Preparing for a massive trade show like CONEXPO-CON/AGG can feel like a monumental task. With millions of square feet and thousands of exhibitors, it's easy to get lost in the noise, but simply showing up without a plan is a surefire way to miss the game-changing connections and technologies that could redefine your business.
Today’s episode features a recent Customer Panel recorded at the CONEXPO-CON/AGG Exhibitor Meeting in August, where a group of accomplished construction leaders - from seasoned veterans to first-time attendees - break down the exact strategies they use to turn their visit into a high-ROI investment. They also reveal how they plan their days, what tech they're looking for, and how they solve their biggest business challenges right at the show.
Topics:
- Education-first strategy and networking insights
- Industry challenges
- Practical sustainability
- Brand engagement
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Episode transcript:
Taylor White: All right, ladies and gentlemen, the wait is finally over. Registration for CONEXPO-CON/AGG 2026 is open with 2000 exhibitors, 2.9 million square feet packed with cutting-edge equipment, technology, and the best minds in construction. You won't want to miss it. The best part? You can save 40% on show admission right now by using code PODCAST40. This offer is good through Friday, September 12th, so you better buy those tickets soon and join us in Las Vegas next March.
Eric Sauvage: So now, let's start with what I know is going to be a very informative customer panel session. You've heard throughout the program that connecting with our customers is key. If we are not at the show, meeting their needs, providing them with solutions, and bringing the right people, we will not be successful at the show. So, I invite our panelists to take their seats right now on stage while I introduce this morning's moderator. Taylor White, a third-generation leader of Ken White Construction, brings his deep industry knowledge and hands-on experience to the stage as the host of this panel. With a passion for branding, culture, and business growth, he has successfully expanded his family's construction company while staying true to his core values. Taylor's proven insight into leadership, workforce development, and the future of contracting makes him the perfect guide for this conversation with industry experts, as well as being the host of the CONEXPO-CON/AGG podcast. So, Taylor, I will turn things over to you so you can introduce the panelists.
Taylor White: Thank you. Thank you very much. Happy to be here this morning. My name is Taylor White. Like you said, that was quite the intro. He was hyping me up quite a bit there. But I'm happy to be here. I'm going to guide you through today's panel. I think what's really interesting about today is you're going to hear from people. You have somebody who's a four-year seasoned vet of attending CONEXPO-CON/AGG and somebody who's going to be attending for their very first time. So you, the audience, are going to pull some good value about how they experience the show in their different ways. So, I think what I want to do is just go down and give everybody a little bit of time to introduce themselves so you know who you're listening to. So, I'll start with you, John.
John McDonald II: Hi, my name is John McDonald. I'm President and CEO of McDonald & Sons, a second-generation golf course builder outside of Baltimore, Maryland. We work all around the country on golf course projects, renovation, and new construction.
Nic Parish: I'm Nick Parrish. I'm with the Burns Group. We're out of Mississippi, and we operate in the Deep South. We have a few different businesses. We have one that's a heavy civil site prep business, one that's an aggregate hauling business, and then a third that is a refusal and recycling waste business. And then, with that as well, I have a workforce development nonprofit that focuses on recruiting and developing labor within the industry.
Amanda Kurt: So, I am Amanda Kurt with Kirk Concrete. I co-own the company with my dad, a second generation. We do different kinds of residential and commercial cast-in-place concrete foundations, excavation, and a little bit of private site utilities.
Ebony Jennings: I am Ebony Jennings. I am the owner of Jennings Asphalt Contracting and Construction in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I'm a third-gen business owner. My grandfather started it, it skipped a generation, and I picked it up. And we do a lot of city contracts, a lot of paving, grading, sealcoating, things like that.
Taylor White: Awesome. Yeah. So, you know, we have a really dynamic group of people up here, and we have a bunch of questions to get through as well. So, I think it's going to pull some good value for you guys as well, the audience listening. So, I think to start, as we all know, CONEXPO is a huge space, a huge event, and one of the best questions, and I'm going to pass this one up to John first because he is a seasoned vet, and everyone else feel free to chime in on this. But you know, John, if I was asking you this question, did you take any specific steps beforehand getting ready for the event, and how do you go about walking the show and planning your days?
John McDonald II: So, for us, being in golf course construction, we are, you know, we're kind of limited in some of the things we need. We don't need tower cranes. But that's the great thing about CONEXPO is you have every possible configuration of equipment, support, service, technology, the show. And I did say I've been to four. Somebody reminded me, but I might have been to more, but you know, Vegas has a way of altering our short-term memory, so I might have missed one. But in the show, we've seen it grow. Right. And it is, like it's great to have this group up here as attendees so you can hear what we do. But the show, like I compartmentalize it by, you know, lot or part of a convention center and the CONEXPO app, I've used that more and more as the show has grown to try to like map out my route of who I want to see for the vendors I want to talk to, set my days up to be in the blue lot or whatever they're calling them the floor here. And it's great. The best thing I can say for exhibitors is to put in as much information as you can in the website. Because as I'm looking for a dozer or an X horsepower mini excavator or an asphalt paver, I'm looking at all those things, picking all the vendors that have that listed, seeing where they are on the trade show floor, and then mapping out my day because I bring like five or six people. The other thing is, as attendees, we want to engage with the right people in the booths. As exhibitors, there's a way to get your customers to know who's going to be there or set up meetings in advance to have that time or meeting space to kind of go. Because you know how every booth is just so busy, traffic is so heavy. Giving those people that five or ten minutes to see what they're looking for will help you make that connection.
