Here at the Construction Progress Coalition (CPC), we’re committed to helping the construction industry move forward. And we weren’t going to let the pandemic stand in our way. So to keep critical conversations circulating — and to hold space for those conversations — we’ve been hosting virtual roundtables.
Here's your open-door look at what it takes to put these discussions together each month, and the people behind them.
What are these virtual roundtables all about?
Prior to the pandemic, CPC leveraged conferences as the primary way to spread the word and generate engagement. But while we wait for in-person events to return, we wanted to still provide a space to bring together thought leaders and change-makers in the AEC industry. With that goal in mind, we’re hosting these monthly virtual get-togethers.
During each of these roundtables, we give you the option to choose between six breakout tracks. We break those tracks into two main categories, with three focuses in each:
Shared Pains
We’re all in this together, and that means we come up against innovation roadblocks that have nothing to do with technology. To help us break down and address our shared pains with poor leadership, culture, and policy, there are three breakout rooms focused on:
Inclusion and diversity
Mental health
Remote work
Shared Perspectives
External forces are driving the construction industry to change, whether we like it or not. Technology is a huge catalyst. To that end, we aligned the following breakout tracks on technical topics that require collaboration between multiple stakeholder perspectives:
Digital twin
Reality capture
Technology stack
Oftentimes, it can be hard to choose just one topic. To give everyone a sample of what they may have missed, each moderator delivers a 5-minute rapid-fire recap of their breakout. Those interested in learning more can watch the full-recordings when they are uploaded to the CPC YouTube channel.
Who are our Moderators?
To make our conversations as enlightening and productive as possible, we’ve tapped industry leaders to step in as roundtable moderators. Speaking on a topic you’re passionate about for 60 minutes is easy. Moderating a large group of diverse perspectives that are all passionate about the same topic is, however, not so easy.
Our moderators have the skills and sympathies necessary to make sure each of our breakout tracks adds value to our attendees. So we’d like to give them a shoutout. Meet the industry leaders that are bringing together these crucial conversations.
Satyam wears many hats, serving as CPC Treasurer and rotating in as technology stack moderator and co-host. Somehow, he still finds time for his day job in his Strategic Alliances and Partnerships role at Autodesk. Satyam is a swiss army knife. Whatever situation you put him in, he thrives. We are fortunate to have his support and thank him for sharing his time and talent with us these past few years.
As a roundtable co-host and substitute moderator, Dan helps keep everything on track while holding space for important conversations. He is not afraid to speak his mind and generate controversy in the name of progress.
When he’s not advancing thought leadership initiatives with CPC like our Shared Pains podcast, Dan serves as the Director of Process & Innovation for The Walsh Group. We’re grateful for the time that Dan is able to spare from his busy schedule.
We’ve been fortunate to have Bianca leading CPC’s membership growth in addition to her role as roundtable co-host. Bianca keeps us aligned, a tall task that she makes look effortless.
When not pouring her heart into CPC, Bianca spends her time supportin Eagle Point Software as Construction Technology Manager. This puts her in a great position to help us explore the opportunities and challenges of implementing and integrating software solutions for the AEC industry.
If she’s not directing industry advancement for Procore.org or advising organizations on various technical and social justice issues, Sasha still finds time to lead our Inclusion & Diversity breakouts.
Sasha is a natural storyteller, helping us all better understand the people that power our work. Having experienced our #SharedPains from both an AEC and technology perspective, Sasha is keyed into the systemic changes necessary to move this industry forward. In her own words, “Even after years of being in business, you quickly recognize that the success of your investment in technology is directly in proportion to your understanding of your people and the processes you’re trying to complete on projects.”
Mental Health may not seem like a top priority for many AEC professionals. But it should be. The mental health breakout originated in May 2020 after meeting Cal Beyer and learning about the Construction Industry Alliance for Suicide Prevention. After Sasha led the first session, it was clear this needed to continue as a topic track each month.
We are so grateful to have Chad’s passion, experience, and knowledge to help lead us through these crucial conversations. Chad has a unique ability to share his own stories in a way that welcomes others to also share theirs. Be sure to check out last month’s discussion on “The Power of Compassion”.
By day, Chad works as a business developer for Plexxis Software. For over a decade, Chad has leveraged his background in law enforcement and mixed martial arts (MMA) to help contractors succeed in business, and in life. In order for the AEC industry to attract and retain talent, leaders need to think about ways to protect and better their own mental health and the mental wellness of their team.
Remote work, and the challenges associated with it, has never been more relevant. What makes these discussions so authentic starts with Lilan’s role as discussion moderator. Her ability to set up a topic and let the group run with it while still connecting everyone’s thoughts together is quite an experience! Top discussions include “Team Engagement” and — of course — the “Virtual Reality” experiment.
When she’s not flexing her moderating skills, Lilian manages community-focused industry alliances for Bluebeam and serves as a board member for the LA chapter of the National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC). CPC has been fortunate to have Lilian’s expertise and advocacy since the early days of the PDF Coalition.
As COO at ProjectReady and tenured moderator of the ever-popular Digital Twin breakout, Kelly leverages his consulting background to showcase how the CDX playbook is used to bring common understanding. Because it’s hard to explain the nuances and complexities of a broken process without visualizing it.
Kelly’s main goal is to learn from AEC professionals while helping them integrate data environments and manage project information flow. We thank him for investing this time to unite pioneer owners on pioneer projects with pioneer stakeholders using pioneering software. Together, we just might be able to showcase the integration and exchange of data in ways never thought possible.
Don’t let the “Senior Product Manager” for a software start-up fool you. Brianna is a true builder, having cut her teeth at both the general and trade contractor level. Those experiences drove her to join StructionSite, building solutions for the field at the intersection of 360 photo capture and field production tracking.
Brianna’s deep industry knowledge combines with her strong personality to make her the ideal moderator for our Reality Capture breakout. She asks the right questions that focus on “the why,” spurring productive debates that lead to more innovative solutions. In our last roundtable, for example, she asked: “What is the data that we need, and how does that data need to be formatted for us to consume it in an easy way? Because we’re collecting all of this data, we need to make sure that we’re using it in a way that’s productive to help the job move forward.”
Last but certainly not least, Dennis has advocated for open data standards adoption in construction since the early days of the Construction Open Standards Alliance (COSA). Dennis is a member of CPC’s Board of Directors and has moderated multiple Technology Stack breakouts.
As Director of Customer Experience at Sage, Dennis is well-positioned to understand the customer’s shared pains and come up with innovative solutions. The perpetual challenge with interoperability products can be justifying their total addressable market (TAM). These conversations help all of us validate if enough TAM exists to move an idea to the next stage.
Again, we’d like to thank our tireless moderators and co-hosts for their unwavering commitment to our cause! Each of them has shown tremendous courage and strength, seeking to improve as a moderator and advance their topic track each round. We appreciate you, and we know our attendees do, too!
Guest Perspectives
We’d also like to thank the knowledgeable guest perspectives that have made time to contribute to these roundtables. If only our first-time participants knew the time and thought that goes into the preparation for each breakout. You are the thought leaders and innovation pioneers making the most of our current social distancing constraints. If we haven’t said it already...Thank You!!
If you haven’t experienced one of our monthly virtual roundtables, what are you waiting for?! Sign up to participate, listen in, or catch the recording from our next set of virtual roundtable breakouts on Wednesday, February 24th, 2021 at 3 p.m. EST / noon PST.