“Good times never seemed so good.” These may be lyrics written by the famed Neil Diamond in 1969. Still, they ring just as true when describing the GF Flow Symposium, which was held at the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center in Nashville, Tennessee.
Running from May 3-6, approximately 80 Canadian contractors attended the symposium, where they were able to listen to educational sessions on industry trends and emerging technologies.
“When we go back to our working worlds, I am hoping that we all better understand what’s going on with the other stakeholders that we’re working with because, at the end of the day, that’s just going to lead to more successful projects,” shared Chris Hartwick, general manager of Uponor Canada. “We want to help them get in front of thought-provoking leaders and understand what’s going on in the market. I think in our industry, there are some wonderful Canadian events that do a great job of sharing information across Canada. There aren’t that many events that are kind of across both countries. So, there’s an opportunity there for learning from each other in the construction industry.”
While waiting for one of the morning sessions to start, I sat and spoke with several individuals based in the United States. It was during that conversation that we began exploring some of the pain points within the industry they were experiencing, one of which was the lack of harmonization between the states and the issues that can come from this. Something that many Canadian contractors can empathize with regarding our own harmonization issues between provinces and territories.
Additional common challenges between the two countries are labour shortages, regulatory complexities, and productivity concerns.
A fan-favourite keynote presentation was given by Peyton Manning, the legendary American football quarterback who played for the Indianapolis Colts and Denver Broncos, who sat in the hot seat to answer questions from the audience and an interviewer. He spoke about his career, his family, and the leadership lessons he learned over his expansive career.
“To connect it back to Peyton Manning’s presentation earlier, it’s about helping share that information because it is our duty, when we have our expertise, to share it amongst each other. Events like this are great for that kind of thing,” explains Hartwick.
Prefabrication
One of the industry trends discussed was Canada’s prefabrication market. “I think prefabrication is not a new topic. You see different projects around the world where like entire buildings are now being built in a prefabricated manner. I think the industry generally understands that there’s a lot of benefit to doing things that way. I think what needs to change and what has been changing is the level of communication and collaboration,” shared Hartwick.
“To successfully pull off a full project, as an entire building done in that manner, the communication and planning need to be through the roof. You can’t have all the detailed drawings because everything’s being built separately. When it arrives on site, it needs to arrive at the right time, and it needs to arrive to where it fits together.”
Prefabrication has taken off mostly in the metallic piping industry (it has yet to take off in the plastic piping industry). This penetrates into contractors’ workshops. The benefits remain the same, but space constraints can pose issues. “Even if they’ve already set up their shop to do the metal, they might not have space to do the plastic as well. So that’s a solution. We can offer to help them get the same benefits that they’re maybe already seeing by doing some of the metallic work themselves. My thought process on the kitting to the prefab feels like a natural evolution.”
For it to become the norm, strong communication between contractors, engineers, developers, and distributors is necessary. The industry is moving towards greater collaboration to maximize efficiency and reduce job-site labour.
In addition to the industry educational sessions, attendees were able to experience the proper Nashville lifestyle through opening and closing networking events, featuring local bands and local cuisine.