We interviewed Sam Badrah from OpenSpace. OpenSpace is on a mission to bring new levels of transparency to construction. We combine simple off-the-shelf 360° cameras, computer vision, and AI to make it incredibly easy to capture a complete visual record of a job site, share it via the cloud, and track progress remotely.
1. Your company was selected out of 240+ applications. What has the Emaar Innovation Challenge meant for your company?
On reflection the most important and memorable part of the few days was meeting and being around the other Challenge participants.
They can only be collectively described as a rich melting pot of talent, energy, ambition, drive and great ideas to improve our built world. They really put into sharp perspective why we do what we do, every day! Ultimately, OpenSpace's selection and final award has helped further validate and recognise both our efforts/commitment to the Middle East region, and of course the power and value that 360 reality capture and AI brings to the market.
Specifically, it will also accelerate our work 'on the main stage' with Emaar projects, and hopefully help accelerate our rapid growth and customer adoption in the UAE and wider region. The pitch and demo exercise was especially useful. It helped us refine messaging, simplify everything (one of our core company values) and look inwards personally as well as outwards to the market.
In summary OpenSpace was honored to participate and we thank both Emaar, their Challenge judges, and Global PropTech for the opportunity.
2. How were the overall days for you in Dubai (networking, meeting at Emaar, fun part with Burj Khalifa visit and boat trip?)
Again the networking aspect was worth its weight in gold. The power of being around like-minded entrepreneurs simply cannot be overstated - all bringing fresh and exciting new thinking to our industry. OpenSpace walks away with new friends, mentors and supercharged to succeed in our mission to simplify the lives and jobs of those working in the built environment.
It was also great meeting Emaar executives and experiencing their continued commitment to innovation, sustainability and customer experience.
3. How important was the pitch training given by Corrinke Boon (online and in Dubai)?
Very useful! Getting a pitch down to 4 or 5 minutes isn't as easy as many may think, and really benefits from impartial/objective external eyes and ears.
Thank you to Corrinke for the feedback. Again, our takeaway here was in line with our core company value - simplify everything!
4. How was the Demo day?
Great venue and auditorium, great food and really enjoyable watching the participants' pitches - I think we all learned a lot from each other.
Shame the event and venue was a little under attended, but perhaps that was partially due to the torrential rain that day!
5. What does your company do?
Short/pitch version😁: Time machines for your jobsite! Think advanced 'Google Street View' for your projects, enabling project teams to track progress/inspections from any device and location, using standard 360° cameras & AI-powered analytics.
Bit longer version: OpenSpace offers simple reality capture + AI to provide the ultimate transparency and collaboration for the jobsite - during both the build and operations/maintenance phases. We provide project teams with a high definition 360° digital representation of your jobsite within typically 15-30 minutes of capturing it.
Dead easy to capture, no training needed - just walk the jobsite as you've always done (with an off-the-shelf 360° camera attached to your hardhat)
Simple. Fast. Hugely valuable. A picture tells a 1000 words - OpenSpace goes even further and also offers AI-based progress tracking across a number of trades (e.g. "how much concrete has been poured vs planned?" etc)
We're enabling asset owners, GCs, trades and consultants to access their project 'ground truth reality' from any device and location - guiding decision making, reporting, payapps, collaboration and de-risking across the board.
Making building (and life) simpler.
6. How can people contact you?
Sam Badrah, Director of Sales - Middle East and Emerging, OpenSpace
sam.badrah@openspace.ai
+971 52 257 7997