The Ontario General Contractors Association (OGCA) will be hosting its 14th annual symposium in April, with this year’s focus on the “brave new world” of technology and innovation.
The event will take place April 11 to 13 at the Blue Mountain Conference Centre in Blue Mountain Village and will feature an expanded interactive trade show, networking opportunities as well as educational content focused on innovation.
Organizers are expecting over 600 people to attend from all areas of the ICI construction industry. The symposium takes place every two years.
“This year we dedicated two streams of education to the topic of innovation and technology,” OGCA president Giovanni Cautillo told the Daily Commercial News. “We’ve also really taken the aspect of education even further and we are replicating the sessions on both the Thursday and the Friday because we believe that we have such amazing sessions and offerings that we don’t want the delegates to have to pick.”
If delegates are interested in two sessions that are happening at the same time, they can attend one that day and one the next day, Cautillo noted.
Symposium offers educational content on range of subjects
Experts and leaders are scheduled to host business sessions on a number of topics. The categories are legal, health and safety, two innovation and technology streams, surety and insurance and environmental and social governance.
Some of the sessions in the lineup are Preventing and Managing Discrimination and Harassment in the Construction Industry; Crash Course in Delay Analysis for Construction Professionals; Building Ontario by Air; Technology, Innovation and Stakeholder Accountability: How Integrated Approaches Lead the Way to Net-Zero Solutions; Creating Safer Jobsites Through Disruptive Innovation; AI in the Construction Industry and How it Can Help the OGCA Members; Deadly Sins Organizations Commit Before and After a Cyber Attack; Revolutionizing Risk Management: How Digital Twin Technology Transforms Total Cost of Risk Strategies; Top Legal Challenges Faced by Construction, 2024 Edition; and Construction Tech — Visual Intelligence and Reality Capture.
A product showcase
One of the highlights of this year’s symposium is the interactive trade show, which is an opportunity for participants to maximize exposure and showcase their products and services to delegates.
It will feature an opening evening mixer for exhibitors to present to delegates.
“We’ve got a lot more interactive vendors that have come into play, through our Associate Partner Program,” Cautillo said.
The Ontario Builder Awards will be handed out the evening of Friday, April 12. Cautillo said there were a record number of submissions this year.
Overall, there will be something for everybody at the symposium.
“When it comes down to it, it’s just a fabulous way to network with your peers, look at the possibility of working together under joint ventures, looking for new clients. The symposium gives you a bit of everything,” he said. “It’s an education place, wrapped with the fact that we have a lot of emphasis on networking and camaraderie. It’s kind of a one-stop-shop for the ICI sector.
“We look forward to everyone’s participation at the symposium. We hope we can continue this for a lot of years to come as the go-to premier event every two years for the ICI construction sector,” Cautillo added.
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