Consider the benefit of having 40 like-minded professionals walk through your shop and office to offer their advice on how you can optimize space, time, and resources. The benefit, however, not only lies in the shop and office workers, but rather those 40 professionals can admire in-person the years of hard work that built a highly respected mechanical company. Thank you Intech Mechanical for hosting The Unified Group’s 2023 Construction Forum and making it an experience like no other. The camaraderie, presentations, and amount of knowledge in one room made the event so extraordinary to attend.

On day one Josh Byler of Blauch Brothers and our meeting MC, started off with an around-the-room sharing of introductions, which of course, entailed numerous belly laughs. Handoff from Estimating/Engineering/Pre-Con to VDC held the conversation for most of the morning, followed by an overview of Intech Mechanical. The highlight of day one was the tour of Intech Mechanical. For the second half of day one, attendees were bused to Intech for a tour of their facilities. Intech employees planned, designed, and executed tour groups, while designating expert facilitators to provide a seamless and informative couple of hours for all.

“Everything was very well done,” Nick Andell of Wiegmann Associates said. “You can tell how much everyone was dialed in to the Intech group and is part of the team.”

Feeling inspired, attendees came into day two eager to continue learning and sharing. The highest rated segment was the Project Tracking and Performance Panel, which covered the various methods used to measure percent complete and earned values. This piece was facilitated by Byler, and panelists included Jon Castro of B&I Contractors, Inc., Brandon Walker of Gregory-Edwards, Inc., Garrett Alstrup of Legacy Mechanical, Mike Keenan of VHV Company, and Scott Becherer of Wiegmann Associates.

“Seeing how other companies operate is very interesting,” Ashley Duncan of General Sheet Metal said. “There are always nuggets of information you can walk away with, and it makes you start to think about ways to implement different ideas into your own systems.”

The Working With GC’s Panel was the favorite topic on the final day of the forum. Gary Myers of Intech Mechanical facilitated, and panelists included Pansy Romo of Intech Mechanical, Chris Schaff of Air Controls, Scott Krum of Legacy Mechanical, Jason Tjader of Peterson Sheet Metal, and Andell. Panelists covered issues they have had to overcome with GC’s and how to best deal with the negative impact of delays. Many GC’s work out of sequence, so the full group discussed how they negotiate sequences and ultimately work around these issues.

“This group really lowers all barriers and opens the door to real conversations about items we all need to discuss,” Becherer said. “A huge highlight of the group is hearing how others deal with the same issues and help us identify things that we need to improve in.”

Overall, The Unified Group’s 2023 Construction Forum was an immense success that received nothing but great feedback from attendees. Each conference contains something a little bit different, but always provides a platform to learn, share, and grow. Upcoming forums include the Annual Meeting & Owners,’ Service Management, Technicians, Sales, Leadership, Financial, and many more! If you have interest in attending a conference or want to inquire about membership with The Unified Group, email Janet Kelleher at KelleherJ@TheUnifiedGroup.com.