It was HOT in Las Vegas at the AACEi Annual Conference. The temperature outside was also elevated to 113°. I attended mostly the sessions of the P&S (Planning & Scheduling) and CDR (Contract Dispute Resolution) tracks but there were times when I wish I could have attended three or more of the eight concurrent presentations.

There were well over forty exhibitors and while several catered to fields outside my niche discipline, I was able to gain useful information both directly and indirectly applicable to my practice. This is important as I am always running into projects and cases requiring tangential knowledge and additional outside expertise.

And the networking was fantastic. When I hear a good idea, I send myself a text which is forwarded to a dedicated inbox of my email system. When I got home, I had over 300 new entries. I heard numerous recent “war stories” and was able to recruit several to my Construction CPM Conference Project Showcase track.

The next AACEi annual will be truly international and will be in Toronto next June 26-29. But I received a LOT of requests for me to also host an international Construction CPM Conference in Latin America and we are exploring Panama City Panama for 2017. At our domestic venues we typically are early-to-rise with breakfast at 6:30am and keynote and sessions starting at 8:00am. But my SA friends are telling me do not plan anything until 9:30am in Panama. To run a successful conference – or any project – one must research and appreciate local preferences.

Right now I am mostly focused on January 31st to February 3rd 2016 in New Orleans – but I must schedule some time to consider. SUGGESTIONS AND ADVICE ARE WELCOME – send to me at info@ConstructionCPM.com.