7:00 am Registration & Networking Breakfast

7:50 am Chair’s Opening Remarks

  • Gray Childs Central Region Planning & Scheduling Lead, DPR Construction

Bridging the Gap Between Internal & External Stakeholders

8:00 am Breaking Down Your Organizational & Project Team Silos to Increase the Accuracy & Relevance of Your Schedules

  • Matthew Freih Senior Engineer - Project Controls & Scheduling, AECOM

Synopsis

  • Demonstrating the value of engaging and integrating the scheduling department across the organizational & project teams
  • Engaging Stakeholders & Establishing Open Communication to minimize discrepancies and miss-understanding
  • Fostering project team trust and collaboration to obtain buy-in from all Project Teams & Members

8:40 am Optimizing Information Management & Sharing Across the Project Team to Reduce Schedule Changes

Synopsis

  • Determining the information requirements of each project partner throughout the project lifecycle
  • Ensuring the documentation of all decisions that are made throughout the project to protect against potential liability issues
  • Creating an internal platform to centralize information sharing from preconstruction through to installation
  • Discussing how to incentivize your partners to input the right data at the right time and how often to review your schedule

9:20 am AI and Generative Scheduling: From Futuristic Idea to Necessity in just a year

Synopsis

  • Outlining what generative scheduling is and how it enables “optioneering”, where algorithms rapidly test construction scenarios to explore different options
  • Discussing the differences between generative AI as seen in the news and generative scheduling as applied to construction
  • Reviewing real-world use cases where optioneering unlocked savings on large and challenging projects

9:50 am Morning Refreshments & Speed Networking

Synopsis

Speed Networking will offer you the opportunity to meet a wide variety of your peers in a short period of time. Introduce yourself, share exciting initiatives you are focusing on, reflect on content being discussed at the conference and make sure to exchange business cards and contact info before moving on to the next group of peers!

Track 1: Departmental Strategy

Ensuring Consistency & Efficiency

10:30 am Establishing Standardization of Processes Across Your Organization to Ensure Consistency & Scale Best Practices

Synopsis

  • Optimizing knowledge management across the organization to classify best practices and inform a standardized framework that is fit for purpose
  • Identifying the main stakeholders to secure buy in from and exploring how to achieve that
  • Balancing standardization and innovation@ how can you ensure consistency, but with the space to meet individual project needs and keep up with industry trends?

11:10 am Examining The Unique Features of Asta PowerProject to Enhance Efficiency & Improve Schedule

Synopsis

  • Examining how to get the most out of your CPM software
  • Evaluating how to track, plan, and deliver more efficiently on projects
  • Understanding and outlining custom templates, baselines, and project views

11:20 am Evaluation Project Requirements & Internal Capabilities to Ensure Effective Resourcing Across All Projects

  • Aaron Perry Senior Project Executive, Gilbane Building Company

Synopsis

  • Discussing benefits and drawbacks of centralized vs. decentralized resourcing models and how to choose the right approach for you
  • Managing client expectations, project needs and resource availability to uphold quality of service with the limited resources available
  • Rethinking responsibilities and timelines to support your schedulers and account for workforce shortages

12:00 pm Panel: Addressing the Roles & Responsibilities of the Department Leader to Set the Team Up for Success

  • Monica Taylor Director of Scheduling, XL Construction
  • Brady Mercer National Planning and Scheduling Director, JE Dunn
  • Aaron Perry Senior Project Executive, Gilbane Building Company

Synopsis

  • Creating an environment of open communication with your team to formally apply lessons learned and identify areas of optimization
  • Discussing what tasks fall within your remit as department head and what you should delegate and empower others to take over
  • Identifying future leaders and supporting them in developing both the hard and soft skill required for the role

Track 2: Process Innovation

Coordinating the Schedule With the Field

10:30 am Improving Collaboration With the Operations Team to Better Identify & Manage Schedule Risk

Synopsis

  • Evaluating and agreeing on the level of accepted risk and escalation thresholds and processes
  • Outlining individual responsibilities for risk management and ensuring consistent follow ups with the wider project team
  • How can you better track and leverage insights into risk across regions and project types?

