Presentation at an AEC Conference in Prague

Well, I just returned to the U.S. from Europe, where, on September 6^th, I gave a presentation at an A/E/C conference in Prague (in The Czech Republic.) The conference was a one-day event.

This conference was organized by a research firm that provides subscribers insights into current and projected A/E/C-industry activity in both the government sector and the private sector.

Several government officials attended, and gave presentations during, the conference, including public officials from Waterworks, Transportation and Infrastructure agencies. Two real estate developers gave presentations at the conference. Several vendors (who sell products, software and services to the A/E/C Industry) gave presentations at the conference.

My presentation focused on a) current conditions in the A/E/C Industry in the U.S., b) strategies employed by A/E/C firms in the U.S. to weather the recession (which is, of course, still going on in that industry, in spite of the fact that our government told us that the recession ended in June 2009), c) differences between the U.S. and Europe when it comes to firms “outsourcing” non-core services (the extensive use of “outsourcing” by A/E/C firms in the U.S., which is not the case by A/E/C firms in Europe), and d) “Food for Thought”, strategies one might consider employing to reduce cost, improve efficiency, improve productivity, improve profitability, etc., etc., blah, blah, blah. Most of my frequent blog-visitors are aware that I do research conditions in the A/E/C Industry and that I follow trends affecting that industry.

It’s very interesting giving a English-language presentation to non-English speakers. The way this works is that you speak for a minute or so, then stop so that the translator can translate (in this case, into Czech) what you said, then you start again, stop again, start, stop, etc. Hard to get any momentum when you give a presentation this way, and it is highly doubtful that the translator came up with precise translations for what you said. Whatever.

Nonetheless, it was a rewarding experience.