Taylor White: Yeah, I think it's a key point. What you said about using the CONEXPO app, that is key for us. You know, we kind of did the same thing. Never going there before and then going there in '23 and it was really helpful. But Ebony, I'm wondering, never been to the show before. You're going to be going for the first time. How are you going about how you're going to move around things?
Ebony Jennings: I think for us this year, I am more focused on the classes that are being offered, things that are going to help us with sustainability in our upcoming season and better equipment. So, my focus is how good is the equipment, is the people in my industry, what is their feedback and their reviews that I'm seeing? So, those are the two key points that I'm looking for this year.
Taylor White: Awesome. Yeah. And I think it kind of relates into my next question. I want to ask you this one, Nick. I'm just wondering, like, what is your main priority when you think about attending the show when you're going there? What's the main point that you're wanting to take away?
Nic Parish: Yeah, I think for us, it kind of couples a little bit with John's comment about Vegas and it kind of distorting some memories. We try to focus that when our group goes to these types of events, that education's up front. We want people to go as a group and build community and enjoy those that they're with and have fun. But also, education that we're going out into the world to get education and get knowledge and bring back to our company and implement that. So, we set that, education classes and those sessions as the core focus and then start building around that.
Taylor White: Amanda, what would you say? You've attended the show once before. What would you say your main priority going into 2026 is?
Amanda Kurt: So, I also really love the education, and I like to start, you know, build that as a base as well. Another key thing is just networking with the other attendees. And sometimes that's in the booth, sometimes it's, you know, along the way, and just learning what they're doing and how this equipment is helping them or this technology is helping them and just getting their feedback as well.
Taylor White: Awesome. Another good one actually that the audience is definitely going to enjoy hearing about is the exhibitor's job is to solve the problems for us going to the show. What are some critical issues affecting your businesses right now? Is there anybody that wants to take that one first? Issues? Yeah, exactly. Go ahead, Nick.
Nic Parish: I think that the biggest issue that most contractors are facing today is two problems. One is actually a skilled labor shortage. Right. That's an ongoing conversation that may be a hard conversation when we talk with equipment manufacturers and they say, "Where is, what is my role in that?" I do think they play a role in that. But the second issue that I see in the industry right now that's very important, that is relevant in this room, is the connectivity of a software stack or the connectivity of just data as it flows through our companies. Right. How does our telematics software, that's maybe an OEM software, speak with our accounting software? And how does our accounting software speak with our field cost tracking software, and that speaks back to the telematics? There's a lot of gaps in that connectivity these days, and we've got to figure out how to solve that as an industry.
Taylor White: Yeah, I think it's crucial. And what's really good about the show, I found as well too, is when you're there, there's so many different aspects of it. There's, you know, the technology booths for the technology side, and it's the conversations that you have with those people within those booths that kind of relay into, and you realize a lot of people have kind of the same issues. I'm wondering if there's anybody else that could kind of maybe take a take on that and figure out what kind of issues, maybe John?
John McDonald II: Yeah. And from the presenters before, sustainability across all aspects of society is important. The challenge that we have seen is in our equipment with the new engines and the DEF for fuel. Like we in our company, and we're, you know, we're not a huge company, but we have a lot of equipment, a lot of smaller stuff. We have a life cycle. Like if something's X number of years or X number of hours, it's time to start thinking about replacing it. We've had to lower that because when you burn off that DEF, like engines that we would get 8,000, 9,000 hours out of, we're getting five and they're toasted. Right. So, we have to kind of build that into our equation, like increase the cost of replacement and renewal on these things or rebuild them. And that's becoming, like sustainability is great, but sustainability comes at a cost, probably for all of us, to some degree. So kind of thinking about that long term, where that's going to go. And we know, like, you know, talking about, like, you know, I just went to a seminar last week on safety about all the dash cams in vehicles. Like pretty soon, we're going to have dash cams in machines. You're going to want to see what that operator is doing with his time with it. And that's getting to be, couple that with the telematics, like Nick said, and couple all that back to your pricing models is like integration of all those aspects seems to be where the future is heading. Now, how far we get down that path, how far people like me are going to be able to go down that path is to be seen.
Taylor White: Yeah. And talking about solving those issues at the show and finding those pieces of technology or equipment you're talking about. Ebony, I wanted to ask you, what factors at the show base your decisions of even purchasing technology or equipment?