11:10 am Collaborative CPM Scheduling Using a Digital Whiteboard to Improve Team Alignment, Project Quality/ Certainty, & Risk Management

Synopsis

  • Imagine a digital whiteboard like Miro or Mural, but with the added capability to create a fully resource-loaded CPM schedule, including constraints and critical paths
  • Democratize scheduling: Make it easy yet powerful, so the entire team can collaborate in creating and optimizing the schedule, keeping all stakeholders aligned
  • Quantify risks with Monte Carlo simulations and make better business decisions based on statistics and confidence intervals
  • Discover how scheduling can drive critical business decisions that are top priority for executives

11:20 am Panel: Establishing a Consultative & Iterative Scheduling Process to Maximize Accuracy Throughout the Duration of the Project

  • Andy Dalbom Senior Scheduling Engineer, McCownGordon Construction
  • Umut Artuk Director of Planning and Scheduling, Moss & Associates
  • Bryce Jensen Scheduling and Supply Chain Manager, Westland Construction
  • Mike Steacy Senior Project Manager, PCL Construction

Synopsis

  • Encouraging active participation of field teams in planning and scheduling activities
  • Ensuring regular site visits from the scheduling team to facilitate collaboration with the field and assist during critical stages, such as change orders
  • How do you reflectively leverage both the historical data and field knowledge to progress your schedules?

12:00 pm Audience Discussion: Building the Schedule from the Model to Ensure Consistency, Enhance Visualization & Increase Compliance

Synopsis

  • Determining the main connection points required between the model and the schedule to avoid overloading, but ensure appropriate detail is accounted for
  • Assessing the complexities of coordination between the scheduling, technology, and estimating teams to better capture true earned value
  • Exploring how 4D modelling can be used as a communication tool by ensuring visual representation of the schedule to stakeholders such as owners and field teams

12:40 pm Networking Lunch

Advancing Schedule Predictability & Accuracy

1:40 pm Developing an Enterprise System to Better Identify & Mitigate Issues in a Timely Manner

  • Tom Carolan Director of Scheduling, Barton Malow Builders

Synopsis

  • Mapping out how to create a system that enables a bigger picture view over all of your projects
  • Determining what information is valuable to you on both a project and an enterprise level to set early indicators and potential issues
  • Empowering schedulers to leverage cost and manpower analytics to effectively evaluate progress and schedule risk

2:30 pm Audience Discussion: Addressing Delay Evaluation & Mitigation to Ensure Ownership & Adapt Schedules Accordingly

Synopsis

  • Ensuring common agreement between all project partners on the methodology for delay analysis from day one
  • Navigating the negotiation process to accurately review project specification
  • Optimizing collaboration on delay management and sharing risk to focus efforts effectively

Strengthening Your Project’s Aims & Goals

1:40 pm Case Study: Enhancing Your Success With Pull Planning to Secure Project Team Compliance & Ownership From the Outset

  • Jorge Ugarte Planning & Scheduling Manager, Coastal Construction

Synopsis

  • Understanding what pull planning aims to achieve and how it can benefit your project
  • Defining the scope and timing of each pull planning session and who should participate at each stage
  • Maximizing the use of the preliminary schedule provided by the general contractor to provide clear understanding of the duration and sequencing of trades
  • How do you effectively communicate the outcome of pull planning to your field teams?

2:30 pm Determining the Optimal Level of Schedule Detail to Avoid Duplication of Data & Enhance Value

Synopsis

  • Breaking down the scope of your project in a systematic way and categorizing it accordingly to facilitate seamless data flows
  • Ensuring communication with the project team when populating your schedule with details in order to manage loggings and durations accurately
  • How do you offer sufficient information to your project partners while also making the schedule a useful tool for your team?

3:10 pm Afternoon Refreshments

Improving the Contractor/Owner Relationship

3:50 pm Panel: Optimizing Communication & Collaboration With the Owner to Ease & Enhance Project Reviews & Delivery

  • Phillip Siek Senior Director of Planning & Construction, Sanford Health
  • Matthew Freih Senior Engineer - Project Controls & Scheduling, AECOM
  • Jason Duncan Director of Planning & Scheduling, McCarthy Building Companies
  • Robert Najera Vice President of Project Controls, JLL

Synopsis

  • Exploring how to effectively build trust within the contractor/owner relationship
  • How do you open more lines of communication with the owner to keep them up to date outside of reporting cycles, and communicate delays to procure understanding?
  • Reviewing contractual relationships and project delivery methods that help improve transparency and collaboration throughout the process

4:30 pm Case Study: Assessing Owner Requirements From the Outset to Establish Accurate Project Means & Goals

Synopsis

  • Understanding the main incentives resonating with the owner and leveraging those through collective project milestones and goals
  • Negotiating the review and approval process to bridge the gap between the technical approach of the owner and the project specific context
  • Ensuring alignment at every stage of schedule initiation and planning, execution, monitoring and mitigation

5:10 pm Chair’s Closing Remarks

  • Gray Childs Central Region Planning & Scheduling Lead, DPR Construction

5:20 pm End of Conference Day One