The 2018 Infrastructure Imperative was last week and it was both a success and failure.
First the good news. I’ve been organizing conferences and educational sessions for 35 years, and I can say with confidence that this was the best program on which I have ever worked. Probably the best program I’ve ever even attended. Every one of the 15 speakers was outstanding and each of the three sessions were cohesive and well defined. Anyone working in design and construction would have learned a great deal about where the industry is today and where it’s going.
And then there’s the other side—the attendance. Preregistration was only about 200 when we’d hoped for 400, but with over 50% no-shows, the audience was sparse. It’s truly a shame that more people didn’t get to benefit from this. I understand that there are lots of things going on, especially the week before Thanksgiving, but this one would have been worth it.
And that’s partly because the timing was good. There are rumbles out of Washington that federal funding on infrastructure could be back on congress’s agenda. Getting an agreement will still take some time and be a battle but there’s real hope. We really need decent infrastructure in this country and around the world. It is the basis of our civilization. All of us in this business want to use our brains and hands to advance civilization. We can do it! The Chinese are doing it around the world. In the U.S., we need to stop bickering and get to work!
But we need to do it better—and that’s what the Infrastructure Imperative was all about. We need to make the process smoother and more efficient. And we need to build structures that last. We know how. There’s no excuse!
This isn’t optional. This is necessary. This is urgent. This is Imperative!
