The recently concluded 2023 Fall Conference in Austin, Texas, provided two triumphant firsts for ACEC. As ACEC Chair Jay Wolverton announced, more than 1,000 members attended the Fall Conference, the most in conference history.
Additionally, ACEC/PAC reached a $1 million fundraising milestone during the conference, a record pace for this early in the year.
In her remarks to the Board of Directors, ACEC President and CEO Linda Bauer Darr shared thoughts on the future of the industry and the need for members to focus on advancing technology and better position themselves to “compete—and win—in a marketplace that is more and more driven by technology.”
“Technology is not something to fear,” Darr said. “It’s something to be embraced and to be leveraged. The world has changed. We risk nothing by being prepared for that change. We risk everything if we aren’t.”
The conference also featured noted national speakers and a bottom line-focused lineup of management education sessions, along with entertaining networking activities.
More conference highlights follow.
The 2023 Fall Conference kicked off with remarks from U.S. Chamber of Commerce Executive Vice President and Chief Policy Officer Neil Bradley, during which he shared his impressions of the current political state of play. He also offered thoughts on how ideological extremists on both ends of the spectrum are jeopardizing hard-won progress.
Bradley began his remarks with a history lesson, asking attendees to imagine themselves at a conference in the early 1970s, when government regulation would have impacted much of the journey—from the cost of the flight to the price of a phone call home.
A half-century of deregulation has given consumers choices, lowering prices and setting the stage for free enterprise to flourish. “For the entire professional life of everyone in this room, the consensus on both the left and right has been that free enterprise is good,” he said.
It is only within the last several years, Bradley argued, that fringe elements on both the left and right have gained ground in reverting to rules and regulations empowered to “bring business to heel.”
There has been a breakdown in the long-standing pro-business consensus and policies, Bradley said. “The era of deference to free markets is over.”
And this, he continued, is where the fight for the future will be waged—and it’s a fight that organizations such as ACEC and the Chamber must win.
The power of translating human potential and wisdom across industries emerged as an overarching Fall Conference theme. Ben Saunders is living proof of how this multidisciplinary collaboration is already moving the engineering world forward.
Saunders is the world-renowned polar explorer and was the first person to lead an expedition to the South Pole—and survive. He explained how his experiences make clear that while we often think about technology as microchips and digital devices, the word applies across all contributions of human knowledge.
Saunders’ expedition to the South Pole took years to plan and four months to complete. To make this dream a reality, he had to overcome three main types of challenges. Along with commercial challenges (i.e., fundraising, equipment, and leading a team), he faced physical challenges (such as fitness, nutrition, and clothing), and cognitive challenges relating to the physical and mental stress of the journey.
When looking back on the mental preparations, Saunders said he “realized pretty quickly that that was the most important piece, because when you’re out there, you can never really recover fully from one day to the next,” he said. “You’re always getting more and more tired. Every day you wake up, and you’re just more tired, more tired, more tired, in a sort of downward spiral.” The statement aligned perfectly with the realities so many professionals face in today’s fast-paced and stressful work environment.
Now, after spending almost two decades traversing terrains that are arguably some of the most unforgiving on Earth, he has made a “weird pivot” to sustainable innovation, which seems a perfect fit for his skills and expertise.
“I’m enjoying being a kind of catalyst. Like, I’m not a scientist. I don’t have mounds of money. But I can raise money, [and] I can point it in the right direction and find extraordinary talent and intellect and IP [intellectual property],” Saunders said.
“We need to push the limits of sustainable technologies, so that’s where I’ll be.”
Swimmer, author, and journalist Diana Nyad treated attendees to an inspirational and spirited presentation where she shared her journey of becoming the first person ever to swim from Havana to Key West, Florida, without a shark cage—a mind-boggling 110 miles.
Equal parts entertaining and inspiring, Nyad set the tone of her remarks early, coming onstage with a trumpet and playing “Reveille”—a military bugle call that means “wake up” in French. She told the audience that the tune is a metaphor for how she has lived her life: “Onward. Get up. Don’t miss the dawn. Don’t miss a moment of your life.”
Nyad shared a story from her childhood that shaped both her worldview and her future. She spoke of her “very dramatic” Greek father, who one day woke Diana in tears to take in the beauty of the ocean. Her father pointed out to her a definition in the dictionary: “Nyad means girl or woman champion swimmer. This is your destiny.”
After the Cuban revolution, when thousands of refugees flooded into Nyad’s hometown of Miami, a 9-year-old Diana asked her mother how far away Cuba was from Florida. “So close that a strong swimmer like you, you could swim there,” she replied.
At age 64, Nyad embarked on her fifth and final—and successful—attempt. With a team of 40, including navigators, medical experts, and personal handlers, Nyad began the more than 100-mile open ocean swim, battling marine life, sensory deprivation, and the powerful Gulf Stream. Fifty-two hours and 54 minutes later, she emerged triumphant.
