Education Opportunities at CONSTRUCT

I've been attending the CSI National Convention since the 2001 convention in Dallas. That was a convenient trip as my parents live in Dallas, so I took the whole family and gave my parents some time with their grandchildren. I thoroughly enjoyed the convention, but my work circumstances and the expense of attendance caused me to miss a few of the Chicago years. I was able to return to the convention in Las Vegas in 2006 to help promote the 2007 convention that we hosted in Baltimore. As my work circumstances changed and my leadership in CSI grew, I haven't missed a convention since 2006. I’ve attended every year since the partnership with Hanley Wood began in 2008 and CONSTRUCT was born. One thing that keeps me coming back is the educational opportunities offered.

When I first started attending the convention, I was relatively new to CSI and young in my career, so I chose primarily technical seminars: weatherproofing, air barriers, specification writing sessions, etc. I found the information to be top notch and incredibly helpful in my career as the presenters were experts in construction. My own ability to do my job better and more efficiently grew. However, as I moved up through leadership in my chapter and began to look at leadership opportunities at the region and Institute levels, my interests changed as did what I needed to gain from the educational seminars at CONSTRUCT. At about the same time, I was promoted at work and needed to expand my knowledge of leadership. I began to choose sessions taught by folks outside of CSI. Professionals brought in to teach attendees about discrete parts of practice, leadership and business.  I also began to attend sessions taught by CSI leaders such as Sheldon Wolfe, Grady Whitaker, Casey Robb and others. I found these sessions to be immensely entertaining and thought provoking.

However, at CONSTRUCT2011 in Chicago, I attended a session that changed the way I look at digital media and its effect on all facets of our life. Joy Davis and Charles Hendricks presented a session titled “Expanding your Reach with Social Media.” Up until September 2011, I had experimented with blogging, unsuccessfully, and had a twitter account specifically to follow the beat writer for the sports reporter who covers my alma mater. I had a LinkedIn account with basic professional information and used Facebook primarily to keep up with old friends and allow my parents to see current photos of what my kids are involved in. I had never considered the need for a cohesive strategy to make sure my message, skills and personality were not only on the web but available in a manner that I choose.

The premise of Joy’s and Charles’s session was an introduction to some of the various types of social media and the reasons to use them, when to use them and the importance of your image and the information  you put out there for others to see. From the session I learned that I needed a strategy to make the social media work for me, if I’m going to use them at all.

After the convention, I thought a lot about what was presented by Joy and Charles and the discussions held with the folks in attendance. I realized that at that particular point in my career, I was not so much interested in social media for myself but for the advancement of CSI and our Baltimore Chapter. My goals for our chapter social media were to increase leader participation in the media, increase our chapter’s visibility nationwide and return to a time when our chapter published regular technical papers called “Felt Tips.”

It was apparent to me that Twitter was probably not the best media to use for this endeavor, so I started a chapter blog called “Felt Tips” www.felttips.blogspot.com. Initially, I generated all the content and was not able to regularly post to the blog. But through working with other leaders and discussing my goals for our chapter I was able to increase content and the leaders involved in generating that content. Across the last two years, three chapter members have provided me with content and one article in particular, “Life Performance of Truncated Dome Warning Devices on Curb Ramps,” generated healthy discussion in the comments section regarding the actual requirements of the Americans With Disabilities Act and the practices of many jurisdictions. While not an overwhelming success, I feel like our chapter’s image nationally has increased and I continue to work with leaders to create more content.

The great thing about CSI is our diversity of membership. Because our members come from across the construction industry, you can always find someone who has experience with and can answer your question. Based on the session from CONSTRUCT2011, I’ve learned that blogs are a great way to get your ideas out there and reading blogs is a great way to be exposed to the ideas and thoughts of other professionals across the country.
 

The CONSTRUCT Show and CSI National Convention are great events to meet those folks face-to-face and share ideas directly. No matter where your interests in construction lay, the educational programs at CONSTRUCT can provide you the same thought provoking information that I encountered with Joy and Charles in Chicago in 2011. Visit www.constructshow.com for more information about CONSTRUCT. Make plans today to attend CONSTRUCT in Nashville, TN from September 24-27, 2013.