Interview
Towards an open future:
Keith Bentley interview Following on from Bentley Systems’ Year in Infrastructure event, AEC Magazine interviewed CTO, Keith Bentley on a range of topics facing the AEC sector, software companies and customers, from virtual events, cloud and subscription to digital twins and the future of 2D drawings
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e’re now into our second year of the main AEC software developers hosting virtual conferences instead of physical conferences. At the tail end of 2021, Bentley’s Year in Infrastructure event was broadcast from the company’s Exton-based headquarters (yii.bentley.com). The primary content covered the projects, customers and winners of the annual Year in Infrastructure awards. Unusually there wasn’t a technical keynote from the company’s CTO, Keith Bentley. However, AEC Magazine did get an opportunity to catch up with him and discuss a wide range of issues that are currently on the minds of the editorial team. AEC Magazine: With YII being run again as a virtual conference, how have you found the switch to online? Keith Bentley: I miss sitting down in the same room with real users who say, “Hey, you’re not working on the right stuff ”, or “How is that new stuff you’re working on relevant for this problem?”. You just don’t get that feedback from people sitting in their homes, while staring at screens or listening to recordings. Virtual events make it easier to consume but it 20
January / February 2022
doesn’t have the same interaction value. Once a year I would get ‘readjusted back’, to aim at the right target because I spent enough time hearing from customers, sitting at lunch with someone who says, “You guys are so foolish!”. That is the kind of feedback that is invaluable and for us, it hasn’t happened for two years. We are winging it now. You could say that every one of our developers has a great opportunity to connect with any user because they’re just click away and you could schedule a meeting. But I just don’t think it happens, it doesn’t happen anywhere near as frequently as I hope it would. There are certain things that just don’t happen over ‘Teams’ calls. Virtual events have lots of value, but I don’t think they replace physical events. I very much look forward to more physical events. While I don’t like the flying part of it, I do like being in some city where you’re disconnected from your normal routine. You have to a plan for it. So, I have to get everything done before that week. It becomes a stopping point. I like the fact that you have to disconnect to go to a conference. When I get home and I think about all the feedback I’ve gotten, you know it forms the next year strategy. AEC Magazine: We are picking up lots of complaints
about software companies in general from customers. Whether that be their software provider’s business model dictating when they upgrade, lack of development, changes to licences etc. The top 20%, the mature users are wondering what they are getting for these increases in fees, where’s the value? And I know from talking with publicly traded CAD companies there is pressure on to show similar profitability to shareholders that Autodesk is delivering. Keith Bentley: Looking at desktop versus cloud I think it relates pretty well with people’s mindsets about their concept of ‘value’, what they get for their dollars (£). If I sell you a cloud service, then www.AECmag.com
