I recently had the chance to attend the BIM Invitational Meetup in St. Paul, a roundtable event where BIM professionals from all disciplines come together to compare notes, share ideas, and talk honestly about what’s working and what isn’t. That format was a big part of why I wanted to attend in the first place. There are no speakers or vendors, and it isn’t a “sit and get” event. The value comes from asking questions, hearing what someone in the same role is doing, and learning from each other. Two days, several sessions, and a lot of great conversations later, I came away with plenty to think about.
Having BIM professionals from different disciplines and firms in the same room also gave us a chance to better understand how each of us works so we can work better together. Sometimes that means discovering that a workflow that works well on one side creates challenges on the other. For example, I learned that some engineers aren’t fans of live linking, which is part of our current workflow and something we may need to reevaluate. Hearing those different perspectives is exactly what makes conversations like these valuable.
Snapshots from the 2026 BIM Invitational
AI came up in almost every session, but not in the way I expected. Nobody was debating whether we should use it. The conversations were centered on accountability, who’s responsible when AI gets it wrong and how to use it well without losing the human judgment that is still essential. There’s a lot of excitement about what AI can automate, especially repeatable, time-consuming tasks, but there’s also a clear understanding that critical thinking matters more than ever. One opportunity that especially changed my perspective was the ability to use AI to help write code and develop add-ins or scripts. It opens the door to creating automations that we may not have had the IT skills to develop ourselves.
One session focused on training and the challenge of getting people to make time for it when they’re heads-down on a project. I liked an idea someone shared of swapping the word “training” for “learning”. It shifts the ownership, making it less about hitting a company requirement and more about personal growth. A few firms have started gamifying the process, handing out points and prizes for completing modules. It’s a simple move, but a good reminder that even in a technical field, learning sticks better when it’s a little fun. Another session, “What’s the Best New Thing You (or Your Company) Has Done?”, sparked a more concrete takeaway: we need to build a company intranet that can serve as a better home for training, standards, and shared knowledge.
I was also inspired by everyone’s willingness to try something new. As BIM Managers, most of us didn’t start out planning to become part IT, part developer, but that’s where the job has taken us. I met people building custom tools, connecting APIs to automate the busy work, and pushing AI workflows further than I imagined. I even left encouraged to try building something myself. The exciting part is that it doesn’t require a massive budget, just curiosity and a willingness to experiment. Those wins add up to real time saved, giving us more time to put back into the design, coordination and problem-solving work that really matters.
Beyond the sessions themselves, the real value was being in a room with people wrestling with the same challenges, trading tips and tricks, and getting to know the small but mighty group that gathered from all around the country. And sometimes those tips and tricks are the very specific workflow discoveries that only another BIM person would get excited about. I learned that I can host our starter file in Content Catalog and insert it directly instead of downloading it from the cloud, and that adding a non-workshared RVT placeholder model to a Forma project template can enable auto-publishing rather than having to initiate it for every new project. Small discoveries, maybe, but exactly the kind of practical knowledge sharing that made the Invitational worthwhile and get me excited for the next one.
2026 BIM Invitational attendees
