kind of drawing the details and doing all that. But now I'm working with all the information and data within assets and managing that. It's it's pretty cool.
Stephen Drew: Nice one. There you go. Huh. Who would've known back in university, you'd be here now and I can see you've done well for yourself, Rob, with that nice [00:06:00] house there, isn't it? I think
I, you, you've,
Rob Wood: definitely not one of the backgrounds on this stream at all. No,
Stephen Drew: Abs. Absolutely not what I love the wood mansion. But before, before we talk about, what the, it's like working that glider in terms of, the culture. Cause it's very interesting cause it's not a traditional Architecture practice, but maybe Sarah you can tell us a little bit about your journey as well.
Sarah Marshall: Yes. Yeah, so similar sort of background. So Architectural technology degree. I think whilst doing the degree, probably both of us didn't even know that this was an option as a career. Not specifically it within BIM itself of I think even the course, there was one module for one of the years that touched on BIM, and I think we did, I don't know, a sample project in Revit or something like that.
And that was it. That was our extent of. Of anything, any sort of educational knowledge on BIM for the degree. So I suppose, yeah, but probably both of our first sort of [00:07:00] initiation to it, was in practice once we were working as technologists. So I've started as an Architectural technologist in an Architect.
I think. I suppose what it was then was a 3D model in Revit to a lot of people. And it was to myself, initially was modeling a building to a certain level of detail because somebody told us we had to, and nobody really knew anything more than that or why we were doing it or anything like that.
And then from there I went to work for, in a joint role between BIM Academy and Rider Architecture. So that was really my first proper taste of BIM as a standalone job. As a standalone career. And the ins and outs of what that means is consultancy work as yeah as a management role, but then also trying to still do that alongside the technologist role.
But I think it was very quickly after maybe six to nine months, I realized, It's not [00:08:00] the technology role that interests me the most, and that's obviously each to their own. Some people love that side of it, but for me it was the BIM side of things was former interesting. So that very quickly became a permanent role.
And then I spent four years there, some of that working abroad. sort of roles within BIM. So the information management role, a BIM Manager role, consultancy roles, guidance with clients on documents and things like that. And also that education side of it. So BIM Academy's part owned by Rider Architecture and the university.
So there was a lot of there was some projects that were run more alongside the university side of things, which was quite interesting as well. And then, What enticed me to Glider was learning and working on things that I hadn't done before. So there was a lot of, prior to here, there was a lot of sort of your BIM level two, your clash detection, your coordination, your covid [00:09:00] data, simple sort of verification of that using CE for verification.
Are there all sorts of Yeah, so a lot of sort of BIM level two. I say standard jobs, but it's not that standard to everybody, but this what at Glider, what the asset management side of things was something that was being talked about a lot in the industry, a lot on the projects that I was working for.
And it was something that I wanted to get more involved in and to learn more about and to work on that side of. The project as opposed to the design initial side of it. So yeah, I suppose that's, that was my sort of
Stephen Drew: Very cool. That's your foray into him.
Yeah.
It's interesting, there's both common themes here that like, you both studied the Architecture you got into the industry, you're using BIM as a tool. You're hearing all these digital, terms and suddenly you're getting more and more into it.
And it's, it is interesting though because. So Glider [00:10:00] tech, and we'll go back to, we'll talk, we'll expand upon Glider in a bit, but you are right, it's not similar to a traditional Architectural practice. It's very different. And even me, so when I was first learning about Glider and they I don't know it as much as you, I know it more in terms of what it's like to work there, the cool flexibility, all this stuff, you have the excite and not quite a startup, but you have that energy, that it's like you can change things. However, these are really quite rare, compared to a traditional Architecture practice. So what was the, in terms of the main job now how different was that, Rob?
When you joined like Glider
Rob Wood: Yeah. Oh,
Stephen Drew: a bit of a shock in a good way?
Rob Wood: Oh, it was massive. Massively different. I think just expanding slightly on the last point is that like you're saying, all the BIM level two and a lot of the terms and terminology that's coming out of, the different firms. I found that. The stuff that I'd been, or where I'd been [00:11:00] working, before the stuff that had really been talked about for years of, oh, this is where we need to be.
This is where we're, where we need to be to get to this. And then you come to Glider and Glider are actually doing it already. We're at that point where the information is actually being used. The 3D models are being filled with data. That, that it's not just a 3D model for the sake of a 3D model.
