2021 Convocation Education Descriptions

Wednesday, October 13

Description: This pre-convocation session is specifically for DPRCG firms' CFOs. An agenda is created by the participants. Past topics have included planning for growth, cash flow management, corporate governance, valuation, IT, insurance, staff recruiting/retention, etc. The forum is a discussion format and relies on attendees to raise issues and share experiences with the group. Register online. The registration fee is $200 USD including breakfast and lunch.

For questions about the CFO Forum agenda and process, please contact: 
Dan Hurley, Wendel, 716-688-0766, [email protected].

For questions about the agenda and process, please contact:

Jean Farmakes, LHB, Inc., 218.279.2422, [email protected]

Josh Alton, Nitsch Engineering, 857-206-8717, [email protected]

Time: 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Title: Legal Forum (In-house Counsel)
Speakers: Jean Farmakes, LHB, Inc. 
Description: This pre-convocation session is specifically for in-house counsel of DPRCG members. It’s an opportunity for legal counsel to exchange info and ideas. An agenda is created by the participants with a focus on professional liability and risk management. The forum provides a network among counsel that is available throughout the year. Register online. There is no registration fee for this afternoon session. For questions about the Legal Forum agenda and process, please contact:

Jean Farmakes, LHB, Inc., 218.279.2422, [email protected]

Thursday, October 14

Time: 8:30 am -9:15 am

Title: Leadership from the Ledge: 8 Lessons from a Hostage Negotiator

Speakers: Dan Oblinger, Leadercraft

Description: All around us, people are clamoring for authentic connection, real agreement, and cultures that nurture our ideas and efforts.  
How might we discover and craft the right skills and habits to meet these needs?  What would it look like if we could foster active listening and negotiation principles in our organization?  
Prepare yourself to dive into a strange world of crisis, hostages, critical conversations, and crucial decisions, as a hostage negotiator reveals 8 hard-won lessons in leadership based on a career negotiating for lives.

Time: 9:15 am - 9:45 am

Title: Workforce Development with a DEI Focus

Speakers: Bret Weiss, WSB and Associates, Inc.
Description: Finding, developing, and retaining talent for your firm in the market today.  When you add the complexity of Diversity/Equity/Inclusion implications into the mix, how do you manage the process? 

Learn how one firm began tackling this issue a few years back and has insights to share on how to start, stay on task and feel the rewards of bringing under employed talent into your firm.  
There will be discussion of the leadership required, need for flexibility as the program roles out, accountability across the firm and sideline commentators. 

Time: 10:15 am -11:00 am

Title: Claim Expose - Alaska Way Viaduct

Speakers: Michael Dodd, Terry Scanlan

Description: When the Alaska Way Viaduct in Seattle, Washington, needed to be replaced due to damage from the 1999 Nisqually earthquake, the project owner selected a 2.1-mile deep-bore tunnel.  But what happens when the largest earth pressure balanced tunnel boring machine in the world gets stuck 120 feet below the city?  The presenters will condense the good, the bad, and the ugly of a project spanning 20 years, including eight years in litigation, into this session. 

Time: 11:00 am -11:45 am

Title: Lessons Learned From A Cyber-Attack

Speakers: Shayne Giles, Dillon Consulting

Description: Dillon Consulting was the victim of a cyber-attack by a hacker that shut down their network and attempted to hold their data for ransom.  
Shayne Giles, President of Dillon, will describe what happened, how they handled the ransom request, their recovery, and measures they have taken to prevent future attacks. 

Time: 12:45 pm - 1:15 pm

Title: The Negotiator's Lab: A Workshop for Executive Design Professionals

Speakers: Dan Oblinger, Leadercraft

Description: This workshop is an unscripted group coaching session.  Bring your "impossible" situations in negotiating with clients, prospects, colleagues, and employees in a design and engineering environment.  
A veteran negotiations coach and trainer will work with the participants to recognize the dynamics of human conflict and agreement, discover how people decide in high-stress situations, and demonstrate simple, 
repeatable practices for snatching sustainable victory from a moment of defeat!  If you've never seen the 8 active listening skills used in the real world, this session is for you!

Time: 1:15 pm -1:45 pm

Title: Culture Eats Strategy

Speakers: Stu Haney, Wendel LLC

Description: More than ever, the culture of our companies and teams matters. The Covid-19 pandemic has forced many of our team members to work remotely for long periods of time, pushing us to find new ways to meaningfully connect with our existing and new employees. 
This session will bring forward the top strategies of two firms that have addressed this challenge head on, by further developing approaches in place prior to the pandemic and creating new ones to respond to the unique conditions of the past year and a half. 
Without this focus on culture, each company understood that they risked losing the engagement, productivity, and retention of employees, not to mention their health or creativity. 
The scale of the issue will be broken down at the corporate, regional and local team levels, recognizing that strategies are needed at all of these levels for our teams to not just cope but thrive. 

Time: 1:45 pm - 2:00 pm

Title: Claim Vignette: If Its To Good To Be True...
Speakers: Dave Miller, AXA XL
Description: Lessons Learned about claims involving innovative products.

Time: 2:00 pm - 2:45 pm / 3:15 pm - 4:00 pm
Title: Go/No Go Project Decision: Strategies For Evaluating New Project Opportunities
Speakers: Butch Woodyard, Barrett, Woodyard; Jennifer Sebranek, GBBN
Description: Learn best practices in evaluating the opportunities or problems associated with new projects or clients.

