It wasn't too hard to miss that building information models (BIM) was a key topic that percolated through many geospatial presentations in addition "BIM and Beyond" that was one of the main tracks that was organized at Bentley's BE Conference. Greg Bentley, in his keynote, commented on a common misunderstanding about BIM as simply just rendering building assets but is more significant in providing a better way to manage building infrastructure.

In piecing together the salient geospatial product news from this year's BE Conference I can't say that I heard much new news! In fact, much of what we covered at last year's BE Conference seems to be a repeat. But let me give you the "Cliff Notes" version of what I heard and what is possibly some new information:

1. The operative word now for Bentley Map is "infrastructure" such that the product is offering features and functionality for infrastructure management and has all of the bells and whistles of MicroStation V8 XM Edition.
2. Will Bentley Map be able to import an ESRI SDE Geodatabase and not just shapefiles? Robert Mankowski of Bentley says there are plans to do so. Today, if you point it to a personal ESRI Geodatabase, you can import it now using an open source library for personal Geodatabase. For SDE databases, Bentley doesn’t have it today. With ProjectWise Connector for ArcGIS, you can exchange data with ArcGIS. If ESRI provides a API in the future for SDE, Bentley intends to use that library. You might want to check out James Fees' blog for some additional information.
3. If you have Bentley MicroStation and Bentley Cadastre, a parcel management solution, you don’t need Bentley Map as Cadastre contains all the functionality of Map.
4. Athens, the new Bentley platform that was announced last year, was given its full intoduction this year. We'll have a more comprehensive report on Athens at a later time. No press releases were issued at the event. With respect to Bentley Map, Athens will provide better querying and joining to other database tables as well as adding more advanced labeling and annotation functionality.
5. Bentley Geospatial Server (BGS) is Bentley's answer for "enterprise GIS." BGS performs spatial indexing and searching and has the ability to manage complex files with references; and multiple application integration (MS OFFICE, AutoCAD, and ESRI). BGS uses a federated approach to data management that allows you to get both geospatial data and other unstructured data as well. BGS is comprised of ProjectWise Integration Server, ProjectWise Geospatial Management, ProjectWise Connector for Oracle and ProjectWise Interplot. What’s coming in BGS? Spatial indexing and searching feature though a “google-like” toolbar; better backround map using Bentley Geoweb publishing engine. Spatial Database Services support for Oracle GeoRaster, Oracle Cartographic text and ArcSDE Raster to get extraction of raster from ArcSDE database. Implementation of standard OGC specifications WFS, WMS; SOAP Wrapper and WSDL support (post Athens).

[Disclosure: Bentley covered travel, hotel and food.]

The theme for the 2008 BE Conference, a user's event sponsored by Bentley Systems, is "Best Practices for Sustainable Infrastructure." Citing just the recent catastrophic events in China and Myanmar not to mention the pressures from increased energy demands and rising cost of fuel, Greg Bentley, CEO of Bentley Systems said, "The quality of life is connected to our quality of infrastructure. The financial returns on infrastructure investments will be inexorably forthcoming. I have no doubt of the opportunities that lie before us. The first action we are taking is sharing and learning about best practices." The company is putting is money where its mouth is by setting a goal to reduce its carbon footprint by 15% by 2009 and it started with reducing corporate travel. Bentley said that its annual sales meeting was held virtually.

Keynote speaker Andrew Winston, author of "Green to Gold: How Smart Companies Use Environmental Strategy to Innovate, Create Value, and Build Competitive Advantage," had some interesting statistics:
1. Wal-mart comprises 2% of the US GDP. It is now asking its suppliers what its "carbon footprint" is. Suppliers that are reducing their carbon footprint get prefered shelf space.
2. Banks are becoming skeptical about funding the development of new coal-fired power plants as they believe that consumers may look toward more "green" ways of reducing power consumption.
3. China wants 50% of their population to be in their "middle class" by 2020
4. Advertising dollars are driving the media to cover the green movement more aggressively as companies like BP, Wal-mart, GE and others are promoting their investment in green technologies and reducing their power consumption.
5. UPS stopped making left turns to reduce idle time at stop lights. By performing route analysis, the company now modifies its routes to do concentric circles. The result was a savings of three million gallons of gas.

[Disclosure: Bentley covered travel, hotel and food.]

In what is an unusual move for a private company but a ritual announcement at the annual BE Conference, Bentley Systems issued an annual report today. Some snippets from the report: Revenue for the year represents a 15% growth over 2006. 2007 GAP revenues are at $450M. In his press conference Greg Bentley stated that in 2008 the run rate is already showing the probability of revenues in excess of $500 Million. The company is prepared for more acquisitions and has established a $200 Million credit facility. Bentley's annual report is viewable online.

[Disclosure: Bentley covered travel, hotel and food.]

During a press conference at the BE Conference in Baltimore, Bentley Systems CEO Greg Bentley was asked about the relationship with Autodesk and if it had improved. Citing that Autodesk and Bentley have an obvious stake in interoperability, Bentley stated that the relationship is at a standstill. 

Bentley intends to be the market leader in energy analysis and simulation as well as supporting a better means for building efficiency. Citing its reseller agreement with Environmental Design Solutions Ltd for its Tas software, Greg Bentley, CEO of Bentley Systems said at this week's BE Conference in Baltimore that, "the product’s virtue is its enormous scalability. With Taz software [you have] a complete building information model (BIM) with energy standards."

For Bentley, 2007 was a record year for technology acquisitions which will support this vision – LEAP Software (analysis and design for concrete bridges; ProConcrete available at the end of 2009); ECT International Inc (electrical control systems; reducing electrical design time); Hevacomp Ltd. (virtual energy models and software tools for electrical design for promoting low energy solutions; it is the largest UK building services provider and also produces HVAC solutions to improve energy efficiency of buildings.