Approximately 1,200 union workers, contractors, owners and other industry representatives learned best practices and collected ideas to increase business growth at the recent 2025 Iron Workers/Ironworker Management Progressive Action Cooperative Trust (IMPACT) conference.
In opening the conference with a safety moment address, Ironworkers’ general president Eric Dean described that attendance figure as a “record number.”
Held in Orlando, Fla., the four-day event was comprised of a mix of both main and breakout sessions. Features of those sessions included a wide array of industry topics such as artificial intelligence, suicide prevention, mental health, offshore wind industry opportunities, construction training and certifications, insurance, material supply and manufacturing projects.
Included in the agenda were two sessions on mass timber: Mass Timber – Material Supply and Manufacturing Demystified and Add Mass Timber to Your Scope: Best Practices from the Professionals.
Noting that use of cross-laminated timber is growing and getting stronger, the panellists in those two sessions highlighted the interface building opportunities with concrete foundations and structural steel.
There was considerable interest in those mass timber sessions, says IMPACT’s Canadian regional director Bert Royer. He estimates about third of the attendees were Canadian.
A major organizing objective was to attract general contractors and those efforts paid off. Another successful initiative was obtaining the perspective of owners, says Royer.
In a panel discussion titled Owners Tell Us What They Need to Accomplish Their Mission, three American company representatives and one Canadian did just that. The Canadian was Aecon
Group Inc.’s labour relations director Jason Campbell. All four stressed that the Ironworkers bring value to their projects and a strong commitment to safety.
Another Canadian took to the stage to demystify artificial intelligence and to highlight its potential.
“Is artificial intelligence freaking you out? It’s freaking me out. I have been at it for two years now,” said Ahmed Mekallach, chief executive officer and founder Myte Group Inc., a Montreal-based lab dedicated to building the future of systemized AI workflows.
Despite that opening remark, Mekallach debunked some of the misconceptions about AI — that it’s expensive, can’t be trusted and will take away jobs.
Instead, it has the ability to empower companies and unions to free up time by eliminating repetitive, laborious tasks such as entering time sheets into Excel forms, a job he once performed.
In making that point, he cited the fears that jobs would be lost when automated overhead cranes were installed at the Mumbai India port in the 1970s. Instead, the cranes allowed more ships to be unloaded in faster times.
“The impact was profound.”
Comparing the advent of AI to the early dawn of the Internet or electricity, he said “there won’t be a choice” on whether it will be used or not in the construction industry.
But humans will still be part of the process.
“It will be your system.”
In another session titled The Mega-Project: Not Business As Usual, four panellists shed light on the challenges in delivering the massive Panasonic Energy North American electric vehicle battery manufacturing facility in De Soto, Kansas. It’s scheduled to open this spring.
The US$4-billion project is a joint venture of Turner Construction Company and Yates Construction and is being heralded as the largest economic development project in that state’s history.
All four panellists agreed there more than a few discouraging setbacks along the way. But those obstacles were overcome by working together and establishing a clear chain of command.
“We were determined not to let (that project) fail,” said Ironworker Local 10 (Kansas City) business manager Dave Coleman.
Unlike other previous conferences, there were a limited number of sessions focusing on Canadian issues.
However, Toronto-based Ironworker consultant Lindsay Maskell conducted a session on the political challenges and opportunities in Canada.
According to Royer the conference was extremely well organized and one of the best-ever.
The tariffs that U.S. President Donald Trump has imposed on Canadian imports was not a major focus of the various sessions.
But there were “polite discussions” at dinners and other informal gatherings, he said.
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