Bentley Systems' Year in Infrastructure Conference 2022: advancing infrastructure together
Last Tuesday we attended day 2 of the Year in Infrastructure Conference Going Digital Awards 2022 organized by Bentley Systems, which started with a plenary where the company’s executives shared their insights about digital advancements in infrastructure and new innovations.
Greg Bentley, CEO of Bentley Systems, highlighted the Founders’ Honors projects, selected by the company’s founders for their inspirational value and their contribution to both the global economy and the environment. We heard as well from Rodrigo Fernandes, Director of ES(D)G (Empowering Sustainable Development Goals) about Bentley’s initiatives in support of circularity and climate change adaptation. Katriona Lord-Levins, Chief Success Officer, spoke about some of the company’s programmes in the area of learning and education, such as the Digital Twin Design Challenge, a contest where students aged 12-25 years have the opportunity to reimagine a real-world structure designed with the Minecraft video game and Bentley’s iTwin technology.
Bentley announced the launch of Bentley Infrastructure Cloud, its combination of enterprise systems – ProjectWise, SYNCHRO and AssetWise
Nicholas Cumins, Chief Operating Officer, shared some updates about the Bentley portfolio, emphasizing how they aim to help bridge the gap between companies’ capacity and increased expectations of them, as the infrastructure sector is increasingly emplaced to do more with less. Bentley’s answer to this challenge is clear: leverage technology to improve efficiency and effectiveness and thus increase that capacity, or in other others, go digital.
He then discussed in some detail Bentley’s new product announcements: iTwin Experience, iTwin Capture, and iTwin IoT. Dust Parkman, Vice President of Mobility Industry Solutions, delved into the advantages of these new products for users, after which Julien Moutte, VP of Technology, provided some technical details about how the iTwin platform has evolved.
Bentley Infrastructure Cloud provides users with the opportunity to improve collaboration, productivity, and quality
Keith Bentley, Founder and Chief Technology Officer spoke next about how the iTwin platform will bring value to businesses in their day-to-day activities. Afterwards we heard from other Bentley leaders, discussing the role of the iTwin platform and future directions for the company’s products, including Mike Campbell, Chief Product Officer, and Sandra DiMattteo, Global Industry Marketing Director, Water Infrastructure.
Bentley also announced at the conference the launch of Bentley Infrastructure Cloud, its combination of enterprise systems – ProjectWise, SYNCHRO and AssetWise – that leverage digital twin technologies, powered by iTwin. As these systems become fundamentally data-centric, while continuing to support file-based work, Bentley Infrastructure Cloud provides users with the opportunity to improve collaboration, productivity, and quality.
After the plenary session wrapped up, conference participants were able to attend several breakout sessions on Bentley Acceleration Initiatives, Seequent, Cohesive and Bentley Research. Both the inspiring plenary and the breakout sessions are now available for on-demand viewing. Also, we could not miss a hands-on presentation on the Bentley Innovation Lab (iLAB), a virtual reality experience that allows interaction with infrastructure projects using game engine technology and the Bentley iTwin Platform.
Finally, the day came to a close with the highlight of the conference: the Going Digital Awards Ceremony, where winners for the different award categories were announced. The winner of the 2022 Going Digital Award in Water and Wastewater category is the Tuas Water Reclamation Plant in Singapore, by Jacobs and PUB (Singapore’s National Water Agency), a flagship project for Singapore and for the water industry in general.
The conference finished, but we are far from done. Stay tuned as we will publish interviews with representatives from some of the outstanding projects presented at the conference and with Bentley’s leaders to hear how the company is advancing the digital transformation of water infrastructure.