A three-day conference providing demonstrations, presentations and networking by firms inventing, piloting and implementing technologies to address construction’s future left attendees bullish on tech prospects for the construction industry and heading home with ideas to deploy.

Various “thought leaders” in the industry have been trying—some would say hitting their heads against the wall—for at least the 37 years that I have been covering buildings (and likely before that), to use technology to streamline, automate and quicken building design and construction.