CHARLESTON -- “Being in the construction industry is so fulfilling,” The Unified Group’s 2022 Construction Forum MC, Jaime Quello, said. “How cool is it to drive down a road, point to a building and say, ‘I built that.’ We’re building history.” Overall, Charleston presented an environment for these like-minded individuals to share their company’s ideas and concepts with the other members within The Unified Group.

Day one consisted of member presentations regarding Supply Chain Strategies and a Bid Letter Clauses for Price Escalation and Natural Disasters full group discussion. However, the highlight of the day was a tour of Cullum Mechanical Construction, Inc.’s corporate office, pipe shop and sheet metal shop. For the next four hours, members of different nationwide companies walked through Cullum’s facilities, where they had the opportunity to ask questions, offer suggestions, and learn what Cullum employees do day-to-day.

“It was nice to walk through a company that is split up similarly to us,” Pansy Romo of Intech Mechanical said. “They had a lot of great employees who enjoy being a part of the Cullum family.”

After a fun night of getting to know members in a more casual environment, attendees came back the next day eager to continue learning. Prefabrication and BIM was the hot topic of day two. With nearly two hours of presentations and discussions, three members represented their companies by showing the group their various capabilities in sheet metal, plumbing, and piping. Other topics included: Conceptual Budgeting and Historical Pricing, Employee Issues, a Biggest Challenge Breakout, and many more!

On the final day of the meeting, members returned excited to continue learning before heading back home. Project Turnover was a highlight from day three. Two companies dove into how they manage the process of project turnover from estimating to the project manager to the executive team. In general, many members initially expressed challenges with this process, and companies responded with their positive experiences.

“Being my first time attending, I was really pleased with the open and honest conversation between everyone,” Ryan Ress of Peterson Sheet Metal said. “It seems like everyone just wants to help each other.”

All in all, The Unified Group’s 2022 Construction Forum was an extremely successful event for all attendees, allowing them to return to their companies and implement various new processes and ideas. If your company has interest in learning more about The Unified Group and the offerings, contact Janet Kelleher at KelleherJ@theunifiedgroup.com.

Access highlight video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgA2kermYCw