Uruguayan delegation participated in one of the most relevant events of Architecture and Engineering in the United States

Between Tuesday 19 and Thursday 21 November, Uruguay XXI was present with a country stand at one of the most important events in the Architecture and Engineering sectors in Las Vegas, United States.

Autodesk University is a reference event in the industry, connecting more than 10,000 professionals from the manufacturing, construction, architecture, engineering and creative industries. During the three days there are training workshops, conferences, updates and networking instances.

Uruguay XXI granted passes to seven exporting companies or companies with export potential to participate in the event, which aimed to promote the export of companies, as well as the diversification of exports of goods and services from Uruguay.

The companies selected to participate in Uruguay's stand were Aneiros Díaz, Archsourcing, CSI Ingenieros, Habitar Arquitectura, Lagarsoft, Montevideo Architectural Group and Turcatti Bim Consulting.

For several of the companies, this was their first participation in a major event and meant an important opportunity to showcase their work.

This type of action contributes to make visible and strengthen Uruguay's position as an exporter of architecture and engineering. In addition, it facilitates access to the latest trends in technology and promotes links with key players in technology, in one of the markets that presents more opportunities for the sector.

In this sense, Uruguay XXI seeks to encourage the participation of companies in the export process and promote the diversification of the country's exports, both in terms of markets and goods and services.

Export activity in the Architecture and Engineering sectors

The results of the last survey conducted by Uruguay XXI, in August 2019, on the export activity of the Architecture and Engineering sectors revealed that 99% of the studies consulted are MSMEs, although the exporting companies are on average larger.

In addition, the survey showed that engineering firms have a high degree of internationalization, since 86% of the firms consulted are service exporters, 9% do not export and 5% consider doing so in the short term. In the case of architectural firms, 37% of the companies export, 26% do not and the remaining 37% consider doing so in the near future.

Among the support provided by Uruguay XXI to the firms, access to commercial visits abroad (agendas with potential customers) was the most chosen, followed by support to hire business developers and participation in events abroad.

According to the survey data, 84% of the companies that exported between 2015 and 2019 did so in the last year, with a growing trend since 2015, although only 40% of the studies managed to export consecutively every year.

The services provided by the vast majority of studies and which have the greatest weight in turnover are the development of preliminary projects (80%), followed by the preparation of executive projects (75%) and project management (68%). The United States, Paraguay and Argentina are the target destinations indicated by the export studies, as well as by those considering exporting.

Having a greater number of professionals with postgraduate degrees, a greater scale of resources and diversity of professionals among its employees, good command of English and skills in the use of BIM methodology (Building Information Modeling), characterizes the engineering and architecture firms that have export activity.

BIM is a methodology that began to be used two decades ago in architecture to optimize construction processes, reduce errors, and save 30% in time and execution.

With the coordination of the National System of Productive Transformation and Competitiveness, Uruguay aims to promote the BIM National Strategy to increase digitalization, productivity, competitiveness and market transparency in the construction industry, as well as to improve the management of public works in all its phases and promote exports of services associated with BIM.