Not that it always was, some certain projects. It's, it does work like that. But a lot of what I'd done in the past, it was this is an aspiration, whereas here, it's, this is what we do on a day-to-day basis. So the stuff's there. So in terms of moving over to Glider and working, it's completely. Completely new, everything new. Had to learn the software. A lot of the processes building up to what we do and how we do it is all new stuff and it's exciting. It is. And I think that once I've got my head around that and [00:12:00] how we manage Kirby data, how we manage if C models.
And how we link that to what's going on in the handover documentation world as well. Because that's another side of it that, I've had sight of before, but not really worked that much with it. You're talking o and m manuals, building user guides, all the rest, that they're all links to the information and the data that we need to operate a building and maintain a building.
And that's the whole point, we, it's not just data to stick in a drawer. And hide away till you need it. It's this is important because when the building is finished, you're gonna be using it and it needs to be there. When you get to the point of that, and you have that with a 3D model, you have essentially a digital twin of the building there.
You, you can look at it and especially if you link it to, you, you're building operating systems using internet of things. You've got alarms all over the place and sensors and all that side of things where [00:13:00] it's all interlinked and that data is there on a computer system and if somebody wants to check something or change something, it's readily available.
So it's definitely a massive change to. Looking at drawings and adding details or looking through models and doing clash detection. Not to say that we don't still do that cause we do have the bin management side as well, and the coordination side, we do all of that as well. It's still part of the job and occasionally we do get a model that we we get given over and say, can you fix this or can you model this?
So yeah it's got parts of the old job, but there's a lot of new and I myself am doing a lot of project management as well. I think Sarah is as well it's it's really good.
Stephen Drew: Nice. I I'll, I was at Future Bill last week and I was seeing digital twins, and I've had a few people mention it, and it
Rob Wood: a good buzzword.
Stephen Drew: Yeah, exactly. So I hear it like, oh, digital twins a bit like a neander fold. But obviously you guys are, you are in the industry. But I find it fascinating and I guess where I'm, what I'm interested in as well, so there's a bit of research and [00:14:00] development.
You're doing things, you're learning, but it's, it's a real business. It's a profitable business. And I guess one of the radical things to me, when I first discovered or spoke to Glider, Was, I couldn't believe at first that you guys all fully work remote. Now you are both come around and they acclimatized to it.
Rob, you got your beautiful mansion. Sarah's got her lovely office there with the glider background. That blew my mind at first, cuz we both know, and especially pre pandemic Architecture practices or even construction practices, you either on site or in the office and there was very little flexibility.
So I'd just love to hear a little bit more about. You know what that aspect of the job has been like. So do you all work remotely then? And you are in charge of your own projects and you work remote, connecting in teams, and then you meet up in person for like socials and stuff? Is that how it works at Glider?
Sarah Marshall: Yeah, [00:15:00] pretty much. I think, to be honest as well, it was one of the things that actually Drew me to the job. And primarily because Glider were doing it before, you had to do it. So obviously as you mentioned, like in the pandemic, everybody had to work from home and everybody had, it was a very reactive process of how are we gonna do this?
How are we gonna do this remotely? Whereas Glider made a conscious decision to work like that and have
Stephen Drew: Yeah.
Sarah Marshall: proactively, as opposed to reactively been succeeding in working remotely. So that was one thing that did. Attract me to this job as well was the fact that working for a company that was doing it before they had to and was doing it well.
So yeah, I think we all are, we are all remote, I think now from what Glasgow down to London dotted around the country. There's a couple in the north, couple in the south and so on. And it does tend to work like we, especially in our, so we're, Rob and I are both in the contract delivery team, we have a weekly team meeting. [00:16:00] We utilize other digital tools as well for us to work collaboratively. So yes, we do have projects where it might be just me doing a job or there might be a couple of us, but we'll be using Slack, zoom teams, whatever it is that we need to be able to communicate to deliver that project Asana for, to-do lists.
So we, yeah we do. I don't think, we don't really have a day where I don't talk to someone. So it's not isolated as though it's remote. It's not, you're not isolated like you always in communication with people. And then, yeah, as you mentioned, we have, I think, is it three or four times a year? We all meet up the whole company, so we've just yesterday found out our first away day of the years in April and we're off to Birmingham.
Stephen Drew: Oh, I just came back from Birmingham and I will be honest, right guys, the I thought it was a good crack and pool cinema going out and stuff, but I'm gonna be really honest, it was a [00:17:00] bit like me going back to Swansea, right? It's it was, it's a bit of a laugh and there's nothing wrong with Birmingham, but I didn't do all the culture stuff.
I got sucked into the nightlife.
