After two successful years as ‘BIM Day’, this event returns for its third year with a fresh identity and an even sharper focus.
Instigated by Paul Stewart, Trust Estates & Facilities Manager at Plymouth CAST, the event has grown over the last two years from a small gathering of estates professionals into what is becoming a recognised fixture in the sector calendar. Paul is a pioneer in digital estates, with Plymouth CAST among the first multi-academy trusts to fully digitise its entire estate.
The Digital Estates Group is by Responsible Bodies, for Responsible Bodies, created to help Responsible Bodies grow. It brings the school and trust estates community together for a day of insight, practical learning, and genuine peer connection, grounded in the principle that estates data should belong to the organisations that generate it.
This year’s focus is what matters most right now: digitised estates and the DfE’s 10-Year Education Estates Strategy. With the strategy firmly in motion, Responsible Bodies are facing real questions about what it means for their organisations, their data, and their operations.
The Digital Estates Group exists to help answer them, championing true data ownership and a system-agnostic approach so Responsible Bodies are never locked into a single platform or supplier.
The day will also feature talks and presentations from the Department for Education on the direction of its estates strategy and what it means for schools and trusts.
Alongside this, sessions will explore the cultural shift from reactive estate management towards strategic stewardship, as well as the practical tools that make digital estate management achievable, including condition data capture, information management maturity, and BIM.