Technical Account Manager Matt Beaumont had just begun his demonstration of the Dynamic Fill measurement tool in Bluebeam Revu when the audience burst into amusement.

“Whoa,” someone in the audience said. “That’s so cool!” gasped another among the chatter, mesmerized as Beaumont’s click initiated a glob of green fill animation that perfectly covered—and accurately measured—the square footage of an awkwardly shaped room in a PDF drawing.

“Would you like me to do that again?” Beaumont asked. “I got a lot of ‘Ohs’ and ‘Ahs,’ and I want to make sure everyone saw how I did that.”

“It gets really therapeutic,” Beaumont said, referring to the visual of the green fill slowly stretching outward during his repeat demonstration. Laughter filled the room.

Beaumont’s product demonstration of Revu for participants of Clark Construction Group’s Strategic Partnership Program (SPP) highlighted the morning portion of a four-hour December visit from the group. The day also featured an interactive session with Bluebeam’s product managers and designers and a tour of the company’s Pasadena, California, headquarters.

It was yet another chapter in Bluebeam’s continued engagement with Clark’s SPP, an MBA-style course organized by the general contractor that aims to provide core project management and business skills to individuals from local small-business enterprises, including minority-, women- and veteran-owned firms.

Approximately 40 individuals representing various sub-contracting trades as well as general contractors attended the event, which was led by Beaumont, Bluebeam Account Manager Collin Creach and Director of Technical Account Management Andrew Gaer.

“When Molly Huddleston from Clark Construction Group approached us to provide a Bluebeam course again this year, we jumped at the opportunity,” Creach said. “Hosting it at our headquarters allowed Clark’s students to learn about not only our software, but our culture and values, which in part is to build solutions that support communities like the ones that Clark’s program serves.”

Creating connections, community

More than 700 companies have graduated from Clark’s national SPP since the program began in 2006. In Southern California alone, Clark has awarded more than $2.5 million in contracts to program graduates. Bluebeam’s involvement in the program, which includes training participants in Revu, started in 2018.

“The value of the Bluebeam-Clark partnership in relation to the Strategic Partnership Program is two-fold,” said Clark Construction Group Preconstruction Coordinator Molly Huddleston. “The program participants get an opportunity to use the latest in construction management software. Clark is confident Bluebeam is providing the participants the valuable tools needed to grow their capabilities and company processes, ensuring successful outcomes in the construction industry.”

In addition to a step-by-step product demonstration of some of the most valuable tools in Revu, participants learned about how Bluebeam’s product management and design teams work. This afternoon session included a case study presentation and interactive workshop.

The primary activity involved SPP participants posting sticky notes on a wall to imitate the discovery and development process Bluebeam product managers and designers use when they research customer pain points to improve the software’s user experience.

“We’re leading research to understand what the actual customer pain points are to get to the center of the problem that you all are experiencing,” Bluebeam Design Manager Dan Richardson said at the start of the afternoon session, explaining the role of the product management and design teams. “Then we’re trying to craft solutions that help as many of you as possible.”

“We’re doing everything from research, writing test plans, doing the logistics of getting out onto job sites and talking with you all—all the way up to that final, full design implementation of our learnings through that process,” Richardson added.

Adding a ‘human element’ to tech

Finally, the Bluebeam executive team, including CEO Jon Elliott, stopped by to welcome SPP participants and thank them for the impact their work has on the industry.

“Clark’s Strategic Partnership Program is an incredible, purpose-built model designed to make a lasting impact, empowering the hard-working people who build our world to truly advance our industry,” said Elliott after the event. “At Bluebeam, we believe that if we focus first on making a real impact, we will also build a profitable, growing business. And this is exactly what Clark is doing with the Strategic Partnership Program.”

For Terry Cheslock, a senior estimator with Pro-Cal Lighting Inc. based in Vista, California, and a Clark SPP participant, the day represented an opportunity to interact and ask questions of Bluebeam’s staff. Cheslock said this added a “human element” to learning the tools in Revu that make his job easier and more efficient.

“All the presenters at the SPP event covered topics professionally and were open to all our questions,” Cheslock said after the event. “The teamwork exhibited by the Bluebeam team was a great demonstration as to why Bluebeam is so well received by the construction industry.”