Ebony Jennings: I think this goes back to the reviews. That is a huge thing for me. What are the people in my community saying about this equipment? For me, I know CAT was a big one for me. Most of my equipment, my roller, a skid steer I'm going to purchase is made by CAT because I know the sustainability, the way it's made, it's going to get the job done, you know. So, like I said, just reviews, how they are explaining the equipment, you know, how I can be able to get services done and where I am. Those are three main big ones to me.
Taylor White: Yeah, it's, yeah. All the equipment manufacturers do such a good job at the show of showing us, you know, like what's coming, what's ahead, what they have, and the solutions for the problems that we have. Amanda, do you want to chime in on that?
Amanda Kurt: Yeah, I'll chime in a little bit. I think when we go to the show or when I've been, I'm not buying anything there. It's more education, research, kind of learning about the different products. And when it comes to like the technology and the new equipment for us, it's a lot, what's the right fit for us? Because the right fit for, you know, everyone up here is much different. You know, you're talking about how all of your technology fits together, which is great, but not everybody's there, you know. So maybe I need a smaller scale version of that that can grow with me. And I think that's a challenge I have within our company and like at shows like this, you know, just learning about what really is right for us.
Taylor White: Yeah. So, Nick, we were just talking about sustainability, and I know that recently you did a six-month program for an electric vehicle. What I'm wondering is, does your organization have any goals for sustainability in the future? Obviously they do because you've started the six-month vehicle program.
Nic Parish: Yeah. So, I was listening to the sustainability discussion just a few minutes ago, and conscious capitalism was brought up. My brother and I strongly believe in conscious capitalism, and we're third-generation owners, and it's fun that our grandfather and his brother believed in it. They just didn't have a name for it. Right. They were for good, for profit, and we can do good with our profit. And so, the triple bottom line is a conversation that we have. We find it very difficult currently in the market and the economy to have very clear, progressive, sustainable goals. So, because we often function in a hard bid, cheapest price takes the work. Right. And so there's a race to the bottom for the vast majority of the contracts that we get on any of our business units. Right. So, often there's many sustainability pathways that are increased cost. So, we're trying to look at those that meet the sustainability goals that also reduce costs.
So, you mentioned the electric pickup. Yes, I'm in an electric pickup, which is really fun to say as a, you know, dirt contractor. Right. We like our big toys and, and but I drive an electric pickup every day. And we are in the middle of a six-month trial. And the idea was that I needed a new vehicle. And so we started looking at options of different vehicles, and the controller came in and he said, "Hey, here's three options I'd like to present to you. This one costs this, this one costs this. And I'd like for you to look at this one because this is an electric pickup, and I think it will cost 20% less cost per mile." And I said, "Okay, you got my attention." Right. This is interesting. So, we started talking about charging and what that looks like, and we just started saying, "Well, if we roll this out to our project managers, our estimators, some of the light administrative side that are not pulling a skid steer or something like that, this is a cost saver." Right. And so there's prevention, but also it can help us get into a sustainable pattern faster. So, I'm taking notes every week and charging at home and trying to go on trips and see how hard it is to charge or find chargers because that becomes the next level of inconvenience. Right. Whether it's cost or it's actually time. So, trying to figure out how you match that into a hard bid world is very difficult. But you have to pick and choose and, you know, it's working out great so far in the pickup.
Taylor White: So, yeah, I think for our industry specifically, it is difficult because I think it's something new for our industry. And I think the best part is actually having discussions like this and sharing the knowledge of what everyone else is doing for this. John, I'm curious to hear your point of view on this sustainability.
John McDonald II: So, I mean our sustainability, we have not gotten into the electric model for vehicles or for equipment. The only electrical vehicle we have right now is my mother's Tesla, which my dad bought her 10 years ago. And they would do very smart if they put those superchargers at casinos because then she would be set, you'd have no problem at all. But like, so we were very early on buying a brand of skid loader mini excavator called Takeuchi. So, a couple shows ago, they came out with an electric skid loader, and it intrigued us.
But then the other thing is on, we're on some of these sites, like there are superchargers in a Walmart parking lot for cars and in service stations and convenience stores. It's hard to get a charging station on a job site that could be, you know, our job sites are, you know, golf courses are 150 to 300, 400 acres. There are other sites that are even bigger. I'm sure Nick works on sites that are several hundred. Where do you charge it? Right. Like, would you, can you go with like a mobile solar panel thing? And then the torque and the force used to, you know, which burn fuel also drains batteries at an exponential rate. And then trying to be productive and you're trying to couple sustainability with profitability and we have not figured out that equation to make it work. On the electric side, we are buying more fuel-efficient machines that we can. We're having our guys, you know, guys like to be comfortable. They want to sit in an air-conditioned cab and eat their lunch. I'm like, "Don't, you know, if you're out of the machine, shut it down." Same thing like that. We don't have a no-idle policy. We have a common sense policy. And some of my guys don't have common sense, so I have to remind them. So, try not to just sit there for hours waiting on a truck to come and just let that machine run. It's like we're paying for that fuel. So, it's a work in progress. And the future is bright, but not as bright as those lights.
