AEC Game Changers Recap: Collaboration with Rick Kremer

Rick Kremer, Senior Technical Specialist at Applied Software and our Game Changer of the week, led the charge in the most recent installment of AEC Game Changers.

“We want to talk about what exactly it means to collaborate,” Rick said. “What does it mean to produce a good product and… become less frustrated when working on those products?” The benefits of collaboration, he said, include lessening risk aversion and gaining better communication. Throughout history, he said, communication and collaboration have been utilized even when face-to-face interaction was impossible. Smoke signals and Morse code, for example, allowed people to work together and collaborate across great distances and have their origins traced back many, many years.

Now, however, Rick mentions that the future is “right at our fingertips.” Virtual reality (VR) may be “the next level” of collaboration as users can “meet together in a common space to talk about collaboration.” With VR, a person is able to exist in a space without really being there. “Imagine being able to go into an environment where you’re walking around a space,” Rick said. “You’re able to then also transport yourself into that space and walk through it. You can communicate with others just using your voice and using such things as voice to text to communicate and leave messages. Think of them as postcards for everyone else.” It’s a wonderful alternative to face-to-face communication, especially when people are prevented from meeting up with each other for one reason or another.

Rick also gave several “meaningful benefits” of workplace collaboration: increased efficiency, improved team relationships, higher employee productivity, and greater geographical spread. The benefit of greater geographical spread, Rick adds, is something that’s extremely valuable, as globalism is something we work with “as our new norm.”

The tools that we used to use to collaborate and communicate have been developed and have changed greatly over time, and the common tools we can use to collaborate are ones that we can easily access. Microsoft Office programs, which have great accessibility between users, are great tools for collaboration.

“There’s so many other applications out there,” he said. “What I’m trying to do is introduce you to the plethora of all these different applications that are at your fingertips. Even though we’re isolated, we’re working together, stronger, more than we ever have before.” By making the most out of products such as Microsoft, Zoom, and Autodesk products, we will “be able to work together collaboratively in an environment that brings us closer together and working on a common goal.”

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