By Sebastian Meindl, PVM, TVM, CVS
2020 was the first year in a while that the value communities across the planet were not able to meet in person. To address this, a group of value practitioners from the Netherlands, led by Hein de Jong, planned an online event with the possibility to interact at a level not seen so far in online conferences. This event was called the 1st Value Factory Conference, which took place totally virtual on February 18-19, 2021. I was happy to attend and gave a presentation, and am reporting about my impressions of the conference.
The Value Factory conference setup included two morning sessions containing presentations and networking opportunities. Due to the virtual platform used (wonder.me), it was possible to have a surprising and engaging networking atmosphere, as you could virtually walk around, figuratively, and access presentation rooms or the coffee corner. All the presentations were uploaded on the conference’s YouTube channel so everybody was invited to watch the presentations at their specific time slots. Question and answer sessions were held immediately after the presentations using wonder.me, where you could get in touch with and interact with the presenters.
It was possible to meet one by one or meet in groups and chat in the networking sessions. Besides the presentations, there were extremely interactive sessions with a virtual whiteboard where more than 30 people worked simultaneously on a task given by the facilitator. This task was an exercise in FAST using the virtual whiteboard.
The main events of the conference are noted below:
- Kick-off by Hein de Jong (Netherlands) and MMei-Yung Leung
(Hong Kong) followed by presentations on:
- The impact of Value Engineering in the German and world-wide manufacturing industry by Sebastian Meindl (Germany)
- Tools for online VE workshops Demonstration by Alvin Tehmomo (Indonesia)
- The new SAVE International VM Guide by Istvan Tarjani (Hungary)
- Enhancing the flexibility in project scope with the help of Value Engineering by Akash Sing (India)
- Interactive workshop: peer review FAST diagramming (interactive, for all participants)
- The European training and certification scheme and future challenges for value engineering by Manfred Ninaus (Austria)
- Evaluation of the first Value Factory facilitated by Hein de Jong (Netherlands)
- And not to forget, the opportunity for networking with all participants
For further information, please visit the Value Factory conference website at https://www.eventleaf.com/ValueFactory-February2021.
All presentations are available on the conference´s YouTube channel which can be accessed at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0n61UwBhMWMdnxiAR5Y1J6sfkKG7vXhm.
For me, it was a great experience being so close to all the other participants, even though they were spread around the world. We had attendees from North America, Europe, Africa and the Asia. I am really looking forward to the next event that will probably use the same format. Special thanks to Hein de Jong and his team for organizing this first highlight in 2021.
Print 
PDF