MobiCloud Project Meeting in London

Last week COMIT attended the MobiCloud meeting in London. Our own Technology Chairman Iain Miskimmin helped with the organisation (and moved a lot of chairs and some particularly heavy desks). Bentley kindly allowed the use of their offices in Gracechurch Street for the two-day event.

The view of London from Bentley's offices (which are on the 9th floor of the building) is fantastic.

View from Bentley's offices in Gracechurch Street

Of course, being construction focused we had to try and count the number of construction sites that we could see from the windows. Not an easy task but the general consensus is that there were about 40. Hopefully that bodes well for the UK economy!

COMIT member Costain, who are a partner in the MobiCloud project, were the main host and event organiser. Despite a slight hiccup due to an unplanned fire alarm (false alarm luckily) on the Thursday morning, the meeting went very well. On the Thursday afternoon Costain arranged for a tour of their site at London Bridge which was fascinating and on the Friday morning there was a Breakfast Seminar for those new to the MobiCloud project.

The meeting included an update of progress on the MobiCloud trial projects and a demonstration of Costain's Site Diary App which is currently being tested on site. For more information about these please see the MobiCloud project blog.

Waterloo station from the London Eye

Of course it was not all work. Costain arranged for the visiting MobiCloud partners who come from Sweden, Germany and the Netherlands to see some of the London sights, including an evening meal and a trip to the London Eye. Of course, the view from there was even better than the one from Bentley's offices. From the London Eye at night, even Waterloo station looks cool!

A few night-owls even made it out for a drink on the evening before the meeting. One or two of us utilised mobile technology in getting there - and learned the hard way that when it comes to addresses and a city with London's rich history, omitting words like "new" or "old" in a street name can lead to a very long walk indeed.

Stuart, Mark, Martin, Katy, Vladimir & Patrick