ABC Convention 2025

Education Professionals Orientation, Part 1 Tuesday, March 24, 2020; 01:00 PM-05:00 PM

This two-part workshop will provide ABC chapter education and workforce development staff hired during the past year with the skills to respond to challenges and opportunities, including working with external stakeholders, growing programs, managing instructors and leading a successful chapter education program. Attendees will work together to master topics relevant to their education efforts and build a network of peers to collaborate with throughout their tenure at ABC.

(Session open to new ABC chapter staff: education and workforce development professionals)

Membership Professionals Orientation, Part 1 Tuesday, March 24, 2020; 01:00 PM-05:00 PM

This two-part workshop will provide ABC membership and marketing staff who came on board during the last year with peer-based and professional training, including recruitment, goal planning, retention, volunteer management and engagement, membership sales, events and services. Learn about resources available through ABC National and chapter best practices, and build a network of peers whom you will work with throughout your tenure with ABC.

(Session open to new ABC chapter staff: membership professionals)

Membership Professionals Orientation, Part 2 Wednesday, March 25, 2020; 08:00 AM-12:00 PM

(Session open to new ABC chapter staff: membership professionals)

The Use of Nonproprietary Elevator Equipment in Construction Wednesday, March 25, 2020; 08:00 AM-09:15 AM

When you are getting ready for an elevator installation, talk to your elevator contractor about the benefits of choosing nonproprietary equipment to ensure that any repair technician who inspects your elevator will be able to perform effective repairs. This AIA-approved course will provide an overview of why nonproprietary elevator equipment is preferred by most building owners.

This session qualifies for AIA CEU credit.

(Suggested attendees: ABC members with a full registration)

No More Mistakes—Utilize the Power of Debriefing to Eliminate Reoccurring Mistakes, Improve Team Effectiveness and Drive Remarkable Results Wednesday, March 25, 2020; 08:00 AM-09:15 AM

The key to success is giving people a stake in solutions. Debriefing helps teams leverage and learn from mistakes in real time. Learn how to enroll people in a debriefing conversation, understand how to create and maintain a learning orientation, empower your people to own the problem by redefining it as a pattern and/or opportunity to improve, understand ownership and discover the powerful bonding that stems from a rigorous debriefing practice.

(Suggested attendees: ABC members and chapter staff with a full registration)

The Financial Framework Roadmap—A Comprehensive How-to Guide for Your Organization Wednesday, March 25, 2020; 08:00 AM-09:15 AM

As ABC staff, we have the duty to oversee, manage and safeguard our chapters’ finances and mitigate business risks. ABC’s chief financial officer will present a comprehensive financial framework that can be used as a roadmap for chapters to replicate at their own organizations. This how-to guide will cover all aspects of financial management, from implementing a standard chart of accounts to auditor selection and 990 tax form filing.

(Suggested attendees: ABC chapter staff with a full registration)

Education Professionals Orientation, Part 2 Wednesday, March 25, 2020; 08:00 AM-12:00 PM

(Session open to new ABC chapter staff: education and workforce development professionals)

Making Meetings Matter—How to Dramatically Improve Meeting Effectiveness Wednesday, March 25, 2020; 08:00 AM-09:15 AM

Do your meetings matter? Recent studies reveal that the average middle manager spends around 35% of their day in meetings. What’s worse, 67% of meetings are unproductive. Get basic guidelines for effective agendas and learn how to reset a meeting that is “going off the rails,” modulate contributions toward balance and collaboration, use “bookending” to open and close meetings and discuss make interventions to move the meeting forward.

(Suggested attendees: ABC members and chapter staff with a full registration)

How to Deal With Difficult People—A New Plan for Leaders to Moderate Disruptive Behaviors and Improve Effectiveness Wednesday, March 25, 2020; 09:45 AM-11:00 AM

Have you ever had an employee or co-worker who frustrates you to the point where just seeing them around the office causes anxiety, and working with them feels impossible? Have you had a boss like that, a customer, a vendor? This session offers some simple steps and tangible tools to directly address troublesome people, group dynamics, and unconscious patterns to significantly improve team function.

(Suggested attendees: ABC members and chapter staff with a full registration)

Champions of Free Enterprise: ABC’s Origin Story Wednesday, March 25, 2020; 09:45 AM-11:00 AM

ABC was founded in 1950 by a group of contractors devoted to promoting and fair and open competition for construction jobs, regardless of labor affiliation. Have you ever wondered what it was like back in the day? Greg Sizemore will moderate this panel of chapter presidents who will tell the story of ABC’s rich history and how the merit shop movement continues to grow and thrive. Also, there will be time for Q&A.

