The 96th annual AGC Convention will be held March 18 - 20 in San Juan, Puerto Rico at the Puerto Rico Convention Center. The annual event is the only one of its kind in North America, where general contractors, specialty contractors, suppliers, and other industry people converge for three days to discuss the future of the construction industry.

This year's conference, dubbed "360 Degrees of Construction," will begin on March 17 with pre-convention sessions, including AGC/Willis Construction Safety Excellence Awards Judging, and ConsensusDocs Preconference meeting on construction contracts and laws, followed by the Opening Reception for all attendees, hosted by the Puerto Rico Tourism Board.

The AGC website offers four "important reasons" for attending this event:

  •  2 1/2 days to network with the top decision makers and influencers in the construction industry, and 13 networking events covering 13 hours of opportunity that could buoy your company’s future success.
  • Sixteen professional development sessions covering executive & financial management, process, technology, innovations, risk management, talent recruitment & retention and much more.
  • Forty-five technology and construction solution providers in the AGC Expo ready to take problems off your hands and make you look awesome to your organization.
  • Sixty hours outside the office with industry peers. Gaining true perspective of your business can be a difficult task given only an inside look. This is your opportunity to take a step outside and get a truly 360o perspective of the industry and your business.

 The day-one session will begin with guest speaker Ken Adelman, ambassador and former Arms Control Director for President Ronald Reagan, followed by a Tech Showcase, then four concurrent professional development sessions, including Successful Succession Planning: Getting over the communication hurdles; Contractors Beware of the Pitfalls of Procuring Liability Insurance for High Risk, Big Dollar Contracts: The Ins and Outs of How Brokers Operate; Environmental Management Strategies for the Construction Industry; and The Contractor’s Marketing Journey.

Other day-one highlights include a Business Development Forum; Federal and Heavy Construction Division Session; Highway and Transportation Contractors Division Leadership Meeting; Service and Supply Forum; an AGC Economic Issues Outlook; and a discussion on the use of drones for construction.

Day two will begin with the Willis/AGC Construction Safety Excellence Awards Breakfast featuring motivational speaker Chad Hymas. The Construction Safety Excellence Award is given to companies that excel at safety performance in the categories of building, heavy, highway, municipal and specialty construction. 

Additional day-two meetings will include professional development sessions on managing the risk of subcontractor default; spotting fraud; the next generation of project delivery methods such as P3, IPD, JV, BIM, LEED, and ESI; and the essentials of design-build. 

The final day of the convention will feature the Occupational Divisions and Councils Plenary Session: Construction 360 – Navigating a Changing Construction Industry, followed by the Board of Governors Luncheon featuring guest speaker Haley Barbour, the former governor of Mississippi, and then the Closing Session Dinner and Installation of AGC National Officers held at the Sheraton Puerto Rico.

For more information or to register to attend the upcoming AGC Convention in San Juan, Puerto Rico held March 18 - 20, 2015, visit: http://meetings.agc.org/convention/