ECA’s Upcoming Events!

Mark your calendars and register, soon!

Here's a listing of upcoming Chapter events that you won't want to miss!

Thank you for your support of the ECA.

Please visit the ECA website to register for these and other events.

2026 ECA Summer Social

Friday, August 14, 2026

11:00 am - 3:00 pm

Offshore Rooftop at Navy Pier in Chicago

ECA Young Professionals 8th Annual Leadership Conference

Thursday, August 20, 2026 - Friday, August 21, 2026

Kimpton Journeyman Hotel

310 E Chicago St., Milwaukee, WI 53202

ECA Regular Membership Meeting

Wednesday, September 9, 2026 Breakfast Session! 8:00 AM - 10:00 AM

Maggiano's Banquets

240 Oakbrook Center

Oak Brook, IL

This program will feature industry updates and guest presentation by Chris Nybo, ECA State Lobbyist.

"Advanced Estimating of Electrical Construction

Monday, September 21, 2026 - Tuesday, September 22, 2026 (2-day Seminar)

IBEW – NECA Technical Institute (INTECH) - 6201 W. 115^th Street – Alsip, IL

8:00 am - 4:00 pm (Oct. 27 - 28)

"Advanced Estimating" to be presented by Michael Bill, NECA Education

Developed to discuss all phases of the estimating process, this course covers all phases of preparing a competitive bid. Key topics include identifying desirable bid opportunities, analyzing the company's capabilities to insure profitable results, the estimator’s role at various stages of the project, writing an effective scope letter and identifying often hidden costs in the bid documents.

Following this course, participants will be able to:

Discuss the steps necessary to prepare a competitive bid
Identify the most desirable bid opportunities
Describe how a company’s capabilities can be analyzed to insure profits
Discuss cash flow and bonding
Discuss relevant contract terms
Identify price adjustment techniques, overhead, and profit
List the documents required to estimate a construction project

NECA Convention & Trade Show

Sunday, October 4, 2026 – Wednesday, October 7, 2026

Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino – Las Vegas, NV

“Prefabrication and Preplanning Construction”

Thursday, October 15, 2026

IBEW-NECA Technical Institute (INTECH) 6201 W. 115th Street Alsip, IL 60803

8:00 am - 4:00 pm (Breakfast & Lunch to be served) --
(Breakfast to be available at 7:45 am)

Mark, Federle, Marquette University - Facilitator

Prefabrication can save an electrical contractor time and money, but what do you prefab? And how do you tackle the preplanning required to even get out of the gate? This program will discuss tactics to aid those at any step of the prefabrication process in optimizing their preplanning and increase their prefabrication efficiency. This program is based on an ELECTRI International research report.

Following this course, participants will be able to:

Discuss the importance of preplanning
Identify planning strategies to improve productivity
Identify activities at each phase of the construction process to preplan
Utilize the benefits of activities such as prefabrication, lean construction, and building information modeling on preplanning
Identify tactics that can increase the amount of prefabrication you do

ECA Regular Membership Meeting

Wednesday, October 21, 2026 12:00PM - 2:30PM

IBEW-NECA Technical Institute (INTECH) 6201 W. 115th Street Alsip, IL 60803

The luncheon program will feature industry updates, and a guest presentation from Mr. Don Finn, Local 134 IBEW Business Manager.

ECA Regular Membership Meeting

Wednesday, November 11, 2026 - Breakfast Session! 8:00 AM – 10:00 AM

Gibsons Steakhouse

2105 Spring Road Oak Brook, IL 60523

This program will feature industry updates and guest presentations from Industry represetnatives.

“Managing Work in Progress”

Thursday, November 12, 2026

Maggiano’s Banquets - Oak Brook, IL

8:00 am – 12:00 pm

Facilitated by Doug Reitz, Maxim Consulting Group

Many project managers lack a clear handle on how their projects are performing financially. Most commonly it is because they have not been trained on how to forecast properly. We find many contractors struggle with how to build a robust cost projection process that provides for consistency and predictability. Profit fade at 90% complete is no longer an option in today’s market. Teach project manager how to properly set up job budgets, track progress and forecast accurately. Moreover, learn critical financial indicators that point to problems on projects early so they can be rectified.

Following this course, participants will be able to:

Identify how to manage work-in-process for better profitability
Explain the relationship between project profitability and processes (budgeting, forecasting, change control, job status reporting and WIP)
Describe how to apply earned value reporting to projects
Learn key performance indicators that point to critical project performance problems

SAVE THE DATE!

ECA Holiday Party - Saturday, December 5, 2026 -

The Gwen Hotel
521 N. Rush Street

Chicago, IL

Details to come!