Panelists:

Brian Sampson - Empire State Chapter
John Mielke - Wisconsin Chapter
Jimmy Greene - Greater Michigan Chapter
Joe Perpiglia - Eastern Pennsylvania Chapter

(Suggested attendees: ABC members and chapter staff with a full registration)

Power With Vs. Power Over—How Great Leaders Engage, Motivate and Empower Their People to Perform Wednesday, March 25, 2020; 09:45 AM-11:00 AM

The old power paradigm is gone; today’s workforce requires leaders who are great listeners and have the ability to draw out potential by empowering others. Enhance your leadership skills by becoming a facilitator who draws out the knowledge, experience and creativity of the people on their team in our rapidly changing world.

(Suggested attendees: ABC members and chapter staff with a full registration)

A Little Lunch and a Lot of Learning Wednesday, March 25, 2020; 12:00 PM-03:00 PM

Distance learning, e-learning, online learning, blended learning…with so many terms being thrown around, it can be difficult to figure out what they all mean and which will work best for your organization. Bring your computer or tablet and join us to discuss these topics, preview NCCER’s new online curriculum platform and provide feedback. (Lunch is included.)

(Session open to new ABC chapter staff: education and workforce development professionals)

Extraordinary Customer Care: A “Words Matter” Program Wednesday, March 25, 2020; 01:00 PM-02:15 PM

Traditional customer service programs only go so far. Research shows that communication is the No. 1 skill that all professionals need to improve. Discover the secrets to customer care and retention that can help move service from ordinary to extraordinary. Packed with tools and techniques that can be put into practice immediately, this program yields results such as higher customer retention, fewer escalated customer incidents and greater employee satisfaction.

(Suggested attendees: ABC members and chapter staff with a full registration)

A Day in the Life of ABC Members: Bids, Deadlines and Building America Wednesday, March 25, 2020; 01:00 PM-02:15 PM

On any given day, a construction project manager may spend time negotiating a contract, hiring a subcontractor, inspecting a plumbing installation problem or all of the above. Hear from a panel of contractors what they wished everyone knew about their day-to-day jobs. This panel will be moderated by George Nash Jr., Branch Builds' business unit leader and ABC's 2019 immediate past chair.

(Suggested attendees: ABC members and chapter staff with a full registration)

Mastering the Millennial Mindset: How to Attract and Retain Emerging Leaders Wednesday, March 25, 2020; 01:00 PM-02:15 PM

With approximately 10,000 baby boomers retiring every day, your organization’s succession-planning efforts demand that you attract the best employees from a shrinking pool of qualified talent. Learn the secrets to hiring and retaining employees that stick.

(Suggested attendees: ABC members and chapter staff with a full registration)

Build Better Teams by Putting the “I” in Team: How to Re-empower Your Individual Employees and Managers Wednesday, March 25, 2020; 01:00 PM-02:15 PM

Learn how to motivate, inspire and empower the individuals in your organization so they choose to operate as a team rather than just a group of individuals. In this session, Susan Leahy and Freeman Michaels will reveal the secrets behind high functioning teams, as well as how to generate and sustain great teams. Participants will also come to understand that they, as individuals, are responsible for choosing to work as a team, and they discover the level of respect required to foster a high functioning team.

(Suggested attendees: ABC members and chapter staff with a full registration)

CONSTRUCT Membership Growth: 15 Minutes; 10 Slides; You Decide Wednesday, March 25, 2020; 02:45 PM-04:00 PM

Our best ideas come from each other. During this interactive crowdsourced session, you will hear from four individual or team finalists who submitted an idea to grow ABC membership in their chapter. Each gets 15 minutes and no more than 10 slides to make their pitch to you, the judges. The winning individual or team will receive a CONSTRUCT grant to implement their idea.

(Suggested attendees: ABC chapter staff with a full registration)

Snipers, Steamrollers and Chronic Complainers Wednesday, March 25, 2020; 02:45 PM-04:00 PM

Imagine how you and your organization would profit—literally—if team members could deal more effectively with difficult people. Imagine: No more productivity-killing feuds between coworkers and departments. No more time-wasting conversations with demanding customers. The net results? Better relationships, better customer service and increased employee satisfaction and retention. Get past the drama of difficult people and get on with the business of being productive.

(Suggested attendees: ABC members and chapter staff with a full registration)

Sweat the Small Stuff: Why Attention to Detail Helps You Create a Corporate Culture That Rocks Wednesday, March 25, 2020; 02:45 PM-04:00 PM

If you want your organization to be a force for the future, you must engage your employees more powerfully than you have in the past. Legendary cultures that enjoy a higher retention rate, improved productivity and increased profitability start with a commitment to building a foundation of trust, supporting employees in their career aspirations, applauding their efforts and serving a mission that is greater than your company alone.

