Mods, Bots & Brews in the Bay Area
On October 23rd, Swinerton Bay Area gathered at historic Fort Mason in San Francisco with more than 300 local developers, architects, and engineers for “Mods, Bots & Brews”, a networking event that focused on construction innovations through robotic construction and modular technologies. Planning for this event began more than seven months ago at a time when having in-person events was still questionable given the pandemic. Northern California rolled the dice and it paid off. It was clear that there was a strong desire to reconnect with our professional networks and this was a great environment for it. The event featured live demonstrations from our partners at Boston Dynamics, Trimble, Dusty Robotics, CANVAS, Factory OS, Xtreme Cube and Hilti.
“This was our first large in-person event in over two years, and it was clear that everyone was ready to get together and reconnect. I am really proud or our team for doing a great job to make sure we hosted a safe event for everyone”, said Paul Hinz, Vice President and Division Manager of the San Francisco Special Projects Group.
The demonstrations were followed by a panel discussion about the future of workforce development given the industry’s infusion of technology. The panel was moderated by Swinerton’s own Patrick Otellini with special guests Supervisor Myrna Melgar – District 7 Representative from the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Sarah Dennis Phillips – Senior Director with Tishman Speyer, David Burczyk – Construction Robotics Lead with Trimble, and Brian Rigley – Construction Technologist with Boston Dynamics.
“It’s important for our clients and partners to understand how much we are investing locally to help mentor the future workforce for the Bay Area and to provide opportunities for them to develop the skills needed for tomorrow’s construction jobs.”, said Lori Dunn-Guion, Vice President and Division Manager of the Bay Area Building Group.
This event was hosted in conjunction with the Swinerton Construction Innovations Group, a corporate R&D initiative to ensure Swinerton continues to thrive for the next 130 years. This Swinerton program focuses on changing business processes in order to drive substantial reductions in costs while increasing quality and safety of the work we deliver. We believe the key to transformative solutions is changing the process. Applying technology to existing processes only delivers incremental improvement. The group also sponsors internal innovation challenges to apply these solutions in new and exciting ways on our projects.