Taylor White: Yeah, I think everybody's got the same thing going on is we're all trying to figure it out at the same time to see if it makes sense right now. Right. Like, where's the technology at? Like, am I, we're running a machine, and if we're talking specifically about electricity, am I running a machine for six hours and charging it for ten? You know, then that doesn't make sense. But you know, other stuff that you can implement as well at your workplace, you know, with this, what they were talking about, you know, recycling and reusing and preventing, that stuff's all really important too. But Amanda, I'm curious, I want to toss a question to switch a bit. How do you engage with brands? Is it at the show, before the show, during, or when do you find the best time?
Amanda Kurt: I start engaging with, you know, the brands maybe I know about or that I've read online. To John's point, you know, filling out your complete company profile is really helpful. But starting there, you know, seeing what they're doing on social media and then maybe different, like the 365 posts, you know, that kind of stuff. That's where I start. During the show, there's probably not a lot of engagement online. It's all in person. And then after, it's taking what I've learned or what I've made notes about and then following up with that. What are people saying online? What are, you know, are they actually matching what they're saying at the show?
Taylor White: You've touched on social media, and we had a question I think goes really well into this from Mildred who said, "What can my brand do on social media to help build more hype around what our plans for CONEXPO are like? What would you want to see?" So, Amanda, what, like you were touching on that.
Amanda Kurt: So, I know maybe you don't want to tell us everything you're doing there because you want us to come visit you, but telling us, you know, hooking us in and saying this is what we're doing, we're hosting this or we're going to have this information at our exhibit at this space. I mean, just sharing that with us so we can try to build that into our schedule.
Taylor White: Yeah, yeah. And as you were saying that, I was just reading one that kind of relates back to almost what we were saying. John, I want to throw this one quickly back to you. It's from Anonymous. Are you reviewing utilization of electric loaders and excavators in your fleets?
John McDonald II: It's yes and no. Like it's a thought, but we have not been able to do any kind of like studies. Right. There are still a few options for us that make sense. Now again, we're not on a wide-open site like Nick might be on, like building an Amazon fulfillment center. We're on a golf course. Typically, they have electricity, so we could work something out. But we have talked to people that have those machines. It tends to be smaller is more possible than larger. When you start getting in like D5, D6 size dozers, they haven't gotten it like the battery alone for that is probably $200,000. Right. Like, so we have not started any pilot programs or taken a deep dive into that. But my equipment manager does review with our vendors. You know, we have specific people we buy excavators from, mini excavators from, dozers from, rollers from, and they are talking to them. Then it's the utilization side of can you actually be productive and be profitable using it and then charging it? Because we know, like it takes three minutes to fill up a truck at a gas station for even a supercharger. You got to charge that truck up what is it like 30, 45 minutes or something?
Nic Parish: Yeah. Well, yeah, I'll jump into and add to that that I drive an electric vehicle. Right. And so, I charge it at home and I charge it at night, and I'm generally not going anywhere and using a supercharger. Actually, in two months, I've done that once. And so, it takes a little bit of planning on that side. We're not looking at utilization on for loaders and excavators yet because I don't think that it matches our use case yet. But where we are looking at it outside of the pickup is our vocational trucks. And so, our aggregate hauling business is very local-based. We're generally running under a 350-mile a day. And so, we are having conversations with those manufacturers of, we really want to see when that range matches up with the use cases that we have. And I think that's the conversation that needs to be had with equipment owners is, hey, let's figure out which projects maybe have a use case there and then we can try utilization where we just don't see the capacity matching up with a workday. Right. And I'm okay charging at night. But I don't have to charge at 3:00 PM.
John McDonald II: Yeah, but like you said, like we were talking before we came up here, like some of our guys we have to drive. Some of our guys we have to take equipment personnel, we have to go to a job like we're outside of Baltimore, jobs in Florida, California, Alabama, Connecticut. Those drives and just the vehicle side, let alone the equipment side, those drives become problematic when you have to stop and charge every 240.
Nic Parish: The variability of the work is the issue.
Taylor White: Yeah. So, bringing stuff back to the show and the actual event. Ebony, I'm curious to know if you had to tell the exhibitors, what's the best way to integrate digital experiences into their booth strategy? And then I also have another question that I kind of want to throw in there. And then who would be the right people to have in the booth to enhance the conversations?
Ebony Jennings: I think for exhibitors, it would benefit them to obtain like influencers, someone that's going to kind of bring the idea that you have to life. I feel like that's the only way you're going to get across to people now because we're in the age of social media, right. So, we want to see someone that's giving us all the information about your equipment or a software, whatever that you are trying to get us to buy. You need someone with a lot of life and personality that's going to because that's what sold me on a lot of the things that I've purchased from exhibitors.
