The topics were varied, design-build resources plentiful, and critical connections made at July’s Federal Design-Build Symposium. Industry and Owners in the federal market spent a jam-packed two days talking about using Design-Build Done Right® to deliver historic infrastructure investment and furthering the mission of federal, state and local agencies across the nation.
The timing of this year’s Federal Design-Build Symposium couldn’t have been better, as implementation is underway to distribute infrastructure funding across a diversity of sectors. Whether it’s roads and bridges or water/wastewater (and everything in between), two of the most significant historical challenges facing Federal project managers are gaps in time and budget. Add to that today’s pressures of cost escalation, workforce pressures and supply chain challenges, and it’s clear why a growing number of public agencies are turning to design-build. A panel of federal agency leaders, including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Federal Bureau of Investigation, National Institute of Standards and Technology and the General Services Administration, discussed today’s market challenges. Cory Anderson is with the General Services Administration and told attendees, “Design-build’s ability to pivot quickly with supply chain issues has been just absolutely critical for us to be able to get our projects successfully delivered.” Every panel member also highlighted the importance of making the mental shift, receiving training to help the entire staff embrace that change and working to become “Owners of choice” so that industry wants to work with their agencies.
Whether attending the highly popular Owners or Practitioners-Only Forums or the more than a dozen targeted design-build sessions, this year’s event provided a truly unique opportunity to access all the resources DBIA has to offer teams as they deliver infrastructure projects.
Did You Miss This Year’s Event?
DBIA is committed to providing industry, federal agencies and the programs they fund in states nationwide with the innovative tools, design-build best practices and Federal policy insights needed to build high-performance teams. Even if you missed this year’s event, you can still watch the informative design-build sessions by purchasing Federal Design-Build Symposium recordings in DBIA’s Learning Center. The session recordings will be available approximately one week after the end of the conference.