(Suggested attendees: ABC members and chapter staff with a full registration)

The Music City Center: A Case Study in Merit Shop Construction Thursday, March 26, 2020; 09:00 AM-10:15 AM

The Music City Center, which was built by a merit shop joint venture between Bell and Associates and Clark Construction, recently celebrated its fifth birthday. Hear from the project managers who over saw the construction of this magnificent convention center.

Get More Registrants for Your Education Programs Thursday, March 26, 2020; 09:00 AM-10:15 AM

Choosing the right topic is only the first step! You need to use words that work and know the techniques to use before, during and after a session to fill seats. Learn which marketing efforts are working and which are a waste of time, how to use underutilized tools like short videos to motivate your audience to action and three things your speaker should be doing to get more registrants.

(Suggested attendees: ABC chapter staff with a full registration)

Fundraising Best Practices: What Works, What Doesn’t, and the Mistakes Not to Make Thursday, March 26, 2020; 09:00 AM-10:15 AM

What would professional fundraising look like for your chapter? What if fundraising could keep getting easier? Nonprofit expert Erik Hanberg will give you important tools to help you grow your fundraising, covering the foundational principles of professional fundraising and how to apply them to specific situations many chapters find themselves in. You'll find important tips and ideas to kickstart your chapter's fundraising.

(Suggested attendees: ABC chapter staff with a full registration)

New ANSI Standards: What You Need to Know and Do…Now! Thursday, March 26, 2020; 10:45 AM-12:00 PM

If your firm rents or owns aerial work platforms, including boom lifts and scissor lifts, how will new ANSI standards affect you? Get up to speed on new design requirements for all aerial work platform manufacturers, new safe use program requirements for users and new training requirements for operators and their supervisors.

(Suggested attendees: ABC members and chapter staff with a full registration)

Fundraising: Making the Ask Workshop Thursday, March 26, 2020; 10:45 AM-12:00 PM

For those who want to go deeper on fundraising with nonprofit expert Erik Hanberg, dive into the most effective (but also frequently the scariest) part of fundraising: directly asking individuals for money. No amount of emails or direct mail will ever compete with sitting down with someone and asking them for a gift. This session will include a fundraising game to help hone your skills as a fundraiser.

(Suggested attendees: ABC members and chapter staff with a full registration)

Election Update: 2020 and Beyond Thursday, March 26, 2020; 10:45 AM-12:00 PM

Join ABC National’s Government Affairs team for insights and analysis of the 2020 elections, including federal, state and local polling, updates and predictions.

Using Storytelling to Persuade Your Board and Customers Thursday, March 26, 2020; 10:45 AM-12:00 PM

Stories, analogies, examples, oh my! If you're in the business of persuading (aren't we all?), storytelling is a critical part of making connections and persuading your audience to take action.

(Suggested attendees: ABC members and chapter staff with a full registration)

CONSTRUCT STEP Growth: 15 Minutes; 10 Slides; You Decide Friday, March 27, 2020; 10:00 AM-11:15 AM

Our best ideas come from each other. During this interactive crowdsourced session, you will hear from four individual or team finalists who submitted an idea to grow ABC STEP participation in their chapter. Each gets 15 minutes and no more than 10 slides to make their pitch to you, the judges. The winning individual or team receives a CONSTRUCT grant to implement their idea.

(Suggested attendees: ABC chapter staff with a full registration or attendees with a full-day Friday registration)

Preparing a Contractor for the Next Downturn Friday, March 27, 2020; 10:00 AM-11:15 AM

History has shown that construction markets are cyclical. The time to prepare for the next downturn is now, while things are going well. Understand critical considerations and action plans you can put in place, including identifying the signs of a downturn from both the owner’s and contractor’s perspective, contractual considerations, cash flow and overhead management, opportunities in a downturn for well-positioned and capitalized contractors, and proactive steps to take if things turn.

(Suggested attendees: ABC members and chapter staff with a full registration or attendees with a full-day Friday registration)

Drop the Mic: The Power and Impact of Amplifying and Aligning Core Values Friday, March 27, 2020; 02:30 PM-03:45 PM

Purpose is something we choose by identifying and living out our core values. Companies can activate their organizational core values by encouraging leaders to think of those values as hit songs—memorable anthems loved and sung by the masses. Learn how to use organizational core values to connect the head and the heart, identify and schedule opportunities to showcase organizational core values and determine your primary motivator.

(Suggested attendees: ABC members and chapter staff with a full registration or attendees with a full-day Friday registration)

You Are ABC: How Every Staff Member of ABC Impacts the Industry Friday, March 27, 2020; 02:30 PM-03:45 PM

ABC has an impact on the construction industry every day. ABC President and CEO Michael Bellaman will discuss how our strategic plan guides us to help our members develop people, win work and deliver that work safely, ethically and profitably for the betterment of the communities in which ABC and its members work.

(Suggested attendees: ABC chapter staff with a full registration or attendees with a full-day Friday registration)

Thank You to Our Strategic Partners