Taylor White: Yeah. And do you find that it's if, you know, the influencers are, you see it on social media, people promoting. I know that you're in paving, you know, and you see guys, "Oh, we're going to be at this booth." Like it was one of the questions was how far in advance do you start planning what you'll do and who you'll see at the show. It kind of relates to that as well, right. Because if you're seeing these influencers or content creators on social media saying, "I'm going to be at so-and-so booth at so-and-so time," you're planning ahead and you're doing that. So, do you think that's a good strategy for these brands to also do?
Ebony Jennings: Absolutely. I feel like when I start planning, usually the show's in March, I start planning like now. My team is, we're already ready. We're on social media, we're looking, so wherever the hype is, is where we're going.
Taylor White: Yeah, I love that point. I think that's like one of the most solid points for people to take back, honestly, is embrace the social media. Because sometimes you have these large, large brands that don't have the large, large following, but they have the power to reach the large following. And the power is harnessing those content creators and those people that already have your audience. They have the people that you want.
Ebony Jennings: Yeah, it's a big thing. You should, that's a huge thing, is obtaining influencers that's going to push your brand, push whatever product that you are selling. Because it's not, you can be a big brand, but when you have someone, you know, that's known on social media, right, or they have a big following, typically we're going towards that, those people.
Taylor White: Amanda, what's your opinion on what could exhibitors do to make their booths, you know, better or create more hype around them and draw more people in?
Amanda Kurt: I think Ebony has a great point. I think we're like FOMO, we don't want to miss out, whatever is cool is happening. Just like people who have the knowledge. I mean, it's very basic, but if I do have a question, I want it to be answered reasonably quickly and well so I can kind of make a note of that going forward.
Taylor White: Yeah. And I guess when you're at the booth, someone asked about what's the most memorable swag item or experience that you received? Toss that in there as well, too, in the mix.
Amanda Kurt: Gosh, I don't know. Well, I have a little, it's a keychain and it's the tooth of an excavator bucket.
Nic Parish: I carry it every day.
Amanda Kurt: I can't tell you where it's from though.
John McDonald II: I can't either.
Nic Parish: I carry it every day.
Amanda Kurt: It's small, but it's, you know, because it's not large, so it's handy.
Taylor White: Yeah. I would say like, less pens and hats and more, you know, items that people are like, "Wow, that's unique," or "That's different." Or even experiences. Does anybody that wants to touch on experiences? I know for me, like I remember the one, the, you know, the booths that you can go to and interact with, right. You can get in something or you can touch something or feel something. Is there anything you guys want to add, Nick?
Nic Parish: One thing on the merch, and I'll jump back on that story, but there was a dealer at the last CONEXPO that went to their booth and they all had these amazing hats. And I asked them if they were selling them. They were like, "Oh, no, I don't know where we got them." I went home, asked my dealer if he could get them for me, and still couldn't get these hats. So, like if you all equip your people with really cool clothing, let us figure out how to get them too. But I had a great story one time. We were meeting some friends at a booth, and it was just a meeting point, not really anything in particular that we were going there for, but we chose it as a meeting spot. And while I was waiting on my friend to get there, I got into a conversation with one of the reps there about a particular model of equipment that they were selling. And I spent an hour and a half there because there was a person there that was an actual equipment operator, and he got to tell his story how he influenced that particular machine. And I got to now when I see that machine, we own one of them, actually bought one after that. But when I see that machine, I know all these things, and I got to hear the stories of the person that influenced this thing being built. And that character and that story, I think, was really impactful.
Taylor White: Yeah, I totally agree. And there's a question here that I skipped over, but it made me think. I want to ask John this one. We were talking, you know, about sustainability, electric, and all that. But there's another layer to that, which is automation. So, John, I'm curious for you to touch on, like what's your take on automation in construction?
John McDonald II: For us, automation is, we're kind of like mid-line automation for our work because we deal in golf courses. And my dad's motto was, "There's no straight lines in a golf course." So, it makes it a little bit harder than, like you can have automation for road construction, site development that's flat. But we do, we were an early adopter of Grade Eyes, laser layout. We cannot actually put an entire golf course plan into a dozer or grader and have it just make it all. Because that's the other thing, golf course designers are kind of a strange group. They're not like building architects. Ours is vertical, not horizontal or vice versa. We're horizontal, not vertical. And they can come out after you build it and wave their hands and change it. Like you can't do that with a wall in an office building, but you can do it on a golf course.
So, there is a lot of automation, and we do use the tools we can. A lot of layout we use GPS layout. We, because you know, for us you have to sometimes, you have to build the green, core it out, and build it right back to where it was and all that from this GPS robotic total station we have. So all the points are down to like sub-millimeter. So, we use that. But it's not so far as that the machines are doing the work and the operator's just there to keep it going in a straight line.
Taylor White: Yeah. Okay. Ebony, being in the paving industry and looking at the technology that's coming out there and everything, like with GPS or automation, is there anything you can add to that conversation of like where you see automation going in your industry maybe specifically?
