Last week, James and I sat down to a black tie dinner event at the Tower Hotel in London, a yearly affair called the Construction Computing Awards (and also known as “The Hammers”). On the surface, few things seemed to have changed since the previous year. A similar set of people turned up. It was still a black tie event, with a three-course meal, a comedian and some music. It was even held in the same conference hall. Walking through the crowd, it would have been hard to tell whether the year was 2009 or 2008.

Yet, underneath the surface, there has been a sea-shift in the world of construction and construction computing, as in most of the business world. I’m not referring to the recession and its unpleasant side-effects. The last year was about the rise of something very different and much more positive: social media.

One Year Ago

One year ago, we sat in the audience, but nobody knew us. Whobius? People noticed our unusual name on the seating plan. They chatted to us politely but disinterestedly. The event was about the same companies that had met for years, winning the same awards again.

One year ago, no one at this event talked about Facebook. Sites like LinkedIn were just a growing nuisance that companies had to firewall off and do their best to ignore, lest their precious employee time be squandered on “things that aren’t work”. Most people thought social media has no relevance in the corporate world.

One year ago, I didn’t use Twitter (I had an account that Daniel had made me create, but I didn’t use it). I wasn’t alone in this ignorance – there was no community of architects on Twitter, one year ago. We were all new to this. One year ago, I didn’t think we’d be able, so soon, to win an award. One year ago, we weren’t connected to the architecture community online, because there wasn’t much of a community to connect to.

This year

How quickly things have changed.

In just one year, Twitter has become the word on everyone’s lips. Famous and less famous people left, right, and centre are using it and doing something useful with it. The BBC has adopted it. There’s a popular, successful Architects League on Twitter. There’s a Twibe. There’s a growing Architecture subreddit. A thriving online community, in just one year.

In just one year, many organisations now have Facebook pages, blogs, youtube channels. Even in construction, which is predictably slow at adopting these technologies, people are aware of the changes, aware that they need to join in or be left behind, and they are beginning the motions to open up their organisation to this irresistible wave of progress. The problem is not to lock everyone in anymore, but to manage the incredible flow of information that permeates the modern organisation. The focus is (slowly but surely for some, and yet much more quickly for others) shifting from control to power and versatility.

And in just one year, our little young Woobius has gone from being unknown, the new kids on the block, to winning multiple awards this year, notably the “One to watch” company award last week. This didn’t happen through the traditional means of simply growing and being a large company. It happened because of our passionate users, who nominated us, voted for us, fought for us. Thank you, all of you who helped us. It means a lot to me.

Next year

As unimaginable as it might be now, I think that next year, the format of the Hammers event will change, evolve, and become better, larger, and more important than anyone might have guessed.

Here’s what I would like to see. Here’s my challenge, to all concerned.

It is unthinkable that the leading lights of AEC Social Media could be absent from next year’s award ceremony. The coming year must bring together the old and the new, the traditional and the revolutionary.

Similarly, the format of the event must evolve. Tomorrow’s business events are not three-course black tie dinners. Take a leaf from the tech events: set up an event where people can network, can meet each other, talk, build great connections, and learn new things. Throw in some excellent speakers (if Be2camp is anything to go by, there are plenty of great talks waiting to be made), speakers that can convey things that are important and relevant to the audience. Tickets for this kind of event need not be expensive. This model is effective, successful, and profitable within the tech industry, so why not within construction tech?

It sounds implausible that so much could change in one year, but then, how likely would today’s realities have seemed a year ago?

This year was year zero, the transition between the old and the new. Let next year be year one of the modern world of construction IT.