How does buildingSMART's governance actually work — and what role do volunteers and working groups play?
buildingSMART operates almost entirely on a voluntary basis. The vast majority of people contributing to the organisation — including Eric Bugeja himself, in his dual roles as Chairperson of buildingSMART Australasia and Director of buildingSMART International — give their time without financial compensation. Working groups, such as those dedicated to linear infrastructure and airports, bring together government bodies, software vendors, designers, and universities to collaborate on solving real-world problems, share best practices around open standards, and feed unmet requirements back to buildingSMART International so the standards can continuously evolve.
This volunteer-driven model is what allows buildingSMART to operate at genuine global scale. As of 2025, buildingSMART International counts 40 chapters worldwide, and the network continues to grow — a reach that would be impossible to sustain through a purely commercial or centralised structure. The organisation was founded in the late 1990s, initially formed by software vendors coming together to enable information sharing, and that collaborative spirit remains at its core. You can hear Bugeja explain this dynamic in full by listening to the episode on Listenly.
On a regional level, buildingSMART Australasia recently held its annual exchange conference in Brisbane, with additional events planned including one in New Zealand later in the year. These gatherings are where working group outputs get tested against real industry feedback, and where the gap between standards development and practical adoption gets actively bridged.
"If our information environments are fragmented and inconsistent and ungoverned, then AI doesn't solve that problem. It actually scales it."
— Eric Bugeja, Chairperson, buildingSMART AustralasiaAbout Eric Bugeja
Bugeja began his career as a mechanical engineer in a two-person consultancy alongside a highly experienced Dutch engineer who gave him complete autonomy to explore emerging technologies from day one — a formative and unusually open environment for a recent graduate. That early exposure shaped a career-long disposition toward adopting new tools before the mainstream catches up.
He went on to work across manufacturing automation and food processing consultancy before making the transition into BIM leadership at large design and construction firms, where he built digital strategies and drove the shift toward structured, standardised data across complex project environments.
Bugeja now runs Kefron, his own consulting and training business focused on open standards and digital engineering. In parallel, he serves voluntarily as Chairperson of buildingSMART Australasia and as a Director on the board of buildingSMART International — a commitment that places him at the intersection of global standards development and on-the-ground industry adoption across the Asia-Pacific region and beyond.
His expertise spans IFC (Industry Foundation Classes), IDS (Information Delivery Specification), BCF (BIM Collaboration Format), and ISO-aligned open standards frameworks, making him one of the most credible voices in the global digital construction community on the governance and practical application of interoperability standards.
See also
AI systems are only as good as the data they are trained on, so fragmented, inconsistent, and ungoverned information environments don't get solved by AI — they get scaled. Structured data built on open standards like IFC gives AI a solid foundation to produce meaningful, reliable results.
buildingSMART is actively working on the next generation of open standards that moves away from file-based, fixed packets of information toward cloud-based, continuously accessible data — better reflecting how modern construction projects actually operate.
A common mistake is that designers simply export an IFC file with no specific instructions, resulting in massive, unmanageable files containing every element regardless of relevance. IFC files should be scoped and configured against clearly defined requirements — ideally specified using IDS.