Ebony Jennings: Oh, that's a great question. I believe that the old school way of doing things are going out of the door, and I love it and I hate it too because a lot of the smaller companies are not able to kind of keep up with automation. Right. You know, you have your bigger companies that you have the pavers where they have the GPS, and they have the, they can, it's, you really don't even need a lute man behind you, you know, if that paver is doing its thing. But everyone can't compete with that. Right. So, I'm kind of in the middle on that. You know, I think that it's going, it's the thing of the future. You can't get around that. However, it's hard to kind of get there when you're smaller.
Taylor White: Yeah, and I think, you know, the equipment, the automation, not just equipment manufacturers, but they're doing it to try to make our lives easier, more profitable, more efficient. So, I'm wondering, and a question I'm going to toss to you, Amanda, is what do you wish that equipment manufacturers understood about your day-to-day challenges in order to make things easier?
Amanda Kurt: I think this is a really obvious answer, but when the equipment is down, it costs so much. I mean, money, time, changing out equipment, you know, all of that goes together. I think, you know, for us, our specific business, just that we're using it really hard every day, and we're trying to take the best care of it, but we need it to work, or we need to have a solution when it doesn't work. I mean, this isn't specific to equipment, but when your GPS dozer goes down, what's next? You know, can you get it back online that day or the next day? You know, how does that work?
Taylor White: Yeah, I think it's a conversation that, you know, even at the show, right, we had last year with some manufacturers of the technology wondering like what does happen with the automation or downtime on the job sites and how do we kind of correct that and fix that. But like John said, a lot of stuff can change on the job site as it goes on. So, being able to adapt and having the right people in order to do that is key. And I want to toss a question to Nick from the audience. It's a good one for you because you said you followed up about a hat and where you could buy the hat. Somebody said, "After visiting an exhibitor, what is your preferred method and speed for follow-up?" So, you followed up with your local dealer. So, I'm interested, what's your take on that?
Nic Parish: Oh, I like this question because I have a strong opinion here. So, I love the badge scan deal. I think I've gone to probably close to ten different conferences in my career. And when I figured out the badge scan and using that and saying like, I'm not going to give you a business card, I'm not going to do this or this is the way I want you to connect with me, I found some power in that. But one critical thing that I do want to communicate is I love the follow-up by email within the next week. I don't want to wait two weeks. Later that day is totally fine. I'm not going to respond until I get back home. Please don't call my cell phone. My cell phone is for my customers and internal communication. And I do not want a pushy sales rep contacting me, leaving voicemails every two or three days on my cell phone. That's a turnoff. That's going to turn me away faster than anything. Scan my badge, email me, we'll get back when we get home. I'm probably going to hand it off to somebody anyways when I get home. You don't need to talk to me. Right. But don't call my cell phone. And that's my strong...
Taylor White: Yeah, that's perfect because I agree with you 100% because I had that happen as well too. And somebody asked, "What deters you from approaching a booth or a space?" So, would somebody else like to chime in on that?
Ebony Jennings: I think what deters me is there's nothing really going on. It's just maybe like two employees that's there for the business, and they're kind of talking to just each other or they're not driving. First of all, the first day of the events are always the, has the most hype. Right. So, it's just not engaging enough. So, for me, if I see you're, you know, there's no hype, there's no, "Come on over, let me show you this," or anything like that. Especially if it wasn't my intention to go, but you just never know. You may get a sale, you know, from me. Like I bought a walkie talkie one time, and that wasn't in my mind to purchase them, but the sale was great, you know. And so I purchased them. So, just being more lively and don't judge a book by its cover. You never know who has what, you know.
Taylor White: Yeah, 100%. Elliot asked, "Do smaller booths and companies get looked at by larger companies, or would it be better to plan to find you and your booth to network?" John, you want to answer that one?
John McDonald II: So, just like we've all talked about, looking at the CONEXPO website and the things we're looking for. Like if we're looking for something, the booth size doesn't matter. Sometimes smaller booths are more attractive because you'll be able to interact with somebody. And we plan it out. So, as long as the details of the products they sell or service or the items they offer are on there, we can find it. I have used the CONEXPO... I will tell you, smaller booths sometimes, the way the floor is laid out, it's nobody's fault. It's just, I wish they could couple like the Waze app with the CONEXPO app so it can show you a line how to get to it. Because I've been looking on my thing and I'm like, "I want to go see this guy," and it's a little 10x10 and nobody, and I asked somebody, and they're like, "Dude, they're right there." Like I couldn't see them. You know what I mean? It was right in front of me. I just couldn't see it. So that's the only caveat with a smaller booth.
But yeah, no, I, and I'm not a big company like some of these other large site developers, but if you have a product we're looking for, being able to set up something. And the other thing is about any size booth space, the things that will detract us from wanting to talk to somebody further is if you go up there and talk to somebody, and they're like, "Oh, I can't answer that question." I know not everybody knows everything, but, "I can't answer that question. You got to wait for this guy, and he's at lunch." And you come back in an hour. "Oh, he's back, but he's talking to this guy." It's like, at some point, I got to move on. Like it's a big show. We got to get around. So, being able to set up either meeting times or meeting booth space and have that one-on-one time with somebody that knows what you're, is going to be able to answer the questions you're asking is critical.
