Explore the Agenda
8:00 am Check-In & Networking
8:30 am Chair’s Opening Remarks
Practical AI Adoption
8:40 am Leveraging AI to Simplify Quality Workflows & Increase Efficiency Without Increasing Risk
- Showcasing practical AI use cases that improve quality workflows and enhance project efficiency
- Integrating AI directly into everyday tools and processes to accelerate plan development, automate reporting and enhance inspections without replacing professional judgement
- Establishing guardrails for responsible adoption, ensuring outputs are verified, cybersecurity is considered and AI enhances efficiency without introducing new risk
9:10 am Empathic Leadership in the Digital Age: Guiding Construction into the Future
- Understand why technological change in construction is emotional before it is operational.
- Identify specific leadership strategies for different emotional stages, such as maximizing communication and sparking motivation. Apply these strategies to support teams through both the "Resistance" and "Acceptance" phases of tech adoption.
- Define the role of the executive sponsor in modeling behaviors rather than just mandating them & discover how to create a culture of psychological safety to ensure new tools and technologies stick.
9:40 am Panel: Cutting Through AI Hype by Selecting, Governing & Verifying Tools That Actually Deliver
- Separating real, project-ready AI applications from overpromised solutions by sharing what is genuinely working in live quality programs
- Establishing governance frameworks that treat AI as a tool with clear verification, accountability and professional oversight
- Rationalizing tool selection to avoid platform overload, protect data security and ensure outputs are accurate enough to reduce rework, not create it
Quality Driven Supplier Selection
10:20 am Embedding Quality Requirements into Supplier Selection, Contracts & Checkpoints to Prevent Downstream Rework and Performance Failures
- Defining quality expectations and KPIs in statements of work to select contractors based on quality performance, not just cost and schedule
- Verifying supplier quality processes through audits, references and performance reviews before contractor selection
- Establishing checkpoints and a scalable supplier quality framework to monitor performance and prevent downstream rework
10:50 am Morning Refreshments & Networking
Track 1: Quality Program Leadership & Evolution
Track 2: Quality Assurance Planning & Design Processes
Track 3: Project Quality Management Tools
Track 4: Lessons Learned: Managing Quality in the Field
Track 1: Quality Program Leadership & Evolution
Chaired by
Senior Performance - Excellence & Quality Consultant, American Contractors Insurance Group
Heavy Civil Delivery
11:30 am Managing Nuclear-Grade Quality to Meet Zero Tolerance Regulatory Requirements
Director of Quality, Baker Construction Enterprises Inc.
- Preparing for nuclear and gas-fired expansion by understanding the scale, regulatory burden and execution risk of multi-billion-dollar projects
- Delivering verbatim compliance to federal nuclear regulations through strict material traceability, enhanced oversight and documented verification
- Aligning quality and engineering to eliminate grey areas, ensuring designs are executed exactly as written with zero tolerance for deviation
12:00 pm Panel: Aligning Quality Across Joint Ventures to Deliver Seamless Execution on Major Infrastructure Projects
Senior Vice President - Enterprise Quality, Clayco Construction Company
Director - Quality, EllisDon
Director - Quality, Kiewit Corporation
- Coordinating quality across multiple Joint Venture partners on complex projects to reduce inefficiencies and rework
- Applying proven joint venture alignment strategies across large-scale builds
- Establishing a clear quality governance framework across heavy civil, industrial and infrastructure markets to ensure consistent execution despite differing company processes
Track 2: Quality Assurance Planning & Design Processes
Track 3: Project Quality Management Tools
Track 4: Lessons Learned: Managing Quality in the Field
12:30 pm Networking Lunch Break
Tracks Finish, Return to Plenary Content
Quality as a Business Driver
1:30 pm Understanding the Financial Impact of Quality: Preventing Loss, Protecting Margins & Strengthening Client Confidence
- Making the case internally and to clients that focused quality personnel protect schedule, reduce change orders and improve profitability
- Building clear, usable quality systems that help underexperienced teams avoid costly mistakes on major builds
- Engaging project teams first so they see tangible value and enforce quality themselves, reducing resistance and strengthening delivery performance
2:00 pm Turning Quality Data into Risk Prevention by Predicting Costly Failures Before They Occur
- Tracking rework effectively and identifying reliable ways to quantify its true impact across projects
- Distinguishing between direct rework costs and indirect costs, including safety incidents and productivity impacts when work deviates from the plan
- Exploring the “cost of quality” and demonstrate the bottom-line impact and secure executive buy-in for preventative investment
2:30 pm Case Study: Digitalizing Quality Inspections to Improve Field Visibility, Standardize Documentation & Strengthen Project Oversight
- Converting paper-based inspection forms, checklists and QC documents into a digital platform to eliminate lost records and create a more reliable quality trail across projects
- Building digital workflows that make inspections easier for field teams to complete while improving adoption by simplifying tasks they were already required to perform
- Using digital tracking tools to monitor progress remotely across definable features of work, equipment and assets, enabling stronger oversight from receipt through installation and completion