
28-30 April 2026
NEC Birmingham


This is the must-attend event for those looking to challenge the status quo alongside industry experts. If you're passionate about playing devil's advocate and tackling the key challenges facing the industry, this summit is for you. Top thought leaders will share valuable insights, along with real-world case studies, offering actionable insights.
The Monklands Replacement Project is NHS Lanarkshire’s exciting vision for University Hospital Monklands (UHM) and the community it serves. A new, state-of-the-art, UHM targeting Net Zero Carbon will support the clinical model to meet objectives set out in NHS Lanarkshire’s healthcare strategy.
The continuing maturity of digital construction provides UHM with the aspiration to create a digital twin offering a huge opportunity to make better-informed decisions that will lead to improved outcomes, enabling NHSL in delivering a hospital of clinical, operational, and building excellence.
As part of the collaborative project delivery team, we will explore:
- How the design is working to achieve a future-looking, inspirational, and digitally enabled clinical environment
- How we are approaching the project development through digital collaboration, practical workflows, standardisation, and component driven risk reporting.
- Investigate some of the key data formats, digital tools and methods employed to deliver the design aspirations towards a digital twin
As AI rapidly reshapes the built environment, questions remain about its role in one of the construction industry’s most critical responsibilities: building safety. This panel brings together leading building safety and digital construction specialists to explore how AI is currently being used, and could be used, in the design, assessment and operations of safer buildings. Through expert discussion and real world perspectives, the panel will examine where AI adds genuine value, where its limitations and risks lie, and how it can complement (rather than replace) professional judgement and regulatory oversight.
Moderated by Women in BIM to encourage open debate, this session will challenge assumptions, highlight practical applications and consider what guardrails are needed to ensure AI supports better, safer outcomes for people and places, both now and in the future.
Cities around the world are becoming “smarter” through the likes of digital technologies such as sensors, data platforms, digital twins and AI-driven systems. But does smart automatically mean intelligent? This head-to-head discussion, hosted by Women in BIM, brings together two contrasting perspectives to challenge how we define intelligence in the built environment.
The session will explore whether today’s smart city initiatives genuinely improve decision making, resilience, inclusivity and quality of life, or whether they risk prioritising technology over people. From data led urban planning and digital infrastructure to governance, ethics and wellbeing, the speakers will debate what true intelligence in cities really looks like and who gets to define it. Fast paced and thought provoking, this discussion will question prevailing narratives, surface uncomfortable truths and invite the audience to rethink how digital tools should serve cities, communities and future generations.
AI is rapidly transforming AV - but the real shift is bigger than camera control and smart audio. The meeting room is becoming a sensor, the collaboration platforms a brain, and the building a responsive system. That convergence can finally solve long‑standing workplace problems: wasted space, inconsistent meeting experiences, inaccessible collaboration, runaway energy costs, and support teams drowning in tickets.
In this keynote, Tim Russell (Chief Technologist at CDW UK) reframes “AI in AV” as the front door to smart, human‑centric buildings. You’ll learn how AI‑enabled rooms can improve meeting equity and inclusion, how occupancy and environmental intelligence can optimise comfort and cost, and how to implement “trust by design” so automation enhances people rather than becoming big brother.
Some of the key questions Tim will answer:
Immersive experiences have moved from novelty to necessity. From large-scale brand activations and XR-powered live events to interactive theatre, AI-driven storytelling and spatial computing, audiences increasingly expect to step inside the narrative rather than simply observe it. But as the hype cycle matures, important questions emerge. Are immersive experiences commercially sustainable? Is the technology finally catching up with creative ambition? And do audiences truly want deeper participation or are we overestimating demand?
This panel will explore whether immersive experiences are positioned for long-term growth or facing a reality check.
As immersive technologies such as projection mapping, spatial computing, and mixed reality continue to evolve, the most impactful experience are increasingly driven by story rather than technology alone. This session explores how narrative led thinking can shape AV and immersive design, allowing technology to become invisible in service of emotion, meaning and audience connection.
Drawing on world-class projects including the UK Pavilion at Osaka World Expo and early work with technologies such as Apple Vision Pro, the panel will discuss world-building, performance led design, and the creation of truly transformative experiences. Speakers will share how their backgrounds in theatre, dance, and live performance influence their creative process. How they navigate an ever-evolving technical landscape without losing narrative focus and what the next two years may hold for immersive experience design across culture, brand, and live environments.
As digital signage becomes increasingly embedded within smart buildings and connected environments, its role is expanding far beyond marketing and wayfinding. Screens are now integrated with workplace management systems, access control, occupancy analytics, and emergency communications, making them an active component of operational resilience and security strategy.
This session explores how organisations are leveraging digital signage as part of a wider intelligent infrastructure ecosystem. From real-time occupancy visibility and hybrid workspace coordination to crisis messaging, compliance communication, and behavioural nudging, panellists will examine how integrated display networks are shaping safer, smarter, and more adaptive environments.
The discussion will address how signage platforms intersect with IT architecture and security frameworks, the governance challenges of connected display networks, and how data-driven content can support both user experience and risk mitigation across retail, corporate, and public sector settings.
Today’s environments demand seamless integration between security, IT architecture, and building management systems. Yet many organisations still approach security technology through outdated, rigid planning cycles that struggle to keep pace with rapid innovation and evolving risk landscapes.
This keynote explores how the convergence of security and IT systems is reshaping the way technology is designed, deployed, and maintained in modern buildings and critical environments. With increasing pressure to keep systems interoperable, secure, and continuously updated, organisations must move beyond static investment models toward flexible, service-led approaches that support ongoing evolution.
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