Engineering Influence from ACEC

During this edition of the MO Spotlight, we are joined by ACEC/MA's Abbie Goodman to discuss her organization's partnerships with Massachusetts Community Colleges on a STEM Starter Academy to attract more people into the engineering profession.  

Resources mentioned during the podcast:

STEM Starter Academy Resource Page

A STEM presentation to classrooms that can be downloaded, modified and used for classroom visits, virtual or in person.

Editor's note: During the podcast, the educational path of the MassDOT Highway Administrator was listed incorrectly.  It should be noted that he started at Mount Wachusett Community College in Liberal Arts and Sciences. He then attended Wentworth Institute of Technology in Environmental Engineering and holds a degree in Civil Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

The Engineering Influence podcast welcomed Elizabeth Bradford from Michael Baker International and Dr. Luce Bassetti from Jacobs Engineering to discuss the future of resiliency and the need to take a programatic approach to the challenges of climate change.  Both Elizabeth and Luce are authors of a chapter in ACEC's new book: Climate Change and the Built Environment, available now.

Well, the weather is starting to heat up here in Washington DC , and so is our activity at ACEC. And we wanted to give you a wrap up of what we've been working on this week and look ahead to what to expect from ACEC in the coming weeks.

Now first, I want to lead off with the fact that the 2022 professional liability insurance survey of member firms is now underway and invitation links to take the survey have been sent to the primary contacts of our firm members. And the survey is only requesting the responses from AE member firms of ACEC. Only one set of responses per firm is required. If you have any questions, reach out to Charles Kim. Earlier this week, we published two updates. First being the YouTube update that Erin McLaughlin, our Vice President of private market resources does every month in 10 minutes or less giving you all the top trends and information you need on what's happening in the economy and how it impacts your business. That's available on our YouTube channel. And it's going to be linked to the show notes on this episode. Really encourage you to take a look, like and subscribe to the channel, because we do this on a monthly basis. And we also follow up with an even shorter summary on our podcast that was published a little bit earlier this week, looking at top four things you need to know about the economy and the AE industry. And of course now with inflation and CPI at record highs, it's really a good time to get your handle on everything that's happening and impacting our industry. Now, following on the theme of private markets, time is running out for you to register for our April 28th Private Market Symposium on the healthcare, science+technology market, taking place in Boston, Massachusetts. Now this is a great event that brings together engineers and practitioners within this market space to talk about the evolution of the market and ways that engineering firms could take advantage of it. And we know from the research we've done from the ACEC Research Institute that healthcare facilities, biotech, science, and technology, those are all market sectors where our industry fuels bullish now and into the next 12 months. So this is a great opportunity, not only to hear from experts, but also to share information, meet network with your peers. Space is limited and we're running out. So take the opportunity right now if you're in the Boston area or on the 95 corridor. Make sure to get your space for the upcoming private market symposium in healthcare and the science+technology market happening on April 28th in Boston. If you go up to the private market resources page on our website, we have a full rundown of speakers and the agenda. It's gonna be an event you don't want to miss. Now we're also counting down the days until we hit the early bird deadline for the 2022 annual Convention and Legislative Summit happening in person between May 22nd and 25th back downtown DC at the Grand Hyatt. Now this is going to be a great event and it's gonna be a combination of three days of networking, round tables, speakers, and of course advocacy. This is our premier advocacy event for the year. Now there's no better time to have your voice heard in Washington. I mean, right now we are in the implementation phase of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. No one knows the importance of getting this right like our member firm leaders. And we always talk about the speakers that we have and speakers are always a highlight of our events. And this year is no exception. We are very pleased to be welcoming Margaret Brennan - she's the moderator of, CBS' Face the Nation and their Chief Foreign Correspondent. And there's enough to talk about right there. We are also gonna be joined by Scott Harrison. He's gonna be kicking off the event. He's the founder and CEO of Charity: Water, and we are also gonna be welcoming Nicole Malachowski. She is the first female Thunderbird pilot. She's a combat veteran fighter squadron com

Welcome to ACEC’s March economic update. Each month, ACEC’s Erin McLaughlin analyzes the latest industry data and provides insights for the engineering and design industry.  Here are the 4 things you need to know:

 Number 1 –

Reduced immigration is causing economic challenges according to a new survey from the National Association for Business Economics (NABE). Eighty percent of survey respondents said reduced immigration during the pandemic has constrained economic activity and contributed to wage pressures. The engineering industry has an ongoing and growing shortage of talent, and the constrained immigration pattern of the last few years has exacerbated labor supply challenges. 

