Published: 18 Nov 2016
TSA held its annual Conference on 9th November 2016, using the unique Avoncroft Museum of Historic Buildings as the venue for the day. Members gathered in the amazing New Guesten Hall, which boasted a 14th Century roof, which was originally part of the complex surrounding Worcester Cathedral.
The magnificent roof of New Guesten Hall – inspiring surroundings!
The theme for the day was ‘Building for the Future’ – which allowed for a diverse and thought-provoking array of speakers. TSA President, Adam Bradley, welcomed attendees.
First up was Rollo Home – Product Strategy Manager for Ordnance Survey and delivering the Keynote speech on Smart Cities. Rollo represents OS as an Associate Member of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Smart Cities.
This was followed by a talk from Dr Peter Rauxloh, Director of Technical Solutions at MOLA – the largest supplier of archaeology and built heritage services in the UK. The title of his presentation was ‘Exploiting UAVs in archaeology and heritage – we learned that UAVs can collect 11.8m 3D points in 15 minutes.
Matt Shaw from ScanLAB Projects was up next – and was truly something completely different! Matt shared the incredible ways he has used the 3D scanner, showing the results of scanning anything from waterfalls to dancers – resulting in incredible sculptures as part of a performance art project.
Another leap in subject matter was made to the evergreen issue of Brexit – quite a challenge for anyone, but James Pignon of MHP Communications was more than up to the task. Members enjoyed being able to ask questions and air concerns.
This was followed by the presentation of TSA’s Student Bursary – a yearly event, asking second year students at Newcastle University to submit a paper on a given subject. This year it was ‘Building for the Future’ to tie in with the subject for the day. Eleven entries were received this year, which was a very healthy number and the standard was high. Adam Bradley presented the two winners – Oliver Smith and Connor Foxall, with their cheques:
Adam Bradley presents Connor Foxall with his TSA Student Bursary cheque
Adam Bradley presents Oliver Smith with his TSA Student Bursary cheque.
To help fully appreciate the venue for the day, Simon Carter, Museum Director of Avoncroft and a Grade-A enthusiast, provided a very entertaining segment on the work that is carried out at the museum and the array of historic buildings they have managed to collect and preserve.
Lunch and a chance to look around the 19-acres of the Museum – a bit of a challenge given the inclement weather, or simply spend an hour making the most of the networking opportunities!
Justine Gray from Luminous Group, one of TSA’s newest member companies, kicked off the afternoon session with an expert talk on 3D Revit As-Built Survey Models. Justine has overseen the BIM implementation, management and As-Built Survey modelling across a series of projects in a range of sectors.
Paul Bryan from Historic England followed with an excellent presentation on Historic Building Surveys. He commented that people often forget about the power of the photographed image and gave a quick promotion of TSA’s Client Guides in general and the new Client Guide on Photogrammetry in particular (available free on this website).
Finishing up was Andrew Thompson of Savills on the subject of Rights of Light. Andrew is a member of the practice panel that produced a number of RICS Guidance Notes, notably the 1st and 2nd editions of Rights of Light.
Members enjoyed the day, providing positive feedback:
“One of the best TSA events I’ve been to. Great venue and excellent content from all speakers – thank you!”
“Thanks for a great day!”
“An interesting venue – which is always good for an event (so much better than a bland hotel!)”
“The programme was very good with some interesting, thought provoking talks intermingled with some excellent visuals courtesy of ScanLAB & Luminous.”
“Very good talks on a well-balanced and diverse range of subjects.”
“This was my first attendance at a TSA event and I found it extremely worthwhile; a great day, with very interesting and relevant speakers throughout the day.”
Lunchtime
Networking!
A chance to look around the Museum
