ECA Industry Update

NECA Project Excellence Awards

Application Process is Open!

The NECA Project Excellence Awards were created to recognize member companies for their outstanding commitment, professionalism and ingenuity in delivering an electrical project across 13 different market sectors! NECA wants to see the innovative and cutting-edge projects that your company completed in 2022. Get a chance to be celebrated on stage at our annual convention in September where the PEA awards will be presented!

The 13 different categories are:

Commercial/Institutional
Design-Build
Educational
Energy Solutions/Green Building
Health Care
Industrial
Low Voltage/Technology
Overhead Transmission
Residential
Street Lighting/Traffic Signal
Substation/Interconnection
Transportation & Infrastructure
Electric Vehicle (EV)

Deadline to submit is June 30, 2023. Applications submitted must be based on projects completed in 2022.

View more information and rules here.

NECA Convention & Trade Show - Philadelphia

September 29, 2023 - October 2, 2023

Registration for the NECA Convention & Trade Show has begun! Room Reservation for the Chicago Chapter Block ends on August 1, 2023. It is based on availability. Please register, as soon as you can.

Registration

Please visit www.necaconvention.org to register for the NECA Convention/Accommodations. The Convention Center is located at the Philadelphia Convention Center, 1101 Arch St, Philadelphia, PA 19107.

Those who register early (on or before August 1, 2023) will receive the “early” price of $1,725 for members and $1,100 for the member’s spouse / guest. Those who register beginning on August 2, 2023 will receive the "regular" NECA Convention registration fee of $1,975 per NECA member, and $1,300 for the member’s spouse / guest.

After you have registered, please e-mail a copy of your completed registration transaction to the Association office at registration@ecachicago.com. This will allow us to have a record of your registration information, should you need any assistance after registering.

Hotel Reservations

The Hotel for the Chicago & Cook County Chapter is the Four Seasons Hotel Philadelphia at Comcast Center located at 1 N 19th Street, Philadelphia, PA. The room type and rate that is available is the Standard Room (1 King Bed or Two Double Beds) at $505.00 Single / Double.

Convention Stipend

The ECA Executive Committee approved the stipend of the Registration Fee for up to two representatives and their guests from each ECA member firm that registers for the Convention. The registrations will be reimbursed to the applicable companies after the Convention. The Executive Committee also approved an additional stipend of $1,000.00 per applicable attendee’s room block utilization for the NECA Convention & Trade Show to offset the room night cost increase with the Four Seasons Philadelphia Hotel.

CLICK HERE FOR CHAPTER EVENTS INFORMATION / CONVENTION REGISTRATION

Document Crunch

Contractors who sign up for the service will have exclusive access to an ELECTRI-specific solution through Document Crunch’s innovative platform.

Watch Demo Video

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to Satyam Verma at sverma@documentcrunch.com.

Click for NECA Alert (6/1/23)

Click for NECA This Week (6/26/23)

NECA Government Affairs Update (6/12/23) --

Please click the link for a recent update from NECA Government Affairs.

If you have any questions regarding the update, please reach out to NECA Government Affairs to: Hadlea Bender, Specialist at: (713) 870-8619 / Jared Karbowsky, Director, Government Affairs, National Electrical Contractors Association at: 443-975-2932

Click Here for Update

Federal Government Funding Announcements / Regulations

Compiled by NECA Government Affairs:

Please click the link for the latest funding announcements and regulations the Federal Government has posted.

Click Here for Listing

NECA Safety Professionals Institute

Designed for new safety professionals in the EC industry, this program provides participants with the “must know” topics for those responsible for keeping our workers safe. NECA recognizes that health and safety is a “Shared Responsibility” between employers and employees and provides this training for awareness and to help reduce incidents, injuries, and fatalities through an established Safety Management System, adaptable for all organizations. Applications for the NECA Safety Professionals Institute will be processed on a first-come basis and attendance is limited. The registration deadline for this program is August 1, 2023. If you have any questions about the program, contact education@necanet.org.

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE!

ECA Stipends Available for a Number of Events!

The Electrical Contractors' Association of City of Chicago (ECA) Executive Committee recently approved a number of educational stipends for various events throughout 2023. Please click on the link for the current listing.

