Dr Georgios Kapogiannis FHEA spoke at an International Workshop co organized between University College London (UCL), The University of Nottingham Ningbo China and Construction Blockchain Consortium in London, UK; on the title 'Increase Digitalisation and Sustainability among Construction SMEs Through Living'.

Speakers from University College London (UCL) Dr Eleni Papadonikolaki an Assistant Professor in BIM, Dr Georgios Kapogiannis an Assistant Professor in BIM – Faculty of Science and Engineering Researh Ethics Officer at The University of Nottingham Ningbo China, Mr Dave Philps Head of BIM at AECOM Global and UK Government Chairman for BIM Strategy and Dr Dave Towey an Associate Professor in Computer Science at The University of Nottingham Ningbo China. On 18 December 2018, the workshop ran in the 1st Zero Carbon Building in China, CSET Building at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China.

Among various digital technologies in construction, Building Information Modelling (BIM) brings disruptive change in the industry, helping achieve improved efficiency and the overall sustainability outlook of construction. The global construction powerhouses, UK and China, both attempt to increase construction digitalisation through mandated BIM use in public procurement. However, both industries still struggle to achieve rudimentary BIM compliance. To respond to this, this Sino-British effort of generating and sharing knowledge aims at improving digitalisation and sustainability among construction SMEs.

The workshop was outward-looking, bringing experts and practitioners from China developing and sharing strategies to increase digitalisation adoption. A discussion on successful emerging business models and supply chain governance from China (half-day session led by the global partners) and successful UK policy-making initiatives and institutional alignment (half-day led by the applicant) shared to syntheses road-maps for both countries.

During the international workshop the following was achieved:

• Inspired the next generation in the digital construction
• Taught executives in a strategic level the state of the art in Procurement and BIM Level 3 using Internet of Things (IoT) and Blockchain
• Developed solutions for embracing digitisation in organisations in an interactive co-creative session (world café format)
• Explained the importance of construction digitalisation through mandated BIM use in public procurement
• Demonstrate the impact of industry 4.0 (Integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT) and Blockchain ) through digitisation

Representatives from different organisations attended the workshop,  including people from government sectors, architecture design companies, construction supervision companies, digital technologies companies and project consultant companies.

The workshop’s speakers have inspired most people who attended. In fact the discussion was made during the workshop was fruitful for further research studies. Moreover participants found the workshop a good way to network and share experiences by the use of digital technologies among different AEC disciplines. In addition, there were members that thought they were very inspired by this western-style workshop and they found it as a good way to make international connections. However, the results aim to be published in 2019.