Associated Builders and Contractors hosted its annual convention in Long Beach, California, March 24-28. More than 1,700 attendees traveled from across the country to support the merit shop construction industry in the week-long networking, educational and celebratory event that included the National Craft Championships. Here’s a rundown of the week’s highlights.
Kicking off the week at the opening general session, keynote speaker Sekou Andrews, the “poetic voice,” used his unique spoken word art to deliver the conference’s opening address. He inspired and entertained the group with his electric speaking style and encouraged the audience to “take it to the next level” in all aspects of their life. Following the session, attendees gathered on the outdoor plaza for the opening night party.
The National Craft Championships featured a field of 168 craft professionals competing for top honors in 14 competitions representing 12 crafts, from electrical and plumbing to carpentry and welding, as well as a team competition with journey-level craft professionals from four different crafts who worked to complete a joint project. The competition included a two-hour written exam and a day-long, hands-on practical performance test. U.S. Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta visited the competition floor to observe the NCC after delivering an address at the board meeting.
ABC honored 92 projects collectively worth nearly .7 billion at the 29th annual Excellence in Construction® Awards gala. The EIC awards program is the industry’s leading competition that honors both general and specialty contractors for innovative and high-quality merit shop construction projects. The winning projects, selected from entries across the nation, were judged on complexity, attractiveness, unique challenges overcome, completion time, workmanship, innovation, safety and cost. Construction Executive sponsored the annual Contractor of the Year award, which was earned this year by MAREK, one of the largest commercial specialty contractors in the South. For more on this company’s outstanding accomplishments, be sure to check out the feature article from CE’s April issue.
The week’s events culminated at the Careers in Construction Awards ceremony on Thursday night, where ABC announced its 2018 Craft Professional of the Year, Adrian Rios (coverage in CE’s May issue); Craft Instructor of the Year, Clemon Prevost (coverage in CE’s May issue); and Young Professional of the Year, Lance Arvel (coverage in CE’s July/August issue). Colorado State University was also announced as the winner of the annual Construction Management Competition, in which twenty-one teams of undergraduate students from colleges and universities nationwide put their construction project leadership skills to the test in a two-day construction management project.
The closing night celebration finished off the week with a “Next. Stop. Nashville.” theme, an exciting look-ahead to ABC’s Convention 2020, which will be held in Nashville, March 23-27. For details, click here, and be sure to check out ABC National’s Flickr account for photos of this year’s event.