Sarah Marshall: I think, was it Birmingham that we did the Bear Grills adventure? Was that
Rob Wood: it was, yeah. Yeah, it was. It was Birmingham
Sarah Marshall: done Birmingham once before and we went to the Bear Grills adventure, which was high ropes and I don't know what else, archery or something like that. So we tend to, we do an activity, we've done like squid games.
Stephen Drew: oh yeah.
Rob Wood: I did that in Sheffield.
Sarah Marshall: what was the other ones we've done, I can't remember. But we tend to do an activity and then have a dinner, and then go out
Stephen Drew: Oh, that sounds all right. So basically, if you join Glider, you automatically get inserted into the Squid game. Just gotta hope you don't die in this version. The grand prize at the end.
Sarah Marshall: Oh, I think the grand prize was just a medal or something. I can't remember.
Rob Wood: it was a medal. Yeah.
Stephen Drew: A medal and a few beers, but that's quite nice. So then you work [00:18:00] remote, but then you also, you meet each other in person and then, so you all know each other.
And I think it's a really good testament that a business can do that. Sometimes I, okay, you've gotta go to, I guess some things physical, do you meet clients and stuff like that.
Rob Wood: Yeah. Yeah. And I personally, I've got a meeting once a month where I go to London Which, is a couple of hours for me to get there and a couple of hours back. So I do that once a month. Occasionally we might have a meeting where we have to go to a site or go to a client's offices.
It is for me it's been few and far between other than the, the every month one. Dunno what it's like for Sarah, whether you go out often, but I think it's, most of the time it can be done on teams, it can be done on Zoom. You know
Sarah Marshall: I think if there's a need for, if there's benefit from us being there in person, we'll be there in person. Of course. Like it's not that we, because we're remote and we therefore might not live. I live, for example, live in Northland, so I'm quite far from London and most meetings [00:19:00] happen in London.
But it's not that I. Wouldn't go. If there was a need for me to go, then obviously we would attend client meetings face to face. But I think like the pandemic forced or not, what did force people to do things remotely, but also then made us realize that, hey, we don't have to sit on a train for four and a half hours to have a an hour meeting. We can get the same benefit from that remotely.
Stephen Drew: Yeah
Rob Wood: save the environment.
Stephen Drew: Yeah, it's true. The amount of time traveling, it does get a bit crazy. There's a tube strike in London tomorrow and luckily cuz even in my business, I'm doing hybrid and I'm just thinking, can you imagine you're that person where you've got to suddenly go to the office still with that tube strike.
We don't need to do that. We can make it work. It does sound though, Rob, that Sarah's got the dream client because you've gotta go once a month and Sarah's
Rob Wood: do, yeah, I do, it's, it is funny. I remember last year and I had a meeting with a prospective client down in Stratford, London.
[00:20:00] And we got there. We drove there because it was Henry, who's our contracts director, took us down there. He was coming with, then he was going back home and, cause I had a meet, I had my monthly meeting in London the next day,
Stephen Drew: Yeah.
Rob Wood: but there was a train strike.
So navigating that was yeah, a bit of a nightmare. I still managed to do it and, you do what you can. But yeah, that was that was definitely an interesting couple of days.
Stephen Drew: Yeah, sometimes real life has its way of creeping in, isn't it? It, it sounds really interesting to me. What I was gonna ask is it's probably a few people in the audience are maybe like yourself, maybe. There's a few people that I either watching the replay or they hear now and they're like, that technologist.
Or even an Architect, whatever, that's got that passion for BIM or digital tech or whatever. And you've done that switch now, but is there any advice that you would give to someone who's in that, in between zone that you wish that someone would give to you? Perhaps Robert.
Sarah, do you have [00:21:00] any like pearls of wisdom now on how to do that transition and move over to a company like Lyda?
Sarah Marshall: I think for me, it would be like the exposure to it. So I didn't realize that I enjoyed it until I, somebody asked me to do it just as part of my job role. And I think obviously nowadays, especially if whether you are contractor based or in an Architect or in a MEP consultant the likelihood is there, there will be somebody within that organization that is. Producing BIM deliverables that is working on projects that require
Stephen Drew: Yeah.
Sarah Marshall: BIM to be done. If you wanna just say it as like a blanket statement, but speak to them ask them if there's something that you can get involved with. If there's something that they're doing that you could either shadow or a small task that they can either or, yeah, you can just watch them. Be involved in the conversations, be involved in meetings. If they're going to a coordination meeting, can you tag along for it to take [00:22:00] an hour out of your day and see what happens in these meetings. And then if you enjoy it and you like it, then obviously that's a conversation that you can take further as to looking into doing that more often.
