NECA 2024: What we learned at one of construction’s biggest trade shows

Ryan: Every NECA I attend I’m reminded of how great a community electrical construction has, and why I love being a part of it.

Alison: Relationships are everything in construction, and I met so many people I am inspired by. The electrical contractors and industry partners I met at the show all had a passion and commitment to their craft.

Austin: 90% of NECA contractors we talked with are still using texts and emails to communicate with their field, and spreadsheets to forecast and plan their labor. This causes them extreme pain from an efficiency and productivity standpoint.

Tim: Those working on California’s electric grid have a new milestone to hit before 2035: ensuring the infrastructure of the nation’s most populated state won’t buckle under the forthcoming sales ban on new internal combustion vehicles. Contractors have been steadily working toward this for awhile – a response to the brownouts that have plagued the Golden Coast – but now they have a hard deadline to target as the amount of energy storage and vehicle charging stations exponentially increases.

Brian: There are more and larger companies acknowledging Workforce Management initiatives and operational areas of opportunity when it comes to labor than ever before. Compared to even ten years ago, the number of contractors aware of how important this category is is crazy. Labor operations will continue to take a more central stage in contractors’ initiatives and we’re witnessing it firsthand.

Dana: Contractors are really impressed by how easy it is to build a forecast and schedule to it with our Labor Recommendations. Customers I met really appreciated how we care and listen to them to make their user experience better, too. Prospects and customers alike were interested in complex jobs because they’re an issue that everyone has.

Dustin: When I left the contractor side of the industry, I thought I’d be giving up good relationships with people at other contractors. I was pleasantly surprised that’s not the case. It was awesome to see my new coworkers interacting with contractors like they’d been friends for a lifetime.

Devin: Leaders of the electrical contractors we spoke to really appreciate our Labor Demand feature and how easy it is to visualize the awarded and prospective work coming into their businesses. You can see the wheels turning when we got to the Labor Demand Dashboard. To Brian’s point, it seems like something they’re hearing about from peers that have adopted RIVET.

Patrick: My biggest takeaway was how many Operational Leaders were at NECA and that they actively sought out RIVET to understand who we are and how we can help them. The most encouraging aspect was how many understood what RIVET was prior to the conference. Many expressed the show is the one week a year where they can have discussions about software solutions.

Jessica: The first thing I noticed at the convention center was, “Wow, this is huge! Just like the auto show.” Most of my time was in the Education Workshops to learn about the construction industry.

A recurring message from one of the sessions was “people want to succeed.” Everyone from the Operational Leaders, to apprentices, to us at RIVET need the right processes, knowledge and tools to do our best work and have a successful business.

Paul: A major theme I noticed in all the sessions I attended was the massive disconnect between field workers and the back office. Whether it’s real time communication, Labor Requests from the field to the back office or just the back office keeping Roster information updated with actionable context for the field. It highlighted all the ways RIVET can keep your field operations team in perfect sync with the back office PMs and labor coordinators.