Two Powerful Keynote Speakers

 

Wednesday: Blaze Your Brain -  Turn Negative Thoughts into Positive Action - Jessica Rector Jessica’s mission is simple: Transform Lives. As the top mind wellness expert, Jessica Rector, MBA is the authority on tackling your inner game and turning it into outer success and positive action! As a former TV talk show host and an award winning #1 top sales performer at a Fortune 100 company, Jessica uses her company’s research to help organizations, leaders, and teams to fire up your thinking, extinguish burnout, and ignite your people, while having a lot more fun. Jessica has three college degrees, including an MBA, and has written nine books. As a #1 best-selling author, she has worked with clients such as NBCUniversal, the Dallas Mavericks, and American Airlines and has been seen on ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX for creating change. Jessica also enjoys learning about the exciting world of Transformers, so she can carry on real conversations with her seven-year-old son, Blaise, who is a #1 best-seller author and the youngest published author in the United States.

 

Friday: Just One of the Guys - Ally Jencson Women working in male-dominated industries face a variety of challenges, including: • Pervasive stereotypes, such as that of the “caring mother” or the office housekeeper. • The view that women are outsiders and threaten the norm. • Higher stress levels and performance expectations • Fewer mentoring opportunities • Sexual harassment Ally teaches other women in male dominated industries to be proud of and embrace our femininity. Through sharing her own personal experiences, Ally helps women to see the value of being a woman in a man’s world. She mentors female audiences to tap into their own unique bad-assery, to confidently maintain their femininity and communicate with heart-centered assurance, despite any negative behavior from their industry peers.

 

---

 

Brief Description of Activities and Sessions:

Wednesday, August 12

Opening Keynote Speaker

Construction-Driven Execution
• Tricia Thibodeaux, Fluor, Inc.

Construction-Driven Execution is “the strategies, work practices and accountabilities that drive the delivery of construction and fabrication services in the most cost-efficient, predictable manner possible.” In other words, it is everything done in the home office, from the proposal phase until completion, to make construction efficient and safe for the craft. This workshop will explore practices that contribute to Construction-Driven Execution such as Advanced Work Packaging, Better Build Techniques, and Constructability. Practice these concepts with a fun hands-on activity to reinforce the learnings and answer the question, “Do you have a Construction-Driven Execution mindset?”

Building a Breachless Culture
• Josh Levy & Angelina Perryman

The topic “Building a Breachless Culture” is taken from my construction project management philosophy for best practices called “Breachless Execution.” It is a construction philosophy I developed when I was the General Counsel for a construction company in 2002. Since then I have delivered seminars and training for contractors (and other clients) in the concept. Breachless execution primarily describes how contracts are used to plan and deliver projects with reduced financial and liability risk while enhancing customer satisfaction. Breachless Execution derives from the Law in Action approach which explored the realities of contracts in people’s daily lives. We strive to assist our clients in developing a Breachless Culture within their businesses. The goal is to have the client’s team understand the basic principles of contract law, and how to execute their obligations without a breach.

Fire Up So You Don't Burnout: How to Prevent, Break Through, and Extinguish Burnout (once and for all)
• Jessica Rector

Burnout is like a wildfire—spreading quickly and affecting everything in its path. With the increased stress, pressure, and expectations to do more with less, the construction industry ranks among the highest for highest burnout rates...and women are more prone to burnout. With 79% of the workforce burned out, it’s the perfect time to extinguish this epidemic. The World Health Organization now recognizes burnout as a workplace syndrome, yet most don’t know how to identify it. When burnout is unresolved, you experience a decrease in productivity, safety, health and morale. In this powerful presentation, Jessica gets you fired up by sharing key strategies to prevent and extinguish burnout, pinpointing your contributing factors to burnout and showing you how to handle stress to improve focus, performance, and team dynamic. Participants will: • Examine Jessica's Burnout Success Formula to locate how burnout affects your work and life • Apply proven burnout strategies to enhance time management, focus, and productivity • Identify and pinpoint your biggest “burnout moments” to prevent future stress and improve your health

Networking
Committee Open House:
-She Built This City
-People First
-Professional Development & Education
-Membership/Marketing

Thursday, August 13

NAWIC Annual Meeting

Lunch Break & Networking
Committee Open House:
-Chapter Development Committee
-Team Rubicon
-Autodesk Construction Cloud
-OSHA, Safety & Health
-WIC Week, Emerging Professionals

NAWIC Finances • Karen Hager, CBT, CIT

This interactive workshop will give the attendee insight into what is a good budget, who should do the audit and how, who files what reports when, and what to look for on your chapter’s financials to know the health of your chapter.

Accelerated Resilience
• Courtney Clark

Adapt Faster and Achieve More In today’s competitive world, there’s no time to recover from our setbacks slowly. The research-based strategies from Courtney’s new book, The Successful Struggle, will have you and your team managing change, chaos, conflict, and life’s other challenges in the fastest, most productive way possible. Building resilience means developing new behavior patterns in tough times, and Courtney will show you the research behind the quickest ways to get back on track and be successful, no matter the challenges you face in life and work.

