The Autumn 2006 Construct IT For Business Members' Meeting will be held in conjunction with IAI/buildingSMART on the 15th & 16th November at CUBE, Manchester 

Day 1 of the meeting will consist of a facilitated workshop focusing on 'Building Regulations Part L - What does compliance mean?'. This session will provide an introduction to Part L1 and L2 and the practicalities of how compliance will impact on the industry. An international perspective on energy regulations followed by how the compliance complexities Part L raises will need to be facilitated through technology will then be discussed.

Day 2 will commence with an update on what is happening in the US in terms of their National BIM(building information model) Standard and discuss how the UK may build on this. This session will be followed by a panel session of leading energy analysis software vendors, chaired by an industry representative focused on exploring 'How do we make interoperability more effective?' A step towards an alternative approach to planning consultation will then demonstrate the use of interactive three-dimensional (3D) virtual reality visualisations that allow viewers to experience highly complex information without the need for training.

Next, the management of highly specialised 3D Thematic Mapping information to provide in-house Enterprise Resource personnel, the emergency services & insurance auditors with instant access to clear and accurate information will be presented.

The final session of the day will be debate in which it is proposed that building regulations checking can be automated through the provision of data within a BIM and that a statutory requirement to provide such data is the only means by which the adoption of BIM by industry can be driven forward.