Taylor White: Yeah. I like the idea of the Waze app for navigating. That's pretty good. I have a question. "There's still a battle to fight for women. Ebony and Amanda, do you feel booth staff is recognizing women as buyers, or is there still work to be done?"
Amanda Kurt: Well, I want to go first.
Ebony Jennings: Okay.
Amanda Kurt: Sometimes, I think here's a way to rephrase something.
Ebony Jennings: You don't want to sit here first though?
Amanda Kurt: No. Sometimes I don't want to be thought of as a buyer. Sometimes it's nice to come in and they don't think you're a buyer because you get to feel how they treat you. And I don't know, it's kind of like a spy. So, that's my take on it. There are a lot of times I don't want to be the buyer. I just want to see it from a different lens.
Ebony Jennings: I don't know. I'm a little different. When I go, I let them know I got the checkbook to buy. So, you know, I did that at CAT and I got a roller they didn't expect, so I like it. I think we still have work to do, though, for women. I just asked last night about the demographics, like, are we noticing more women coming to the conferences? Because it's not so much a male-dominated industry anymore. So, there are a lot of women running the gun in this industry, and not just CEOs like myself. There are other roles within the company, and they are at these shows. And some of them are buyers for companies, you know, or some of them are just a representative, and they're going to go back to the business and say, "I think the business, we will benefit from using XYZ." So, I think we still have work to do.
Taylor White: But why do you think that is? You mentioned there's more women coming into it. And why do you think that is? Like what is drawing more women into construction or being in these positions like you said?
Ebony Jennings: Well, I'll say this for me because I get this a lot. Like, "How did you get into this?" I've done some of everything, but this just worked. And I think women are just risking it. Some of them are getting into this industry like myself, where their father owned it, or their grandfather owned it, or you know, they came in as an executive assistant, and then they just worked their way up through the chain, whichever company they work for. But I think women are extremely great in this industry, and we have such a better eye than men sometimes. And it just works for women, you know. Just like it works for men, it works for women too, you know. Especially on the project management side, I think women are killing it. And dump trucks, doing that. The women have it. The women have it for me.
Taylor White: I love it. No, that's a great answer. 100%. You're right on the dump trucks. We have a woman dump truck driver at our operation, and it is the cleanest, best-kept truck.
Ebony Jennings: Yeah.
Taylor White: And we're ordering a new one, and she gets it first over everybody else.
Amanda Kurt: The statistics are real. No, exactly. The statistics are real that female truck drivers outperform and take care of their equipment.
Ebony Jennings: I mean, I've backed out a truck for guys before. They had to pick their face up. They didn't expect it.
Taylor White: So, that's good. There's a lot of questions when we touched on social media and building hype. And you know, there's been a question up here about, "What would you say for a company that doesn't have the influencer budget? How can we get the hype around it?" And I also kind of had a question asking about how to use digital tools on social media when researching equipment. So, obviously, I think people want to know about how to get that hype, but how could we answer that question to the audience saying, "Okay, we don't have the massive budget for an influencer. How can we still build hype around this?"
Ebony Jennings: Let me answer this because I had this in mind at the beginning of the season. Because money is low in the beginning, especially in the beginning of the season. And I said to myself, like, "How can we barter?" I need to barter with somebody. Like, how can my service benefit them and back-and-forth? I think that is a great thing to do. Okay, you don't have the money, but you may have some equipment that you will, you know, rent or whatever have you. You need to come up with some ideas and plan with your team of how you can barter services. Because even with up-and-coming influencers, like even with myself, I consider myself as a trade influencer. Right. This is a road construction trade. So, I push my business a lot on social media. So, how can, without money, how can this be a mutually beneficial relationship?
Taylor White: Yeah, no, I love that answer. That is fantastic.
John McDonald II: One other thing, like not only the barter system but like piggyback with people. Like we did not have a large social media presence, and we still don't. But somebody in my office takes pictures. And you want to piggyback on people. So, it's kind of a little bit of a cheat. Find somebody that's got a lot of followers and then put their name in it. Or, you know, there's power in the hashtag. Hashtag the hell out of everything you can because that'll just drive things. And I've seen like the likes and the comments to the posts that we put out, and they're just pictures of our work, increase week over week. And for exhibitors, like the best thing for us, I would think as attendees, is to start early, like a year out now, if not sooner, tell a story about your product, build on that. Right. Because then you can go back and check a hashtag and catch every post and how an excavator does this with this attachment, or a dozer can do this, or what technology can do to help your company. But try to tell a story.
Taylor White: Yeah, no, I think you guys both nailed it there. Nick, I have a question that I want to ask you. Somebody asked, "Do you stick strongly to your show planner/schedule, and how much do you play it by ear as you walk by booths that may be of interest to you?"
