Bentley Announces Winners of Be Inspired Awards

Bentley Systems, the leading company dedicated to providing comprehensive software solutions for sustaining infrastructure, has announced the winners of the 2013 Be Inspired Awards. The awards honour the extraordinary work of Bentley users in improving the world’s infrastructure. They were presented at a ceremony during the conference called 'The Year in Infrastructure 2013' which was held from 29-31 October 2013 in London, United Kingdom.

This global gathering of leading executives in the world of infrastructure design, construction, and operations featured presentations and interactive sessions exploring the intersection of technology and business drivers, and how they are shaping the future of infrastructure delivery and investment returns. It was also attended by more than 100 members of the media from leading publications around the globe.

Special guest keynoters included Sir John Armitt, chairman of the Olympic Delivery Authority for London 2012 and chairman of National Express; Andrew Wolstenholme, CEO of Crossrail, Peter Hansford, chief construction advisor to the U.K. government; and Pedro Miranda, corporate vice-president of Siemens, and head of the Global Center of Competence Cities.

Winners

During the awards ceremony, 22 Be Inspired Awards winners and nine Be Inspired Special Recognition Awards winners were acknowledged. In addition, this year’s recipient of the Bentley Educator of the Year award, Dr. Francelina Neto of California State Polytechnic University Pomona, United States, was acknowledged, as was Captain Nicholas Sloane, the Salvage Master of the Costa Concordia Parbuckling Project, who was saluted as an Infrastructure Hero for his key role in this unprecedented engineering feat to safely right and remove the sunken Costa Concordia cruise ship.

Six independent panels of jurors, comprising accomplished Bentley users and distinguished industry experts, selected the Be Inspired Awards winners from 65 project finalists. These finalists had been previously chosen from submissions by more than 300 organisations in 43 countries.

Candidates for Bentley’s Be Inspired Special Recognition Awards were selected by the jurors from the top finalist projects as well as other exemplary nominations. This selection was based on the projects’ uniquely innovative and visionary achievements that transcend the narrower focus of the standing Be Inspired Awards categories. The nominees were then reviewed by a panel of Bentley executives, who evaluated them based on the criteria established for each award.

Inspiration

Bentley Systems CEO Greg Bentley said he attends many Bentley events throughout the year, and he certainly enjoys and value each and every one of them. But the Be Inspired Awards ceremony – now part of the company’s broader and more compelling The Year in Infrastructure Conference – is, indeed, one of his favourites. Bentley said it reminds him why everyone in the field of sustaining infrastructure does what they do. Hearing about the remarkable projects that are delivered every year in service to enhanced quality of life is an inspiration like no other. He concluded with thanking and congratulating this year’s award winners, along with all of the nominees, for their important contributions to sustaining the society, the environment, and global economic growth.

Bentley Systems has posted highlights of this year’s winning projects on its website and will include detailed descriptions of all nominated projects in the print and digital versions of The Year in Infrastructure 2013, which will be published by year’s end. To review the last nine editions of this publication, which together feature more than 2,000 world-class projects recognised in the Be Inspired Awards programme since 2004, visit www.bentley.com/yearininfrastructure.

The Be Inspired Special Recognition Awards winners for 2013 can be found here.

Photo courtesy: Chris Downer.