More than 900 individuals convened in Washington, D.C., in May to attend ACEC’s Annual Convention & Legislative Summit. The event was packed with business education sessions and networking opportunities and featured a great lineup of keynote speakers. Nearly 800 people attended the 2024 Engineering Excellence Awards Gala, where AECOM took home the Grand Conceptor Award for Grand Central Madison in New York City.
Dr. Gary W. Raba, PE, chief growth officer at Raba Kistner, was installed as ACEC’s new chair for 2024–2025.
In her report before the Board of Directors, ACEC President and CEO Linda Bauer Darr celebrated the Council’s PAC growth. “Thanks to all of you, our PAC had a record-setting 2023, and we are on pace for another record-setting year,” she said.
The Council is also committed to finding solutions to the workforce shortage. “Taken together, the Workforce Summit, the new committee, and the work of the Institute add up to a significant investment in finding solutions to one of our business’s most vexing problems,” Darr said.
There are looming issues for the industry in Congress as we head into the thick of the election season. “2024 is shaping up to be an excellent year for ACEC,” Darr concluded. “There’s a lot at stake, a lot up in the air, and a lot of work to be done. Whatever happens in November, ACEC is prepared to meet the moment.”
Annual Convention highlights include:
PERSPECTIVES ON STATE OF AMERICAN POLITICS
The Convention opened with presentations on the state of American politics from two Washington insiders, American Enterprise Institute Senior Fellow Kevin Kosar and NPR Political Correspondent Mara Liasson.
Kosar gave a deeply researched, data-rich presentation on ways to fix a political system that no longer works as well as it should. He discussed potential reforms that could create better incentives for candidates—and, in turn, better candidates for voters. Kosar made the argument that our system of elections needs to be restructured to create better incentives. Access to different methods of voting has increased: Whereas it used to be that elections happened on one day and one day only, now there are several ways to cast a vote. However, voter turnout remains a challenge. As public trust in all institutions continues to drop, putting more power in the hands of voters to choose candidates through reforms like open primaries, ranked choice voting, and nonpartisan redistricting could go a long way toward restoring faith—and encouraging participation—in elections. The happy byproduct of that, Kosar said, is that it could yield candidates who are more interested in governing than partisan sniping.
The topic of partisanship formed the basis of Liasson’s presentation. American politics, Liasson asserted in her presentation, has become too much of a zero-sum game. She pointed to a New Yorker cartoon in which a dog in a suit tells a colleague, “It’s not enough that we succeed. Cats must also fail.”
Of course, it wouldn’t be a Washington gathering without handicapping the presidential race. Liasson said that polls indicate that voters don’t like either candidate, but elections are referendums on the incumbent. As Americans continue to experience sticker shock at the grocery store and the gas pump, inflation could end up being the deciding factor, should Joe Biden lose reelection. “Inflation defeats incumbents,” she said.
Liasson also weighed in on another hot topic of discussion: the impact that the vice presidential candidates will have on the election. She said that this time, unlike in many elections, running mates will matter.
Still, Liasson says there is cause for optimism. “There are a lot of people on both sides who care about this country getting better,” she said. “And that is something to feel good about.”
NAVIGATING THE ESG MINEFIELD
As our industry—and every industry—continues to grapple with the thorny question of environmental, social, and governance (ESG), messaging expert and pollster Michael Maslansky asserted that the biggest problem with ESG is in how it’s framed. Language matters, he said, and it’s important to remember that it’s not what you say, it’s what people hear. ESG fails when it is framed as forced morality. Phrases like “It’s the right thing to do” are subtle triggers that lead audiences to think a company or entity is making a values-based argument. In a polarized political climate, preferencing one set of values over another is a recipe for controversy. When companies make a decision in the ESG space, Maslansky said, it helps if the “why” of that decision is immediately clear.
There are ways that companies can execute against their own internal environmental, social, and governance strategies without reaping the potential whirlwind of “ESG” as a brand. A poll of attendees revealed that many of ACEC’s firms are already on this path. Workforce shortages are one of the top challenges of our industry, and no solution to those shortages exists without dedicated outreach and recruitment of underrepresented groups. Is that diversity, equity, and inclusion—the “S” in ESG? Or is that simply good business?
The answer, said Maslansky, is the latter. When the issue is framed as delivering value, not values, the argument becomes much clearer and much easier to make. “People respond to positive and simple messages,” he concluded.