In this special episode of The Construction Record Podcast, Daily Commercial News and Journal of Commerce national managing editor Vince Versace speaks to leadership from ConstructConnect about Takeoff Boost, software that automates elements of the takeoff process and was recently unveiled on the CONEXPO-CON/AGG show floor in Las Vegas, Nev. Vince spoke with Construct chief strategy officer Jonathan Kost at Conexpo to discuss the Takeoff Boost platform and why it’s important to a project and with chief product officer Jen Johnson about how ongoing customer feedback about their experiences with ..read more

It’s Day Four of CONEXPO/CON-AGG, and Daily Commercial News and Journal of Commerce national managing editor Vince Versace and digital media editor Warren Frey are covering the show and reporting from the floor on what they’ve seen at the biggest construction trade show and conference in North America. On this episode Warren spoke with Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts fleet manager Dave Bolderoff about his CONEXPO session titled “How Gen Z eats Sustainability for Breakfast” about how organizations need to emphasize their commitment to sustainability in order to attract Gen Z talent. War ..read more

It’s Day Three of CONEXPO/CON-AGG, and Daily Commercial News and Journal of Commerce national managing editor Vince Versace and digital media editor Warren Frey are covering the show and reporting from the floor on what they’ve seen at the biggest construction trade show and conference in North America. On this episode Warren spoke to Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) senior vice-president of government and industry relations Kip Eideberg about a recent AEM economic report that points to a mostly optimistic outlook post-pandemic with a few caveats. Waren also spoke to Gearflow found ..read more

It’s Day Two of CONEXPO/CON-AGG, and Daily Commercial News and Journal of Commerce national managing editor Vince Versace and digital media editor Warren Frey are covering the show and reporting from the floor on what they’ve seen at the biggest construction trade show and conference in North America. On this episode Warren interviews Ironworkers International director of diversity Vicki O’Leary who held the “Be That One Guy” session on Tuesday about how to deal with harassment on the worksite and how to be an ally to those being harassed. Warren also spoke to John Gaal from the Missouri Works ..read more

It’s Day One of CONEXPO/CON-AGG, and Daily Commercial News and Journal of Commerce national managing editor Vince Versace and digital media editor Warren Frey are covering the show and reporting from the floor on what they’ve seen at the biggest construction trade show and conference in North America. Warren spoke today to American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) vice-president and chief economist Dr. Alison Black about the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) which was the focus of her “Show Me the Money! Where is all the Infrastructure Money Going?” session. W ..read more

On this episode of The Construction Record Podcast digital media editor Warren Frey speaks with author Bianca Weber-Lewerenz about “Accents of Added Value in Construction 4.0”, her new book which examines the intersection of artificial intelligence, ethics and the construction industry. Weber-Lewerenz addressed and how education both at the academic and practical level can help prepare the industry for large-scale changes brought about by AI tools and how classical ethical virtues can help shape industry behaviour to adapt to those changes. She also examined how AI can be used to help shape “s ..read more

On this episode of The Construction Record Podcast, Journal of Commerce staff writer Evan Saunders talks to Hilary Peach, the author of “Thick Skin: Field Notes from a Sister in the Brotherhood” about her decades as a travelling welder and her experiences as a woman in the trades crossing the country as a member of the Boilermakers Union. Peach discusses perception versus reality of conflict on the jobsite and her experiences as a woman in the skilled trades as well as her experience balancing her artwork with her welding career. She also addresses ongoing taboos in construction that hamper pr ..read more

On this episode of the Construction Record Podcast digital media editor Warren Frey speaks with Thinkspace Architecture partner Ray Wolfe and Fast + Epp managing principal Nick Bevilacqua about a recent naturally:wood “Wood Use in British Columbia Schools” report. Bevilacqua and Wolfe touched on the benefits of using wood in schools, how British Columbia is leading new innovations in wood design and adoption of new technologies and the wellness and biophilic aspects of wood construction. They also spoke to carbon footprint reduction, what cost considerations come into play with wood-based buil ..read more

On this episode of The Construction Record Podcast, digital media editor Warren Frey speaks with Matthew DiBara, the co-founder of The Contractor Consultants and owner of DiBara Masonry. DiBara’s masonry business in Los Angeles has been in his family for over 100 years and he said learning as a teenager from his father allowed him to witness not only leadership but how to del with high-level clients and emphasize with employees at all levels. In his consultancy role he said he’s found that employee motivation isn’t necessarily a monetary matter and varies from person to person and that not eno ..read more

On this episode of The Construction Record Podcast, digital media editor Warren Frey speaks with safety consultant and write David Dunham about the potential of ChatGPT to innovate safety document production. ChatGPT is a new “chatbot” program which takes prompts from users and turns them into written text that can be as convincing as human-generated writing provided it has the proper input. Dunham said ChatGPT could take over monotonous and repetitive aspects of safety documentation while leaving higher-level analysis and writing to human experts. He added while progress of ChatGPT and simila ..read more