Number 2 –

Unemployment was at just 3.6% in March near record lows, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Economists generally consider full employment to be 4%. For the engineering industry, our work falls into the category of professional and related services. That category has just 1.6% unemployment.

Number 3 –

Inflation continues to rise, with the Consumer Price Index, or CPI, up more than 8 percent over the last 12 months, the fastest annual gain in more than 40 years. CPI data is provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and tracks prices across different categories including gas. Though politicians have suggested – or moved forward on – lowering or suspending the gas tax, ACEC does not believe that would not be a prudent or effective way to lower the cost of gas. In fact, just 14% of the economists surveyed by NABE recommended lowering or suspending the gas tax as a way to mitigate rising gas prices. The more favored approach was to release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

 And, number 4:

Total design and construction spending was up more than 11% this February, compared to the same time last year. The category remains driven by private residential spending which is up almost 17%, along with private non-residential up nearly 10%.

There you have it. The economic update series is one of ACEC’s resources for media and members. For a deeper dive, check out the full video on YouTube and all of ACEC’s popular Private Industry Briefs.

And we hope to see you later this month when the ACEC private markets team will hold a symposium discussing the healthcare, science and technology markets in Boston, Mass.

To learn more about ACEC’s full slate of private market offerings visit our website at ACEC.org.

Thanks, and we’ll see you again in May.

Joining us on the program is Patricia Gary, who is Of Counsel at Donovan Hatem in Boston and a co-editor of ACEC's latest book, Climate Change and the Built Environment.

Gary delves into both the wider issues of climate change and the more focused role of design services professionals.

Purchase your copy here: https://education.acec.org/diweb/catalog/item?id=8387708

ACEC has published a new book: Climate Change and the Built Environment.

Lisa Churchill, founder of Climate Advisory and a co-editor of the book, joins the program to discuss climate change and engineers' role in finding solutions.

Purchase your copy here: https://education.acec.org/diweb/catalog/item?id=8387708

Erin McLaughlin, our VP of Private Market Resources joined the program to discuss the growing healthcare and science+technology market, which is the focus of our upcoming Private Market Symposium taking place next month in Boston.  To learn more about the event, click here: https://programs.acec.org/private-market-symposiums/

M&A/Ownership transition is a popular issue on the podcast, and today we’re going to come at it from a different angle. Rather than looking at the state of the market or the various valuation methods, we’re going to talk about the role of the key people in the firm.  

Diving into this issue with us is Robert Gabel, a former CFO at two mid-sized engineering firms who has been involved in numerous acquisitions and, perhaps more importantly, has participated in several decisions not to make an acquisition. He also was involved in rebuilding two ownership transition programs and has advised on several others.

Bob recently presented an online class for ACEC on the people side of ownership transition and if this conversation stimulates your interest, you can download that program here.

A big issue for every type of company in the United States today is cybersecurity. It’s a huge challenge both to protect a firm’s digital assets and then to stay ahead of the bad actors who never stop looking for chinks in the armor.

We  dive into this issue with Doug Miller, who is founder and CEO of The Brightworks Group in Indianapolis. Brightworks is a digital transformation and cloud transition IT service company offering cloud-based managed services to companies in a range of industries including engineering.

Doug recently presented an online class for ACEC on cybersecurity and if our conversation stimulates your interest, I encourage you watch the program.

Curbing the Cause of Climate Change originally appeared as the cover feature of the Fall 2021 issue of Engineering Inc. Read the whole story from Samuel Greengard "Mitigating Challenges of Climate Change" in the magazine's digital edition here.  Make sure to subscribe so you never miss an issue.