But you might have that exposure to it and realize it's not for you and you'd rather be a technologist or you'd rather be the engineer, MEP engineer. So I think that initial phase is. Try and find a bit of exposure to it to see if it is something that you enjoy. And if it is, then yeah, I think ask your employer to be more involved in it would be my advice.
Rob Wood: Yeah I'd mirror that. I'd mirror that. I'd say don't be afraid to put yourself out there and ask for things and go and ask the people that are doing it already. Even if there's nobody in your company that are doing it, there, there's so many people around the world that are LinkedIn's a great tool.
You can message people and just ask for, a bit of insight. Even events. There could be an event that's on BIM show live, things like that. Might be that nobody from your company's going to it, [00:23:00] but there might be somebody at your comp company that you know has an interest in potentially.
This is something in the future that we will get into and will need the information about. Put yourself forward. Find out when it is. Go speak to a company director or whoever you can, and say, I've seen that this is available. I'd like to go if if I can get a chance to go
Stephen Drew: Yeah.
Rob Wood: do what you can.
Stephen Drew: I love it. It's true, isn't it? Because I always find it years ago when I would get a roll on for a BIM Coordinator that years and years ago. I'm showing my age now, get my bell out. You know what I mean? But like 10, 12 years ago, there wasn't many BIM coordinators because it was a part of a job.
But what I mean is Part twos were doing BIM coordinators, senior architects, were doing BIM coordinators and half this time, it's rather than the title, it's like you guys were doing this Roles and responsibilities, which transfers really well to a digital tech company like Glide Tech.
It does, I think sometimes people worry that they're not called a BIM Coordinator yet. They can't go forward for the role, but [00:24:00] actually they're a technologist who's done all this stuff and they've got a passion for the subject,
Sarah Marshall: yeah. And I think it, the relevant skills and experience is always on a job advert and things like that. If you look at that and it's a BIM, Coordinator a job role, but you have been doing those daily activities or those responsibilities, you've been carrying them out, then yeah, apply for it.
And even have that conversation with either yourself, Steven, or with a prospective employer and say this is where I'm at, this is what I'm interested in. Because employers wanna help you to get where you wanna be as well.
Stephen Drew: Yeah.
Rob Wood: Even if you don't, even if there's something on a job advert that you don't have. When I joined Glider my knowledge of Kirby was very little and I knew what I knew, what it was. If you asked me to do a Kirby workbook, I'd have no clue. And now, working on working with it all the time and, it is one of those, I think a lot of good employers, if there's something on a job advert that you dunno how [00:25:00] to do, if you show willingness to learn.
That's all I'm as.
Stephen Drew: Yeah, said. I it's very true and I don't necessarily believe in fake it till you make it kind of thing, but at the same time, I do think though that putting yourself out there and saying, I don't know that, but I've done all this stuff, is a pretty good way to go about it, and I'm gonna ask you one question in a bit. That actually I'm not, the audience has put one on about the future and we can ease out of that. And I say, I know you got, we've gotta go to the vet, we've gotta pick up the dog. And I agree in a bit, so don't worry we not, we're not gonna be late.
But just before we do that though now that you guys are in glide attack and you experience what works well in the team and stuff, in terms of if someone was to apply the glide attack or. Or or was thinking about it, what's your advice for them on how to go about it? I know they can contact you direct, but like what kind of characteristics, what would you look for in the CV?
Is there anything that would [00:26:00] resonate or stick out towards glide tech that, maybe something that you guys wouldn't look for in new jobs before?
Rob Wood: I think it depends on the role that they're going for really. But if it, let's say it was contract delivery any sort of. Previous experience with, the whole BIM side of things. Obviously, BIM coordination, BIM management, anything like that. But any previous experience with Kirby or knowledge base of the irs, if you've, nine any of that stuff.
Yeah, it's really. What you know and your application of it and what you're willing to push yourself to learn. Because I think Glider, you come to Glider, you're gonna have to learn the whole software anyway. There there's not nothing about that. You just have to, because use it on a daily basis and you know whether you're doing. Asset information management, whether you're doing document handover management, whether it's project management [00:27:00] for us, any of that, you're gonna have to learn the software. So I think, like I've said before, that the willingness to learn is one of the biggest things. And really I think fitting in with the team is one of the most important things for us at Glider.
