Wednesday, September 17, 2014

CONSTRUCT: The Must-Attend Event for Construction Professionals


CONSTRUCT 2014 and the CSI National Convention ended last Friday and I'm exhausted but incredibly happy with the week I spent at the convention center in Baltimore. When a large convention you regularly attend is in your town, it’s a bit of a different experience. You've got your usual carpool activities with your children and you feel like certain business meetings should be attended, but then you are at the convention and want to do all the things CONSTRUCT has to offer. I loved hosting all of my friends and colleagues in my adopted city, but I will be glad to go to St. Louis next year and be able to better focus on CONSTRUCT!

There were so many great things about this week and so many exciting moments from CONSTRUCT.

               Tuesday's 90-minute education sessions were fantastic! The 30 minutes between sessions allowed for follow up and networking opportunities.

               The Welcome Reception was held outside in beautiful weather.

               Each new Fellow was welcomed by three of the endorsers reading from their own endorsement letters; a very touching tribute!

               The Fellows Reception at the Top of World in the World Trade Center had breathtaking views of downtown and the harbor and very tasty champagne!

 

               Pablos Holman offered us a glimpse into the mind of the hacker and how that affects all of us - not just as construction professionals. Give him a look @pablos on Twitter.

 


               Our bloggers panel offered a "Just Do It" pep talk on how to get started expressing yourself through that medium and offered opinions from 5 different bloggers plus our moderator, a talented blogger himself.


               The Exhibit Hall was a great spot for discussing new products, greeting old friends            and learning in several different venues on the show floor.

               The Baltimore Chapter's Tall Ships Dinner Cruise offered a beautiful cruise through Baltimore's Harbor on a glorious evening of networking and fun.

 


               Tweet Ups occurred in the manufacturer's booths and in the CSI booth while those adept in the use of social media tried to show others the magic and benefits of using it to better our businesses and our industry.

 

               The CSI Annual Meeting and Members Forum gave us the opportunity to come together, discuss the future of our organization, hear from our leaders and honor those who won awards this year.

Hanley Wood and our CSI leaders and staff proved once again that they are a formidable pairing that puts on a fantastic convention. Over the past eight years, I have attended CONSTRUCT each year but I have also attended several other national conventions and conferences. I can say without question or hesitation that every construction professional should attend CONSTRUCT. The other conventions that I attended fell short of CONSTRUCT in some critical area. Maybe they had great education, but their show floor was thin. Maybe they were a niche organization good for professionals engaged in that work, but not everyone in construction. Maybe they offered heady, academic learning but little in the way of nuts and bolts offerings that help you every day in your job.

CONSTRUCT offers it all. The education every year was great, but this year's education sessions were definitely a notch up from recent years. If you wanted technical seminars on air barriers, glazing systems or engineering systems, you were covered. If you wanted to learn more about how to specify certain systems or write a better Division 01, you were covered. If you wanted to do your job better or grow into a leader in your chapter or firm, you were covered. In one week, there was great education, presented by industry leaders that will help you do your job better. I sat in the final session of the week and learned how to better organize my project information to make our projects more efficient in managing information and distributing it to the project team. I used that knowledge first thing Monday morning when I returned to my office. I cannot say that after attending other conventions, only after attending CONSTRUCT.

The CONSTRUCT Exhibit Hall had every facet of building material and software development covered, along with trade organizations that support our industry. I needed some information on windows and spoke with several different manufacturers on their offerings. If you needed information on coatings or waterproofing or finish materials, you were covered. If you wanted to see the latest ways to organize and edit your firm's master guide specifications, you were covered. Combine that with the best exhibit hall food I've had recently and the myriad opportunities to compare notes on practice with other like-minded professionals and CONSTRUCT's show floor had it all. And, you could find ice cream and beer by visiting the right booths!

Combine all of that with the evening activities - fellowship induction, host chapter dinner cruise and CSI Night Out - CONSTRUCT has the best balance of learning, networking and fun. New this year, the CSI Night Out was the exclamation point on a great week. The food was good, the band was great and the venue offered several different areas where you could dance or listen to music, socialize in comfortable seating or watch the Ravens-Steelers football game. CSI staff outdid themselves in planning that event!

This year was my ninth consecutive CSI National Convention and tenth overall. I have attended every year that the CONSTRUCT Show has existed and this was the best yet. I know I am biased, but I honestly believe that every construction professional should attend CONSTRUCT. I've attended other conventions and conferences and you cannot find the same the education, networking and exhibit hall anywhere else for the impressively low price of CONSTRUCT. You will learn things you can use at work next week. You will meet people who can help you do your job better. You can get answers to your questions about products from the people who know them best.

Make plans now to attend CONSTRUCT 2015 in St Louis, MO on September 30 through October 3, 2015. Visit CONSTRUCTShow.com and sign up for alerts.