“Cuba was about potential, to drill down to every last thread of physical and mental potential,” she concluded. “I am now 74 years old. I have no regrets.”
While Kal Penn is an actor, he has also served as an associate director in the White House under President Barack Obama in 2009, as a climate change activist, and as a liaison to Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and arts communities.
Drawing from this nontraditional resume, Penn impressed upon attendees that we’re more aligned on climate change and “doing the right thing” than we realize.
Penn shared a 2008 statistic revealing that conservative- and liberal-minded young adults at that time cited a similar set of top five concerns for the future, including poverty, human rights, and climate change.
He also recalled overseeing an executive order while serving as a White House staff member for former President Obama, who signed Executive Order 13515 “Increasing Participation of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in Federal Programs” into law.
Penn concluded his talk by reminding attendees that the most powerful stakeholders in our society, including incoming generations, government actors, and major corporations, are more aligned than we sometimes appreciate, especially when it comes to “doing the right thing.”
When considering the engineering workforce shortage, it is critical that ACEC member firms prioritize making their workplaces attractive to prospective employees. It is equally important that those environments foster a sense of inclusion and belonging to retain talent.
A benchmarking study by the ACEC Research Institute on diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEI&B) provides insights for ACEC member firms. The institute was able to share several preliminary data points for Fall Conference attendees ahead of the study’s release.
Of the responses in the study up to this point, 36 percent of member firms have a DEI&B strategy in place and 35 percent are working to develop a strategy, but 28 percent do not have a strategy and are not currently working to develop one. That means that 71 percent of firms that have responded so far either have or are developing a strategy.
By checking out the benchmarking resource, readers can see what it takes to move from one stage to the next. The tool is now reopened for firms that want to participate. Reach out to the ACEC Research Institute for login information, or email questions to institute@acec.org.
The 7 a.m. meeting start time did not diminish the enthusiasm for ACEC’s new Technology Committee, which drew a standing room-only crowd.
With the Fall Conference being noted for its tech-heavy curriculum, the attendance at the committee meeting confirmed the growing importance for firms to adopt advancing technology and learn new strategies for navigating an evolving business environment.
Raj Arora, Technology Committee chairman and CEO of Jensen Hughes, began the session with a brief overview of the committee’s evolution over the last year. A day-long session this past spring in Washington, D.C., established a charter and created three subcommittees: Listening and Engagement, Education, and Advocacy.
From those initial conversations, a slate of challenges and priorities emerged regarding securing talent, managing demand for services, navigating a changing workplace, and the need to maintain competitiveness.
With firms of all sizes needing to fill open positions, the impact of tech on the workforce is a significant topic. “We’re all street fighting all day long for talent,” said Arora. “I think tech is going to help us both attract and retain workers.”
This was echoed by Javier Baldor, CEO of BST Global. “Don’t just think through the next move. Think beyond to the full set of moves,” he said.
ACEC Congratulates Our 2023 Award Recipients
2023 CHAIR EMERITUS AWARD
COALITIONS DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD
COMMUNITY SERVICE AWARDS
NEW COLLEGE OF FELLOWS INDUCTEES
2023 SCHOLARSHIP WINNERS
YOUNG PROFESSIONAL OF THE YEAR AWARDS
QBS SPECIAL RECOGNITION AWARD
ACEC/PAC FALL CONFERENCE SWEEPSTAKES WINNERS The winners of this year’s PAC Sweepstakes: David Wantman, WGI, West Palm Beach, Florida, won the $10,000 Grand Prize. Elizabeth Stolfus, Stolfus & Associates, Greenwood Village, Colorado, won the $7,500 prize. Laury Hodges, VHB, Atlanta; Peter Latta, Jones & Henry Engineers, Toledo, Ohio; and Fabricio Ponce, VHB, Atlanta, each won $5,000. Paul Korn, Sayre Associates, Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Paul Wasser, Schnabel Engineering, Boise, Idaho; and Jason Webber, Kimley-Horn and Associates, Delray Beach, Florida, each won $2,500.
Ten people won $1,000 prizes: Robin Greenleaf, Architectural Engineers, now IMEG, Boston; Gary Grigsby, ACEC-Wyoming, Cheyenne, Wyoming; Gary Hartong, The Wooten Company, Raleigh, North Carolina; Jason Kelly, DOWL, Lake Oswego, Oregon; Maria King, Lochmueller Group, St. Louis; Alan Marteney, Century Engineering, Dover, Delaware; Brian Parker, Kimley-Horn and Associates, Fort Worth, Texas; Scott Rathfon, Century Engineering, a Kleinfelder Company, Dover, Delaware; Matthew Richards, Strand Associates, Madison, Wisconsin; and Kenneth Smith, T. Baker Smith, Houma, Louisiana.
SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR 2023 FALL CONFERENCE SPONSORS
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