Suicide: Crisis in Construction
• Kathi Dobson, CIT, CSP, STS-C, SMS, CHST, LEED AP

Someone commits suicide every 12 minutes in the United States, and construction is the number two industry for suicides. Learn about this crisis and the risk factors associated with it. Kathi Dobson will discuss the issues that construction workers face that leads them down the dark path toward suicide. She’ll also address other concerns that organizations and their leaders should be identifying when it comes to their workers’ mental well-being. You will leave this session with a better understanding of the suicide crisis and what we can do to prevent it from overwhelming our industry.

Objectives:
1. Identify risk factors related to suicide in the construction industry
2. Identify intervention tactics
3. Identify resources for workers and employers

Harmony Through Teamwork! Counteracting the Cacophony of Miscommunication
• Jan Spence

Regardless of industry, location, or company size, ineffective communications and a lack of teamwork can obstruct information, hinder collaboration, and negatively impact employee and customer satisfaction. In this highly interactive, high-energy session, Jan Spence will use her vast knowledge helping companies and individuals take their teamwork, listening, and communication skills to the next level by sharing tips on how to set established protocols and clear processes of communication. Attendees will gain actionable tools they can immediately implement to increase teamwork and collaboration, thus increasing employee engagement and overall productivity. This fun, engaging session is not just another warm and fuzzy team-building program, but rather gives participants practical steps they can take to work more effectively within their teams and the overall organization.

Networking
Industry Councils:
-Women Business Owner
-Women of Color
-Tradeswomen

Afternoon General Session: Real Solutions for the Skilled Trades Shortage - iBuild Panel Discussion
• Moderator: Angela Highland CIT, CPC.
• Speakers: Debbie Rodriguez, Crystal Davidson, Jennifer Rodriguez, and Tara Hagood

The tide is turning and recruitment efforts are expanding in the effort to educate students, parents and our communities about careers in the construction industry.

NAWIC Awards

Friday, August 14

Networking
Industry Councils:
-Administrative/Finance
-Management/Operations
-Technology

General Session: Board Installation & Award Recognition

Lunch Break & Networking
Industry Councils:
-Business Development/Sales/Marketing
-Project Management/Safety
-Human Resources/Legal

The Art of Managing Workplace Conflict

• MJ Clark

The ability to manage conflict is a highly sought-after quality in construction leaders. It also has a significant impact upon the organizations whose leaders possess it. In this interactive presentation, Ms. Clark will explain to participants the difference between criticism and constructive feedback and how conflict can be both positive and damaging to an organization. She will provide strategies for reducing conflict and mediating workplace confrontations through the use of emotional intelligence and a 3-step assertive conversation model. Audience members will leave with practical tips they may implement immediately to help themselves and their teams manage conflict more effectively.

Conceptual Planning, Scheduling & Risk Mitigation
• Lana Coble

Where can a project fail and lose time, lose money, or lose both? As a construction professional, building the plan and sticking to a schedule is made complicated by the unknowns, but to what extent can you control the process to identify and quantify schedule risk for a more secure project? This interactive session will walk through processes of analysis, audits, and more to illustrate where and how you can mitigate your risk in your builds moving forwards.

Sustainable Concrete
• Jennifer Mitchell

Jenny will speak about how Linkedin is utilizing low carbon concrete strategies to drive down embodied carbon in the build of their new Linkedin Headquarters campus in Mountain View, and the future opportunities for low/zero carbon concrete

Closing Keynote -Just One of the Guys-How to Stay Feminine in the Construction Industry
• Ally Jencson

Women working in male-dominated industries face a variety of challenges, including:

• Pervasive stereotypes, such as that of the “caring mother” or the ‘office housekeeper.’
• The view that women are outsiders and threaten the norm.
• Higher stress levels and performance expectations
• Fewer mentoring opportunities
• Sexual harassment.

Ally teaches other women in male dominated industries to be proud of and embrace our femininity. Through sharing her own personal experiences, Ally helps women to see the value of being a woman in a man’s world. She mentors female audiences to tap into their own unique bad-assery, to confidently maintain their femininity and communicate with heart-centered assurance, despite any negative behavior from their industry peers.

Passing of the Gavel
• NAWIC Past National Presidents

---

All times for the Virtual Conference are based on Central Time Zone.

Sessions and times are subject to change.

---

This year, we have added optional structured networking time for attendees at the beginning and end of each day and during each lunch break.

Committee Open House Networking
How are the national committees going to Connect-Collaborate-Construct during the upcoming NAWIC year? Find out during Committee Open House Networking, where you’ll hear plans from the Membership & Marketing, Emerging Professionals, NAWIC-OSHA Alliance, Safety & Health, Professional Development & Education, and Women in Construction Week committee chairs. Then, use this information to strengthen and amplify you and your chapter as you construct a successful NAWIC year!

Industry Networking
Our Special Interest Council Networking this year provides an opportunity for you to meet and interact with fellow NAWIC members and colleagues in the construction industry during lunch breaks and at designated times through each day of the Virtual Conference. You definitely won't want to miss out on these!