Time: 2:00 pm - 2:45 pm / 3:15 pm - 4:00 pm
Title: Design Professionals Beware: Don’t Get Squashed by a Carbon Footprint Tax

Speakers: Patrick Murphy, Vanderweil Engineers

Description: Across the US and Canada there is increased legislation being considered or enacted to impose a carbon tax on building owners for excessive emissions from fossil fuel burning equipment. 
Far beyond settling for a LEED Silver plaque in lieu of Gold when project sustainability goals were not fully achieved, the financial penalties for noncompliance are significant. 
An unsuspecting design professional can suddenly be on the defensive when actual carbon emissions and the resultant penalties exceed expectations and building owners look for retribution.  
In this session we will outline ways to protect your firm when designing new or renovated buildings including educating owners while establishing emission targets,
mitigating the risk of failing to achieve targets and structuring construction documents to apportion risk appropriately to avoid getting squashed by the carbon footprint. 

Time: 2:00 pm - 2:45 pm / 3:15 pm - 4:00 pm
Title: Contractual Risk Allocation in Design-Build

Speakers: Nancy Rigassio, AXA XL and Dan Kantor, SLAM

Description: Despite the pandemic, construction in many markets remains strong. 
Owners prefer the convenience and simplicity of design-build project delivery as it allows them to enter into a single contract and delegate to the design-builder the coordination of the design and construction contracts. 

Time: 2:00 pm - 2:45 pm / 3:15 pm - 4:00 pm

Title: Workforce Development

Speakers: Eric Johnston, Foresite Group; Brant Lahnert, KL&A Engineers
Description: A discussion of the different tools, programs, resources, and policies that our member firms have leveraged to facilitate professional and technical development in their organizations.
Ideas shared can assist firms in developing their own initiatives.

Time: 4:00 pm - 4:30 pm

Title: Flash Breakouts
Quick breakouts offering space for open dialogue in a casual setting. Topics include:
Workforce Development - facilitated by Bret Weiss, WSB and Associates, Inc.
Culture/ Recruiting/ Retaining - facilitated by Todd Symonds, Goody Clancy
Legal - Dennis Stryker, Rick Engineering

Friday, October 15

Time: 8:30 am - 9:15 am

Title: 5 Steps to Make the Impossible Possible

Speakers: Ben Nemtin

Description: Whether you need to set bigger goals or reach the ones you already have, Ben will help you get from “ambition” to “accomplishment.” Ben’s message of radical possibility combined with his ‘5 Steps to Make the Impossible Possible’ leaves audiences not only inspired 
but also equipped with tools to tackle the seemingly insurmountable. His system of achieving impossible goals demystifies daunting tasks by turning ‘dreams’ into ‘projects’ and creates inspiration through action and accountability. Ben reminds us that it’s never too late to start your list 
and leave your lasting impact on the world.

Time: 9:15 am - 9:30 am

Title: Exercise: Taking Steps Toward Our Goals
Speaker: Ben Nemtin

Description: Ben’s writing workshop puts the ‘5 Steps to Making the Impossible Possible’ into action. We must create inspiration by taking steps toward our goals and this workshop does exactly that. 
The breakout session includes writing your list, identifying the most important item on your list, dream sharing with an accountability partner and helping one another reach our goals in intimate group settings.
These steps are designed to build accountability around personal goals, to generate inspiration by stimulating small actionable steps and to illustrate that help might just be sitting right next to you.

Time: 9:30 am - 10:00 am

Title: Rebound from a Complex Claim

Speakers: Carl Munkel, Gresham Smith and Nicole Mancino, AXA XL
Description: This presentation focuses on the importance of maintaining relationships with your client and professional liability insurance carrier stakeholders despite experiencing a significant claim. An actual claim situation provides context

for the risk management lessons learned in the long journey of resolving a complex claim and still continuing to work for the same client.  With the dreaded aftermath of a claim, including the impact on your professional liability insurance, it matters how you behave 
during a claim and address lessons learned. The presenters provide perspectives from both a large A/E member firm and AXA XL’s head of underwriting.

Time: 10:30 am - 10:45 am

Title: AXA XL Education Update

Speakers: Randy Lewis, AXA XL

Time: 10:45 am - 11:15 am

Title: Can Anyone Really Take My Place? 

Speakers: Chris Griffith, KCI Technologies, Inc.

Description: As a senior leader in the company, we all make sure succession plans are in place for ourselves and our key leadership.  However, when it is time to implement them, do we really know what we have?  
Whether it is tragedy, good financial planning, or just planned retirement, we will all leave our positions someday.  How can you ensure that your succession plan will function as you envision it to?  
What can you do to really make sure your successors are ready to take the helm? 
In this session, the topic of leadership succession (planned or unplanned) will be discussed, and ideas presented to be prepared for the inevitable.

Time: 11:15 am - 11:45 am

Title: Distributed Workforce Panel

Speakers: Zach Siviglia, Mark Thomas & Co. and Kristen Eder, Argus Consulting

Description: AE firms rely on their ability to bring people together for many reasons; grow client relationships, integrate new colleagues, improve their processes, promote their culture, and deliver projects. Few would argue the pandemic disrupted these efforts. 
This leadership panel will discuss the changes they have made to keep their teams cohesive, the business growing and their firms responding to client needs.

Time: 11:45 am - 12:00 pm

Title: Director Speak Out

Speakers: Laura Plosz, Group 2 Architecture Interior Design, Ltd.