Speaking - Favorite Topics

Everyone learns differently. To get things done it's necessary to learn to communicate and train in a variety of ways to get through to everyone.

One effective way of initiating the fist step of the change process is through public speaking or meeting facilitation.

I like to provide a complete service including strong multi-media aids, detailed handouts for future reference and resources to learn more about the subject matter as required.

There are a few key topics that I really like to address where my experiences can spark some new thoughts and initiate changes:

• Customer Service and the Project Team: Improve your bottom-line while building stronger relationships with your best customers.  A fast-paced presentation and facilitation designed to get your entire project team thinking including specific action items they can put into practice immediately. 
• The Construction Game Basics: There are many elements to this very exciting industry and I think a lot of people lack the full understanding of the game from the risks that are involved to the challenges the industry is facing to the basics of how a construction company works. Since I believe that communication is the key to results I believe that providing an overview of a construction company to all employees helps keep everyone focused on a common goal and eliminates a lot of animosity between departments and the big Field vs. Office one. I've tailored many presentations to focus on everything from equipment use to project paperwork to the overall financial systems; all with good results.
• Design & Build For Public Works: Having seen how well this approach worked on a very difficult emergency project and how poorly the design-low bid-build-change order-claim model usually works I'm a big proponent of how this works better and have been doing a lot of speaking at security conferences with public works executives in attendance about ideas on how to best select the team to implement the critical homeland security systems we have funded since 9/11. Construction Industry
• Careers: I love this industry and it has treated me very well since I was 15 years old. I've worked my way up through the ranks and want other people to understand that this isn't just a job but a career; one that they have total responsibility for managing. I give this talk to a lot of the apprenticeship classes at WECA and am starting to do this with High School students so they understand the full potential of the industry.

Recent Events

ElectricSmarts (Contracting Profitably):  We did an interview on some things that contractors can do to improve profitability.  The audio / video of the interview is online at www.electricsmarts.com, browse through the Brain Bank series.  You can download the slides to go along with the presentation here or see the blog entry here. 

ForeFront User Conference 2006:  We did a very fun session on "10 Things Project Managers Can Do To Increase Cash Flow" and you can download the handout / slides here. 

Management Training (WECA) 2006:  In early 2006 we launched a series of training modules for the entire project team focused on a variety of important topics.  Learn more about the "Profit Happens Here..." series.  

Technology For Contractors 2006:  At the CFMA Sacramento chapter we had a great panel discussion about Construction Technology with some great partners including Jim Walden from Burnett+Company, Frank DiLorenzo from Con-Tec Management and Chris Cooper from Span-the-WAN. 

ISC West 2005:  The International Security Conference in Las Vegas. Our session on Infrastructure Security and the breakout sessions got sold out for the second year in a row. 

Handout and Slides available at www.infrastructure-security.org