A Recap of Last Year’s Annual Meeting and Blast Off into 2018
Another year is in the books, and as we look back it was a very fun and successful year. At the ASLA Annual Meeting and EXPO in Los Angeles, there were several digital technology sessions covering some of the leading tools and tech including BIM, augmented and virtual reality, innovative prototyping, demystifying technology and more. Thank you to all who supported these sessions and to the panelists for sharing their tools, techniques, and passion.
The Digital Technology PPN EXPO tour was also very informative as we learned in-depth information from the presenting vendors about their tools to assist our profession. We were also able to gather for our annual PPN meeting and meet with each other in person, share our knowledge, and come up with ideas for 2018. A major thank you to all who participated in these various events.
As we look to this upcoming year there are many ideas, goals, and objectives that we would like to pursue. We are happy to announce plans to fill a few open leadership positions within the PPN to help bolster our efforts, host monthly calls to touch base, and continue generating ideas and sharing our passion. We’ve also decided to hold our annual technology survey every other year which allows us to get a good sense of tools and technology our practitioners are using. As such, we will be administering a survey this year which will be sent out to our PPN members, other practitioners, professors, and students – (for more information see our Field post about the 2015 survey).
We are very excited for 2018, and are looking forward to another fun and informative year for the Digital Technology PPN. For more information on the various items mentioned for this year, please continue reading below.
Leadership Positions
The Digital Technology PPN is looking to fill leadership positions to help us throughout the new year. The current open positions are:
- Co-Chair
- Officer, The Field
- Officer, LinkedIn
Please see the contact section below if you are interested in any of these positions and would like more information.
Monthly Calls
The Digital Technology PPN is planning to hold monthly calls for our members who would like to hear more about what is happening in the PPN. This will allow our PPN members to further connect to other practitioners. Additionally, these meetings will allow the PPN leadership group to discuss articles, webinars, and other items. We plan to host these calls on the first Thursday of each month at 10:00 AM PST / 1:00 PM EST (subject to change depending on schedules). Consider signing up to be a member of the Digital Technology PPN if you would like to be a part of the discussion.
Upcoming Webinars and Events
Keep an eye out for the upcoming webinar, Utilizing BIM to Improve Design and Workflow Efficiency scheduled to take place on Wednesday, January 31st at 10:00 AM PST / 1:00 PM EST. Here is a brief description of the presentation.
With today’s tight budgets, collaboration requirements and quick delivery of projects with regulatory or performance-driven guidelines, landscape architects need to work smarter, not harder. Explore the challenges associated with transitioning from traditional CAD platforms to building information modeling (BIM), new efficient workflows, and the benefits/challenges of this change.
Call for Annual Meeting Presentation Submissions
ASLA is now accepting education session proposals for the ASLA 2018 Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, October 19-22. We strongly encourage all Digital Technology PPN members to consider submitting or participating in a session. Please see the contact section below if you have a session topic in mind and would like to explore collaborating with other Digital Technology PPN members or other PPNs.
ASLA suggests the following items to ensure the best chance at getting selected: speaker names with a biography, a session title, marketing statement, learning objectives, outline, and sources. Submissions should speak to panel diversity and audience engagement, and all presenters must sign the speaker terms and agreement. The deadline for submissions is January 31st so let’s act soon to be sure we get various sessions submitted to cover some of the leading tools and technologies that are critical to our day to day workflows.
Please visit the submission site for detailed information.
Call for Digital Technology PPN Authors
The Digital Technology PPN would like to seek out The Field blog topics and authors. We are looking for motivated individuals that are specialists in a specific technology or workflow relevant to landscape architecture. We would like to hear your ideas for an article for The Field, the blog for ASLA’s Professional Practice Networks (PPNs). See the contact information below if you are interested. For more information about the submittal requirements, see The Field Submission Guidelines.
Contact
Please reach out to Matthew Wilkins (Chair) or Ryan Deane (Co-chair) if you are interested in any of the above items. We look forward to another successful year!
by Matthew Wilkins, ASLA, and Ryan Deane, ASLA, Digital Technology Co-Chairs