Cause you can always learn things. It is, it's having a good character. And I think there's probably a lot of people thinking, oh, I might not know this, or I don't know of the ISO and I've not read the documentation and I wouldn't worry too much because I think if you've got that willingness to learn and you have the base knowledge of BIM and you can come and say, I know what BIM is and as long as you don't come and say BIM is Revit.
I think you'll
Stephen Drew: Even I know that one Rob. Yeah.
Rob Wood: Yeah.
Stephen Drew: fair play. That's really good advice. I tell you what though, while this is coming up, we've had some good comments coming in. Okay. So Sander says that this is insightful, so that's good to know. [00:28:00] I knew it would be cuz it's with you two guys, but it means I'm not derailing it, which is really useful.
And it goes on to say, Sandra says, digital twins is the feature of construction industry. Even with the use of Unreal Engine, now I'm a gamer, so I
Rob Wood: I see I know about this as well. And I actually went to the unreal Academy in London a few years ago which was a really good event. And yeah, unreal engineer doing. Amazing things. Really not just in the gaming industry, but they're doing massive things in the Architectural space as well.
And that, they've got I think they acquired Quicks Sell as well, which is one of the the leading sort of companies in creating Mapping textures for 3D modeling and things like that for images. They go out and take photos, like fully photo realistic things and make textures from them.
Mass massive stuff that Unreal engine are doing. Not really used where we are we deal a lot more with the actual data and the information that's inside of. All the 3D models. We do a lot of stuff with IFCs, Kobe and that [00:29:00] side of things. But yeah, I do agree digital twins are the future, but it can't be seen as just a photorealistic model or of it, it really needs the data.
And the data is the most important part.
Stephen Drew: Well said. Thanks, Rob. That's really useful. I got one question from the audience, probably last Chancellor Loon for anyone that wants to ask a question, but Pedro comes. From, I don't know. It's a really good question. I wouldn't have thought of It says, with the knowledge of bi of what BIM can do today, what in your opinions is still mis missing that you wish you had the tool or feature, but it's not available yet?
Perhaps Rob first, do you have any thoughts about what would be a good tool or where you see things going or something that you see is not available, which would be cool? I know everyone's talking about AI at the moment, aren't they? Is there any plus wisdom or thoughts that you have there?
Rob Wood: That's a really difficult question to answer I think because there's so many [00:30:00] tools out there and there's probably so many tools that we're not aware of as well, that are, smaller tech companies that are developing things.
Stephen Drew: Yeah.
Rob Wood: and I would say that before coming to Glider, There was a lot of things that, that Glider BIM does that I wasn't aware of that.
We can do. One of, one of those things being i c enrichment so we can push data back into an i c, which until coming here, I didn't know was possible. So what's still missing? I'll have to think about that.
Stephen Drew: We come back to it. Yeah, I I am interested what will happen within AI and Architecture, but to me it's not that new as you both know. I just think that the mainstream has got the bug on it. Sarah, is there anything you want to add to that
Sarah Marshall: I was just gonna say I don't necess, like it's not. I don't think it's that we've got necessarily like a software or tool or feature that's missing. [00:31:00] I think what's missing is prior to that I think you just touched on it there, that there's a buzz around ai, digital twins are we there?
Yeah. As an industry are the majority of the people in this industry there yet? No. And that to me is what's missing. I think it's the common understanding, the common ground of we've just. For a lot of people, they just got their head around BS and past 1192 and then we're throwing five new documents at them and a whole, and it's not a whole new way of working, but there are subtle differences.
So now everyone's just trying to get their head around the ISO 19 6 50 documents and how that's gonna work and the uplifting the documents that they need. So it's not for me personally and for the job role that I think the majority of the things that I've seen on the projects that I work on, the minute, it's not necessarily that there's a.
A software or a feature or a tool that's missing. I think what's missing is a blanket level of knowledge and skill, and it's not a disrespect to anybody that's in the industry that's not doing [00:32:00] AI and digital twins at all. It's just we're not all on that same level playing field yet. And I think it's great pushing the boundaries of let's. AI digital twins. I think that's amazing. And I think, and I'm fortunate for us, Rob, I know with you as well, to be involved on projects that are pushing those boundaries but for me, the big thing that's missing is
Rob Wood: Yeah.
Sarah Marshall: the other end of the scale,
Rob Wood: Best, best level knowledge to a point. Yeah.
Sarah Marshall: Yeah. And not, and within that, utilizing the tools that we do have to upskill and to bring them up.
So using tools like Lido, using tools like salib, Navisworks, any, whatever it is, utilize what's available to you to do the sort of basics. And then let's look at doing more innovative things.
