Behind the Scenes at the Construction Industry Institute
Grapevine, Texas, in July? Why? CII! The Construction Industry Institute drew close to 500 owners, contractors and academics to Texas on the baking hot week of July 19. The group is devoted to doing much-neglected basic research about the business challenges facing the industry. Fortunately, we were literally inside the Gaylord Texan mega-hotel. There wasnt much exposure to the natural elements--and that was a good thing.
Rich in Research: For the research side of this story, please stay tuned for a related story coming soon to the web and the ENR print edition. There is a particularly interesting study about the difference between commodity and value-added services from contractors and which services produce net a value-added impact on the project in the end. The Grapevine meeting was a members only event, but this and other research will be presented again at CIIs public Construction Project Improvement Conference at the University of Texas in Austin on Sept. 11 to 13. For more information or to download research studies, visit www.construction-institute.org. Current CII Chairman Dennis Schroeder, president of the BE&K Engineering Co., Birmingham, Ala., is really upbeat about the groups new Executive Leadership course at the UT McCombs School of Business Jan. 8-27, 2006. More about that on their website, too.