In this stinking economy a piece of good news may be that attendance at the National Facilities Management & Technology (NFM&T) Show in Baltimore appears to be up noticeably. I attend this every year, and there is a buzz that has been missing the last three years.
Interest in BIM to FM is slightly increasing. The claimed links are in non-ArchiCAD related products, so that leaves open "development territory" for GS 3rd Party devs.
Fully 1/2 of the products shown are energy-oriented: conservation, management, monitoring, sourcing. Many others are "green" oriented. The seminars are slightly more data-oriented, with audience reaction appearing to be more pointed and skeptical. My reaction is that some of the data oriented BIM--FM conxns are tired repetitions of what's been presented last two years: they do not appear to have moved ahead, still largely stuck in the 2D world. As with the move to 3D last decade, the response too often from these developers is "we don't get much call for that. Let's face it....." Same breath: we fully support BIM. Half dozen examples of where 3D is required in FM, and they concede the point, privately say, just not ready.
Where's ArchiFM? MIA.