Stephen Drew: Very cool. I agree.
Back.
Sarah Marshall: Could be a wrong opinion, but
Rob Wood: I'd agree with it. Sarah. I think you're right there. Definitely,
Stephen Drew: Yeah. There's no wrong [00:33:00] opinion, isn't it? And it's an interesting space. And listen, there's definitely something with ai, but I get to people say to me all the time, do they, do we see that replacing a BIM, Coordinator and Architect stuff? And I'm like, no way. I think I see it as a tool
which can be used. yeah, yeah, exactly. Can it get rid of some repetitive, arduous stuff? Can it do some basic stuff? Absolutely. Great. Brilliant.
Sarah Marshall: is already we are using tools and scripts and things like that make those monotonous, mono, I don't even know how to say that word now. There's boring jobs. A lot easier for us to do. So that, yeah. But I think there is a place for it, and that is the direction that it's going. But yeah.
Will we see it used and used well in our lifetime? I don't know.
Stephen Drew: I,
Sarah Marshall: if we did.
Stephen Drew: yeah. Good. Yeah, exactly. I don't fancy doing, I. We've all been there before in Excel doing the repetitive stuff, thinking I really need to make a macro. Then we've made the macro and gone, what the heck was I doing with all those hours [00:34:00] that I can never get back? And so it's always a bit of work at the start, isn't it?
Doing this stuff, but. They pay off in the end. I'm excited to see what happens. What I'm gonna say now to you guys is that I'm gonna bring up quickly Glider Tech's website, and so for anyone that's interested while they took listening to this talk or replay or whatever, if they want to get in touch with Glider, I think they definitely should.
I'm sure that you guys are always interested in people reaching out who are passionate in this sector, but if someone wanted to get in touch with you both, Rob, where's the best way that people can reach out to you?
Rob Wood: Yeah, email perfectly fine. Whether you go through the Glider Tech website and email to their generic email address and ask for my contact details or. If you can find me on LinkedIn I, I think it's better to, probably better to get me through email to be honest.
But yeah, that says, give us a shout. Absolutely. Give us a shout and and someone will [00:35:00] definitely be in touch. And if you want to direct it, to myself or to Sarah, I'm trust Sarah won't mind too much. But yeah. Any questions or If, we're always potentially looking for people to join, as the company grows.
So even if people drop a CV, and I'm sure we can pass that on to the right people and yeah. But hopefully as we grow, we'll get more people that are like-minded and, with the knowledge and the enthusiasm and it's yeah.
Stephen Drew: I think so. It's CV, but the most important question is, are you up for playing Squid Game and Bear Grills in Birmingham? And if you are, you're halfway in basically.
Rob Wood: thought the most important question was, do you have a dog?
Stephen Drew: Ah, I think so.
Rob Wood: if you've got a dog, you're halfway there to join in Glider, I think.
Stephen Drew: That is true. We all have a dog, isn't it? Maybe the last note. Cause Sarah, so people can get in touch with you on LinkedIn on the website, but Sarah, you've gotta go literally in two minutes to the vet. So we are on time. The last question before you go is, what is the [00:36:00] breed of your dog?
Sarah Marshall: So my dog, she's actually, she's a Springer crossed with a cocker crossed with a lab.
Stephen Drew: My goodness. That is a troubled mix. My, my dog's a Boston.
Sarah Marshall: that time we go the vets.
Stephen Drew: Yeah, exactly. It's always the way though. But once, once they become family, you got no
Sarah Marshall: yeah.
Stephen Drew: Have you?
Rob Wood: Absolutely.
Stephen Drew: Yeah. Rob, what's your dog?
Rob Wood: Mine's a chihuahua.
Stephen Drew: Chihuahua. Brilliant. My dog's a Boston Terrier who's got a stupid amount of energy, but very loving.
So here we go. Glide tech. Amazing pushing the edges of technology and dog owners and all that cool stuff, and avid players of squid game. Birmingham. Oh, I think that was Bear Grills. Thank you so much guys, for being here. I really appreciate and if you and the audience enjoy this, do check out Glider.
Glider's website, which is glider tech.com. I've got the link down below. Thank you so much Rob [00:37:00] and Sarah, you're absolute legends. If you just stay on the stage for one second, I will end the live stream now. And thank you so much for everyone that tuned in, always watching the replay. Have a good day.
I've got more content coming soon. But do check out Glider and drop Sarah and Rob a message. Thank you all. Take care. Alright, bye-bye.