Reality capture pays off only when the right tool goes on the right job and the resulting data reaches the people doing the work. This block opens with a practitioner’s guide to running a profitable multi-platform operation across UAS lidar and photogrammetry, tripod mounted terrestrial scanning, and handheld SLAM and robot dog capture, including how to match method to job type, price multi-sensor work, and separate real AI gains from hype inside a small firm. It closes with a national contractor’s account of moving a digital dig board from proof of concept toward a field standard, covering ownership, funding, update cadence, and the adoption work that begins after the technology already works.
9:00 AM – 9:30 AM
From Drone to Dog: Building a Profitable Multi-Platform Reality-Capture Program in a Survey Firm
Presented by Joshua Adams, Adams Surveying Company
A drone is one tool, not a program. This session is a working survey-business owner’s guide to running a reality-capture operation that actually turns a profit and meets industry accuracy standards across the full sensor spectrum; aerial lidar and photogrammetry from UAS, tripod-mounted terrestrial scanning, and mobile ground capture from handheld SLAM units and “robot dog” platforms. The hard part isn’t owning the gear; it’s knowing which method to deploy on which job to protect both accuracy and margin. We’ll cover setting honest client expectations on what each platform can and can’t deliver, matching capture method to job type so the work actually pencils out, and the mechanics of integrating every platform with conventional ground control and traditional field methods to keep the survey defensible. We’ll close with a candid reality check on AI in the small-firm workflow; What we have built and are using today, what’s worth testing, what’s still hype, and how one owner is building and experimenting without a data science or coding/development team. Attendees leave with a framework for choosing platforms, pricing multi-sensor work, and a grounded view of where automation is headed.
9:30 AM – 10:00 AM
Reality Capture Meets Reality: Getting Field Teams to Actually Use the Data
Presented by Stuart Drahota, DPR Construction
Construction has gotten very good at capturing the jobsite. Drones, scanning, mobile mapping, CAD overlays, utility datasets, and reality capture platforms now create highly visual records of changing site conditions. But the harder challenge is not collecting the data — it is getting that data into the hands of field teams in a way that changes daily decisions.
Digital dig boards are no longer a new idea. They have been discussed across the industry as a better way to visualize underground utilities, drone imagery, GIS data, and jobsite conditions. The next challenge is whether these workflows can move beyond project-level innovation and become a repeatable field standard.
DPR Construction’s Digital Dig Board started as a practical response to underground utility risk: make known utilities, drone imagery, as-builts, and field updates visible where ground disturbance work is planned and executed. Early efforts proved the value of replacing static, printed dig boards with an accessible, map-based jobsite view. The next chapter is bigger: moving from a digital board to a field workflow teams can use, trust, maintain, fund, and standardize across projects.
This session will share the evolution of DPR’s Digital Dig Board from proof of concept to active national pilot, with a focus on the lessons that come after the technology works. By January, DPR expects to be working toward a more formal standard around how Digital Dig Boards are set up, maintained, funded, and used in the field. That means defining ownership between Field Operations, EHS, Preconstruction, VDC/FTG, project teams, and trade partners — and making sure the workflow does not live as an optional innovation experiment.
While digital dig boards have been presented at Geo Week in recent years, this session is focused on the next maturity phase: adoption, ownership, repeatability, ecosystem development, and standardization. It will not simply show how drone imagery, utility data, or CAD overlays can be visualized on a map. Instead, it will examine what happens after the technology works — how teams assign ownership, maintain trust in the data, connect permits and as-builts, define field roles, establish update cadence, and move toward a scalable standard.
The pilot is also stress-testing the Digital Dig Board as part of a broader construction technology ecosystem. DPR is evaluating POC workflows and partner integrations to understand how utility intelligence, reality capture, CAD/DXF data, permits, mobile access, field notes, and as-built updates can work together in a practical field environment. The goal is not to force one platform to solve every problem, but to identify the right mix of data, tools, roles, and workflows that helps field teams make better decisions at the point of work.
Ultimately, this is a practitioner story about the gap between reality capture and reality. A drone map does not automatically change behavior. A digital twin does not create accountability unless it is connected to the people doing the work. This session will focus on turning captured data into field adoption: clear roles, simple access, trusted information, repeatable cadence, and a workflow that fits how construction teams actually operate.
The board is not the standard; the workflow is.
