Specialty Trade Highlights for CFMA's 2022 Annual Conference & Exhibition

Conference dates are May 14 – 18, 2022 in Atlanta, GA

Your Specialty Trade Committee has been hard at work developing programs for this year’s conference, and we’re all excited to see you in person this year! I’m happy to share the following overview of the sessions we’ll be hosting, all focused on what our fellow CFMA Specialty Trade members need to know:

Preview These Five Conference Specialty Trade Track Sessions:

  • Payment, Change Order & Delay Disputes on Trial — Lawyers from the construction law firm of Laurie & Brennan, LLP, will conduct a dynamic mock trial on legal matters near and dear to the construction financial manager’s heart: payment, change order, and delay disputes. The trial will address payment applications, change orders, field directives, liquidated damages, labor inefficiencies, delays, and other common obstacles to getting paid.

 

  • Teaming Up! CFMs and Operations Partner for Project Success — Join specialty trade peers for a roundtable discussion on hosting successful project kickoff meetings. Your CFM roundtable moderators John Bieber, Shawn Erickson, John Metz, and Joe Patti bring a world of experience and will share checklists and ideas that have worked for them. Note this program will be held in two separate rooms with each room limited to 100 registered participants.

 

  • I Have All of This Data, Now What? — Focus on developing key performance indicators (KPIs) and accurate, timely operational data and how to use that data to impact the bottom line. A discussion on developing KPIs as a subcontractor, including sharing a high-level understanding of Power BI and its uses/functionality. Catherine and Chris Wendt from Syscon will be our presenters; they have been creating dashboards & KPIs for subcontractors utilizing 365 BI and other platforms for many years. Last year Syscon celebrated 35 years as a leading technology services company serving the construction industry.

 

  • Collecting & Disseminating Info via Mobile Applications — At this roundtable session, share which mobile software applications have been successfully implemented at your construction firm and are impactful to project management & accounting for CFMs and PMs. We’ll discuss capabilities of popular tools readily available, such as Microsoft 365, Teams and Google Forms. Our moderator Steve Maddox is a Managing Partner at Contech360 and helps contractors leverage technology solutions with a focus on improving user engagement and software utilization.

 

  • Insurance Audit Best Practices — This program offers a deep dive into the process of the annual workers’ compensation & general liability insurance audits, including what you should be doing during the insurance policy year, how to prepare for the audits, and what to do in the post-audit timeframe. This program will benefit both CFMs new to the industry and those more seasoned ones who’ve been through many audits. Our presenter Greg Gross is Vice President in the Construction Practice of Willis Towers Watson Insurance Services West, Inc.

 

Many thanks to our committee members for helping identify topics and speakers that will provide practical solutions to the issues Specialty Trade CFMs deal with every day. Special thanks to our Session Champions who continue to work with the presenters in developing these sessions, starting with my Vice-Chair Shawn Erickson (CFO of C.J. Erickson Plumbing Co.), Lynne Pace (CFO of Atlas Masonry, LLC), Brandon Spears (CFO of Wayne Brothers, Inc.) and Dan Dryden (CFO of Joseph Albanese, Inc.). I’d also like to thank the great team from CFMA Headquarters, Laura O’Connor and Stacy Williams, who both do a terrific job supporting our committee year-round and the entire Conference Planning Team.

After two years, CFMA’s Annual Conference & Exhibition is back to being in-person! During this five-day event, attendees will break away from their computer screens to attend mini-conferences, general sessions, breakout sessions, construction technology forums, and roundtable discussions which are led by industry experts and knowledgeable construction financial professionals.

Aside from the education, there will be plenty of opportunities for attendees to have fun while reconnecting with longtime friends and making new ones, with the highlight being the closing night party at the Georgia Aquarium, which is rated one of the 10 Best Aquariums in the U.S. by Travel + Leisure.

Register here.

 

About the Author

John Bieber

John Bieber is the CFO for National Glass & Metal Co., Inc., which is an architectural metal and glass trade contractor. National Glass fabricates and installs curtainwall, windows, doors and interior glazing work for commercial projects in Eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware as well as storefronts for high-end retailers throughout the United States and Canada.

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