The Virtual Design & Construction Leadership Exchange (VDCLEx) will be collocated with DBIA’s 2025 Design-Build Conference & Expo November 4th, continuing to explore how VDC is impacting designers, builders and owners by enhancing design excellence, increasing quality and productivity, as well as improving lifecycle costs.

The VDC Planning course is strongly recommended as a prerequisite for the VDC Execution course. The Planning course provides the foundational understanding of the VDC process needed to successfully implement the project goals established during planning and applied in the Execution course. Building on the foundation set in the Virtual Design and Construction (VDC) Planning course, VDC Execution for Design-Build takes a deeper look into how Design-Build teams successfully implement their VDC Execution Plan in practice. Leveraging the collaborative nature of Design-Build, this session explores how concepts like Level of Development (LOD) can clarify deliverable responsibilities and define the information Owners need post-construction. Participants will also review real-world VDC performance metrics and examine emerging technological trends shaping the future of collaborative delivery. While this course is geared toward VDC Professionals and those managing VDC implementation on their projects, non-VDC Professionals are also encouraged to attend. (4 CEH) This beta course is being offered at a reduced cost in exchange for participant feedback to help enhance and refine the final course offering.

The Virtual Design and Construction (VDC) Planning course is the first in a two-part series designed to establish a business case for VDC implementation on Design-Build projects and guide teams in developing a plan to meet the Owner’s goals and project-specific VDC objectives. This course is geared toward both VDC and non-VDC professionals. Attendees will explore how BIM-based technologies and processes create opportunities throughout the project lifecycle. The course will highlight the critical role of the VDC Project Leader on the Design-Build team and explain how to identify applicable BIM Use Cases. Participants will also learn how to document key components in a project’s VDC Execution Plan. (4 CEHs)​ This beta course is being offered at a reduced cost in exchange for participant feedback to help enhance and refine the final course offering. The VDC Planning course is strongly recommended as a prerequisite for the VDC Execution course. The Planning course provides the foundational understanding of the VDC process needed to successfully implement the project goals established during planning and applied in the Execution course.

When we hear the term Building Information Model (BIM), the word building stands out, but let’s not forget that BIM and Virtual Design and Construction (VDC) go well beyond just buildings. This presentation will bring together VDC Leaders from the water/wastewater market segment who will highlight the value of BIM and VDC on these project types from the perspective of a designer, builder, and owner, demonstrating a full lifecycle approach to leveraging these technologies and processes in design-build.

The use of Building Information Modeling (BIM) and 3D drawings have become a de facto standard for the design of water and wastewater treatment facilities. These BIM models have proven to be very effective in communicating ideas early in the design process to optimize a facility’s performance and achieve consensus with an owner. However, there are few examples and limited standards for design-build projects, particularly for progressive design-build, on how contractors should best apply BIM during construction, and establish requirements for final BIM delivery to owners, that will provide efficiencies and cost savings for ongoing operations and maintenance. This webinar will discuss the practical applications for BIM through the design-build process, and considerations for contract documents, owner’s requirements, and final submittals that will support long term facility maintenance and asset management systems. The promise of BIM is for information developed during design to aid in building assembly modeling, or BAM, through the construction phase to enable efficient scheduling, contractor coordination, and cost control. Ultimately, if design-build is done right, the owner can leverage BIM and BAM for building operations optimization modeling, or BOOM, to support enterprise asset management that minimizes energy consumption, optimizes maintenance, and guides overall facility operations.