Construction innovation has been on my mind a lot lately, as I think about how we – my teammates, my organization, those of you in the TCA and the tilt-up construction industry overall – can best meet the challenges that are facing our businesses. Labor concerns, climate change, international trade, plus some issues that haven’t even shown up on the radar yet – those are the things that often keep me, and likely some of you, up at night.

Overcoming those challenges, and turning them into opportunities, will be critical to all our success in the coming months and years, and I am proud of the work that the TCA has done in promoting our industry and looking ahead to the innovations and solutions that will be required for projects in 2020 and beyond.

One such initiative, the Tilt-Up Future Think 2.0 series, recently completed its second national event, this time in Denver. These conferences feature experts in emerging technologies and other promising applications for use in tilt-up concrete construction, and the panel discussions that follow will likely help shape the future of our industry. The Denver event highlighted advances in industrial exoskeleton suits, automated rebar-tying drones, 3D printing, and carbon dioxide mineralization. Those topics seem like something from a science fiction movie, and the fact that they may all soon become real solutions for our members is fascinating.

But as exciting as those technologies and processes are, I know that the TCA and all its members will ultimately be the driving force in providing solutions for our customers. Creating awareness of both the challenges and the opportunities will be vital. That is why I am so pleased to see the TCA taking the lead on that front.

The past three years’ Tilt-Up Series events and Future Think 2.0 conferences were held across the country in Anaheim, Atlanta, Dallas, Denver, St. Louis, Washington DC, and Vancouver, and the TCA Convention and Expo continues to be one of the premier trade shows in the entire construction industry.

These events and the awareness they generate for our association, its members, and their products and services is something I have been passionate about since I joined the TCA Board of Directors, and I am proud of the strides we have made since then.

I hope you will join me in looking for ways that the TCA can best promote our members and their new products and services. This focus on both innovation and awareness, I believe, will move the association forward and is ultimately the key to its success.

Brad Nesset