The registrations will be reimbursed to the applicable companies after the Conference. After you have registered for the applicable event, please e-mail a copy of your completed registration transaction to the Association office at registration@ecachicago.com. This will allow us to have a record of your registration information, should you need any assistance after registering.

CLICK HERE FOR LISTING OF APPLICABLE STIPENDS

ELECTRI Updates

INNOVATION EVERY DAY - Mike Emery, Director of EV Charging for Light Efficient Design is excited about his work in an emerging sector of the electrical industry. Mike’s focus is achieving top performance at every level of the innovation process. His Think Like a Leader interview tells us a lot about his leadership and this important new market.

ACCEPT THE CHALLENGE – BESCO VP, Craig Wojciechowski, knows the importance of challenging the norm. He is a strong believer in communication, collaboration, and planning as the best way to lead his workforce. Tune in here for Craig’s Think Like a Leader interview to find out what he believes are the key elements of successful leadership.

HR IS THE GATEWAY - Recruiting and retaining employees, working from home, managing field and office employees, onboarding, and other topics are all key elements of the HR function. During ELECTRI’s Council Room, participants discussed how to manage and succeed with a strong HR function. Using this link, we invite you to share the conversation with your HR personnel. Additional information links on website.

SIGN ON THE DOTTED LINE – In ELECTRI’s recent ITea and Coffee, Matt Lamb (CIO, Rosendin) reviewed everything you need to know about IT contracts. Participants learned about common redlines and what needs watching in the contract language. We hope you will share this link with your staff.

LATEST THINK LIKE A LEADER - As VP for Technical Sales at Atkore, Joe Gesino understands that leadership is a combination of people, strategy, and process. In every interaction, Joe pays special attention to doing things the right way. Click here for Joe’s interview.

NEW ELECTRI WHITEPAPER - Reality capture can compare progress on a timeline using artificial intelligence (AI) to automatically provide date/time stamps and location data for every image. This ELECTRI whitepaper explores the 360-degree camera as a reality capture device and how it can be used in the EC industry. Questions: Jared.Christman@electri.org

PLEASE TELL US - ELECTRI is identifying emerging trends in electrical work and providing decision-making tools to help with new market feasibility assessments. We need your data so we can provide ECs with a review of new/emerging electrical infrastructure advancements and needs. Please help by taking the survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/65579XM Questions? Amanda@electri.org

SOPs – Success in the EC industry depends upon Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for consistency, standardization, teamwork, and a common vision for project execution. ELECTRI’s research on “Setting up the project for success with SOPs” will show how to define, assemble, deploy, and evaluate SOPs. Please share this survey with your employees. We need your input. Amanda@electri.org

THE NEW REQUIREMENTS – Participants in last week’s ELECTRI Council Room webcast learned a lot about best practices and pain points on performing federal work, or work funded with federal dollars, that include Buy America requirements. You and your key staff members can review the Council Room conversation by clicking this link.

KEEP IT VISUAL. KEEP IT REAL. – 360-degree photo documentation tools are a low-cost, low-effort means of having complete visual project records. On site, someone walks the job and captures 360-degree photos and videos. Then, software automatically organizes these photos and videos by location and date of capture. There is a new class of easy-to-deploy photo record-keeping solutions on the market. ELECTRI research, conducted by Thomas Czerniawski, has produced a Guide to 360 Photo Project Documentation. The results include an implementation checklist designed to provide a step-by-step guide for electrical contractors to deploy 360-photo management successfully. The checklist includes five key steps:

Organizational Policy and Strategic Plan
Technology Ramp Up
Execution - Suggested Standard Operating Procedures
Experimenting with Advanced Features

Access the complete project at this link to go straight to project results.

WELL WORTH WATCHING – ELECTRI’s recent ConTech and Coffee webinar focused on Material Management Software. EC panelists reviewed their Material Management software journey. The conversation covered how they chose the software, how it got implemented in their workflow, and how it was integrated from their previous material management workflow. To watch and learn from the discussion, click the link here.

ELECTRI International Quick Links

ELECTRI Meetings ELECTRI Research Council Room Sessions Prefab 101 Videos Think Like A Leader