DIGITAL CONSTRUCTION LIVE 2019
SPEAKERS

MELANIE DAWSON
Director of Digital Construction at GRAHAM
As Director of Digital Construction at GRAHAM, Melanie brings a wealth of practical hands on knowledge from an extensive and varied construction career over the past 15+ years. Specialising in BIM from 2012, Melanie has led the team at GRAHAM to become dual BSi BIM Kitemark holders - the first Tier 1 Contractor in the UK. She established the GRAHAM BIM Academy which upskills clients, colleagues and supply chain on the use of BIM and digital tools. Melanie is the driving force behind exciting R&D projects undertaken by GRAHAM in the realm of VR/AR and adoption of laser scanning technology.
JON BRIGGS
Voice of Siri, Conference Moderator and Voice and Charisma Coach
Known for his voice, he has become a household name for Sat Navs, radio and television appearances, starting with Siri in 2011 when he was chosen to be the male voice for the UK market. He has since starred in other Sat Nav devices such as TomTom, Garmin and Jaguar LandRover and Apps including Waze. His career extends beyond this, as he began his career as a radio presenter for BBC 1 and he has spent 7 years reporting on Euronews with an additional 4 years presenting Ford Business Television. Jon also coaches and trains presenters on how to use their voice with his 30 years of experience in speech radio.


As a change management specialist for Site Diary, Warren Hill who is also a certified Business Coach and an Associate Member of ICE brings both mentoring and coaching and hands on field experience to the table. After managing his own house build in South Africa in 1994, Warren has been actively involved in various aspects of Civil Engineering over the past 15 years, working on a multitude of projects from motorways to Sports stadia all across the world.
Warren then took up the opportunity to coach and mentor several companies such as Industrial Roofing, Quantity Surveyors, Environmental Impact Assessment, Project Management, Professional Civil Engineers and Road Surfacing amongst others. He has coached on all aspects of the business focusing on growth opportunities and profit maximisation which gave Warren a deep insight into the construction industry which has lead to his current role with Site Diary.
WARREN HILL
Change Management Specialist - Site Diary
BARRY NEILSON
CITB NI Chief Executive
Barry has a Civil Engineering background, starting work as an apprentice draughtsman and progressing to complete a BSc in Civil Engineering. Much of Barry’s early career was with Civil Engineering consultancies. He has a strong background in the Housing Sector having worked with both the Scottish Special Housing Association and NHBC.
With strong views on improving quality control and productivity through developing personal skills and the value of improving competence of the construction workforce through training & development, he joined the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) and as Director for Scotland. Working closely with the sector believing professional and informed managers will see the benefits of qualifications throughout the workforce, he promoted CIOB Training Partnerships to embed a culture of ongoing development within employers.
In May 2010, Barry Joined CITB NI as Chief Executive and continues to encourage quality and performance management within the sector through development of the competence of all within it. In recent years he has been instrumental in CITB NI’s involvement in investigating how industry-wide competence in Digital Construction (BIM) can improve quality and energy efficiency in the built environment. Working with Belfast Metropolitan College and five other international partners in a Horizon 2020 project, the group have been developing a framework to allow all within the industry to take their first, or next, step in developing and applying digital skills within the industry.

David Clark
Manufacturing Director at The McAvoy Group
David has overall responsibility for offsite manufacturing across The McAvoy Group. His role includes management of the expansion of production capacity to meet the business’s strategic growth plans. In his previous role as Head of Manufacturing and Innovation, David led the Group’s pioneering and industry-leading work in applying the digital transformation to offsite construction. The use of BIM, digital scanning, tablets to collect data on site and other technologies such as virtual reality which enhances customer engagement have recently been recognised with the award of BIM Contractor of the Year to McAvoy at the BIM Awards.
David is a high-profile conference speaker on digital construction and has over 20 years’ experience in manufacturing for the construction sector. He holds an MSc in BIM and Project Management from Queen’s University Belfast and is actively involved in a number of industry bodies such as Buildoffsite, the Offsite Management School and the recently-launched Seismic consortium which aims to improve the design and offsite construction of primary schools
LEE MULLIN
Digital Construction Specialist| EMEA, Autodesk
Lee leads the EMEA Construction Technical Specialists team and has 14 years in working in digital construction specializing in BIM and transitioning construction firms to digital processes. Lee’s current role is multi-faceted, with public speaking engagements, consultancy, product testing, development and workflow investigation which requires understanding of interoperability workflows across the Autodesk portfolio and helping build up the Autodesk Construction user community through social media and blogs.


Richard Kirk
Director, Work+
Richard started Work+ to help organisations meet their talent demand through apprenticeships. He started Work+ in 2015 and there are now 31 companies working together with colleges, universities and Government to ensure that apprenticeships meet the needs of industry from post-GCSE up to Masters degree level. Work+ also creates a bigger impact on schools and parents to help them see that apprenticeships are the best way for young people to get into meaningful work without educational debt.
Prior to this, Richard was Regional Director of ICE helping civil engineers explore how they can deliver social value through infrastructure. He was responsible for working with around 2,000 members in NI, enhancing their knowledge, encouraging the next generation of civil engineers and helping the public better understand infrastructure.
Prior to his role with ICE, Richard worked with the multinational consultancy AECOM, responsible for the delivery of capital infrastructure projects in Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man.
Richard is a Fellow of ICE, Chartered Manager and holds an MBA from Queen’s University Management School., He is a member of the W5 Redevelopment Advisory Group and was a Non-Executive Director of Colleges NI from 2014-17, Chair of ClimateNI (2017-19) and Chair of the NI Construction Group in 2017.
Louise Kelly is an Architectural Technologist with 15 years experience in Construction. Her roles have taken her across many sectors of construction ranging from Architectural and Engineering design practices to Specialist and Tier 1 Contractors.
Louise has specialized in BIM project delivery since 2012, implementing BIM in both an Engineering firm and a Specialist Contractor, and also delivering BIM Project Management and advisory services to Tier 1 contractors and clients in the U.K.


ROB HINE
Head of Trade and Commercial Partnerships, BSI Group
Rob has over 25 years of experience with BSI helping clients to embed organisational resilience and meet requirements for their intended markets around the globe.
Digital transformation in the built environment sits firmly at the centre of this activity with BIM stage 2 compliance and the new ISO 19650 driving compliance internationally
Working collaboratively the commercial engagement team help to educate specifiers and procurement professionals on the value of third-party certification such as the BSI Kitemark™