Boston, MA- More than 55 construction leaders and professionals came together to attend The Unified Group’s 2025 Construction Forum from September 24th to September 27th at the Renaissance Boston Patriot Hotel. The group exchanged best practices on a wide range of topics, including onboarding and offboarding processes, employee reviews, labor tracking, managing change orders, and much more. Included in the session was a tour of our member’s facility, Environmental Systems, Inc.!

“The opportunities to engage with the group are priceless. From large to small group discussions, to chatting in between events, this is a great group of people,” stated Ashley Duncan of General Sheet Metal. 

Our first day was off to a great start thanks to our MC, Gary Myers of Intech Mechanical. From there, Mike Keenan of VHV Company and Brian Howard of Legacy Mechanical dove into the tools and strategies they use to measure Prefab/VDC in the field. Following their presentations, Jen Clark from General Sheet Metal and Ben Robertson from Air Controls provided insights into their Labor Tracking Practices, giving the group practical takeaways to improve efficiency and performance. The group then had an overview of Environmental Systems, Inc. and boarded the bus to head over to Taunton to tour their facility. The tour included eight stations which focused on Sheet Metal, Pipe Fabrication, Safety, Engineering, CRM, Startup, Service, and their Training Room. 

“Great tour and incredibly impressive! I really got a lot out of this, including inspiration,” said Grant Wiegmann of Wiegmann Associates. 

Another member, Casey Corbin of Legacy Mechanical, shared that, “the people at ESI were great and it was extremely impressive to see all of their presentations.”

As we began day two, Rob Ritz with freije Engineered Solutions and Jeff Baker with Intech Mechanical walked the group through their processes for onboarding and offboarding, with some members already stating they will begin to implement these within their companies right when they return. The momentum continued with our Best Ideas session: Gordon Rehdantz of Air Controls shared a smart approach to keeping field teams on large projects fully stocked using a NOS Box (Never Out of Stock), while Ben Robertson, also from Air Controls, highlighted his experience with Kojo, a platform that streamlines spending, sourcing, and requisitioning for greater efficiency. 

For our closing dinner and activity, the group headed to Fenway Park for the Red Sox game! We had an absolute blast cheering on the Sox, soaking in the iconic ballpark atmosphere, and wrapping up the forum with an unforgettable evening together. Experiencing Boston’s vibrant energy and the magic of Fenway made this night truly special.

“The best part of the meeting for me was realizing that, no matter the size of the company, we all deal with similar issues. Since nobody in the meeting is a competitor, it allowed us to openly share ideas with each other,” stated Brian Howard of Legacy Mechanical.

Day three we had a panel discussion on workforce management focusing on crew skillset and getting the right people on the job. A highlight of our last day was the large group discussion facilitated by Gary Myers, our meeting MC, where the group talked about closeout; avoiding return trips, improving O&M processes, and more. 

“One of the highlights from this forum was the common theme of strong culture and team first mentality among all of the companies in the Unified Group,” said Jimmy Roth of General Sheet Metal.

This year’s Construction Forum equipped Unified Group members with fresh strategies and valuable new relationships to take back to their businesses. Upcoming Forums include Safety, Design Build, and Service Management! If you are interested in learning more about attending a meeting or becoming a member of The Unified Group, contact Janet Kelleher at [email protected].