The Design-Build for Transportation/Aviation Conference is the perfect event at the perfect time for design-build teams working to deliver historic infrastructure investment projects nationwide. Whether you’re new to design-build or an old pro, there will be impressive networking, resources and sessions explicitly geared to teams in the transportation/aviation sectors.

DBIA’s Transportation/Aviation Conference committee chair, Jolena Missildine, is the Design-Build Procurement Engineering Manager at Washington State DOT. She says this event will offer incredible opportunities for all design-build teams.

What would you tell someone who’s never been to a DBIA event about why they should attend?

Events such as these are where you come to get answers about Design-Build and enhance your own DB program. They expand your workforce knowledge through prior successes and lessons learned. These events are filled with information on new tools and best practices that promote and extend new delivery methods. The sessions are well developed, packed with discussions of relevant topics, and provide for interaction between the presenters and the audience. There is no need to reinvent the wheel when you can come and share resources from the wealth of design-build expertise.

What about those long-time design-builders who’ve “been there-done that” — What can these events offer them?

In the few days of the conference, you can collaborate with owners and industry leaders in all aspects of design-build project delivery and hear and learn the same things the owners are hearing and learning. These events offer new ideas and best practice processes. This event allows the partnership of Design-Build to continue to grow. These professional relationships developed at the conferences can be invaluable for future opportunities.

What’s your favorite thing about the DBIA Spring sector conferences?

My favorite things about all DBIA conferences are exchanging information and networking. Through attendance at previous conferences, I have developed relationships with Industry partners and many counterparts at other state DOTs involved in alternative project delivery. These relationships pay for themselves time and time again, as researching issues or obtaining different viewpoints after the conference becomes a matter of “phoning a friend.” It’s truly a network of partnerships that build on one another.

Is there anything else you’d like readers to know about this year’s Design-Build for Transportation/Aviation conference?

We are finally back in person again! It was like a big family reunion. So many things changed in each of our lives, and it was great to focus back on DBIA. It’s amazing how the evolution of design-build grew during these trying times. This DBIA community had already started to provide resolutions to some of the same issues we were having in the NW. Attending this conference allowed me to hear and partner on some of these future best practices. DBIA conferences are where collaboration and transformation happen.

Learn more about the event in this video, then check out the entire program and register today!