It’s hard to believe now, but just 20 years ago, infrastructure cost estimation was more art than science.
In the wild world of 2025, councils stored pricing data on dusty spreadsheets, buried in email chains, or—brace yourselves—on someone’s desktop called “Final_Final_Version3.xlsx”. Estimations were crafted from “gut feel”, pricing schedules were reinvented for every new project, and tender evaluations were a high-stakes game of spreadsheet Tetris.
In this retrospective session from the enlightened year of 2045, we take you on a journey back to the chaos before InfraPoint: the time when project timelines were “fluid”, budgets were “ballpark”, and every contractor had a “unique interpretation” of what things should cost.
We’ll explore the breakthrough that changed everything: how InfraPoint introduced a centralised, standardised cost database and harnessed AI to automate estimation and validation. How it turned endless hours of manual work into minutes. How it helped councils collaborate, share, and make informed decisions across regions. And how the public works sector finally said goodbye to “copy-paste-costing” for good.
Expect laughs, a few gasps, and a hopeful look at how a simple idea—shared knowledge, smarter tools, and AI support—reshaped the future of infrastructure delivery.
You’ll leave this session with an understanding of the technology we adopt today determines how efficiently, sustainably, and collaboratively we’ll build tomorrow’s world.