Nic Parish: We're big planner people in our group. And last time, and we'll stick to it this time, our chief people officer, she puts together all of our education and looks at culture, and that's, she owns recruit, retention, and development. And the way she did the last one is she built a big spreadsheet of all the classes everybody was going to. And every day, everybody that went, we got this PDF in our email that was like, "Hey, here's your classes, here's who's in what classes, and here's everybody's gaps." And we just had like points that we met up with. And we would plan like, "Hey, we're going to go to the Platinum lot or whatever this day," or "We're going to go to Fairgrounds in this afternoon." We do classes in the morning. We stuck to that, but also found that like you walk and you move through the show pretty quickly if you hustle and you get your steps in. And we built in flex time on the back side after classes were over and that sort of stuff so we could double back to the vendors that we wanted to reconnect with or that guy wasn't there when you wanted to talk to him or that kind of stuff. The classes provide us with pretty solid structure and a focus.
Taylor White: Yeah. And it relates to, someone asked about, "Besides equipment manufacturers, do you seek out to visit other vendors in the engine and component supplier area? It would be helpful to understand the thought process there." So, are we going there to look at just equipment manufacturers, or do you seek out other vendors in the engine component area? Anybody want to take that one? I think it's interesting because we talk a lot about, you know, the equipment manufacturers and, but there's a lot of other aspects to that as well too. Like I know for us, we went there to look at a hoe ram. I don't know if you guys call it a hoe ram here, a rock breaker. Yeah. We specifically went to a booth just to go look at, you know, rock breakers because like that's the fun thing about CONEXPO is it's so niche. If you want, like I think there was actually a whole booth just about bits or like the chisel bits for the end of the hoe ram. So, is there anything kind of niche, I guess, or you guys are going there to look at rather than just the equipment or the main stuff?
Nic Parish: I'll say that one thing I've run into in this discussion is some of those wear items and minor components is what I'm going to call them. Right. Some of it gets a little monotonous because they want to tell me, as a business owner, why that component is better than the guy three booths down. Right. Or the folks over the next row. One thing I always try to communicate to them is, "I'm not the person that makes this decision." And making it easy for me to hand that to my fleet manager, I think is important because I do pass by those, and you see them, and they jump out, and they say, "Hey, hey, hey, hey. You guys use teeth? We got all kinds of teeth here." Right. Okay. All right. Well, cool. Yeah, we do use teeth. Give me your connection here, and the guy that buys that part, I'll connect you with him. Right. Making that pass-through on components that we may not be, I'm going to spend my time on the $400,000 purchase. Right. Maybe not the consumables as much.
Taylor White: Can you loop in the question here? "How much of your time is typically spent at equipment booths versus time with components, technology, etc.?"
Nic Parish: I would say the two big majority of times are spent at the heavy equipment side, and then the other is at technology. The components, not so much. Right. I like to pass through and kind of window shop. Right. "Oh, that's neat." Right. "Oh, that seems like a neat tool." Right. Or, you know, there's a drum cutter right there. Okay, well, let me grab their info. And if we ever need a drum, we get into a job and we need a drum cutter, I know that I'm going to that brand. Right. So, there's more of that window shopping, I think, when it comes to components. But definitely try to focus most of our time. I want to see the technology on equipment that's coming down the road. I love going to the booth and seeing like this proof of concept where technology and iron meets. That's where I spend most of my time and get geeked out. And I might spend that hour and a half listening to a story of how we came up with this solution here.
Taylor White: Yeah, we have three minutes left. And I want to get people's opinion on this last one because you were talking about integrating technology into the machinery. And it was actually my last question was, looking ahead, what trends do you think will shape the construction industry over the next five years? And I'm curious to know, Ebony, if you want to start us off. It could be something even like social media, too, right?
Ebony Jennings: Yeah, I was just going to say that I think that's just the world that we're in, and that's what, you know, a lot of the smaller companies or the older companies that are just kind of mundane kind of need to evolutionize their companies. Right. So, you just have to get out of like your head of like some of the old-school ways work, they do, yes. However, this way of going, like a lot of people know me because of social media. Right. In my business and you know, and what we do. And but however, some people aren't looking for that so much, that growth. Right. So, I think that right now, the biggest trend is going to be social media. And what are you doing with social media? You know, are you obtaining, doing a podcast? Because that's the big thing too. A lot of podcasts that I listen to, a lot, you learn so much about your niche industry just by listening to a podcast or the things that you want to purchase here just being on social media. You know. So, that's my take on that.
Taylor White: Yeah. If anybody else wants to answer that one. But I just want to say too, I learn a lot from listening to podcasts, specifically the CONEXPO podcast, actually.
Nic Parish: Yes. There's a trend that I'm worried about that I think is going to be huge over the next five and definitely ten years in our space. There is a lot of development out there in autonomous equipment. Right. And I think that's really cool. I mean, there's a lot of, there's haul trucks, you see rollers. I'm excited about that trend and worried too. I think it's a double-edged sword. But I want to be, I want to point this out, is that we need autonomy to progress forward as an industry. We need autonomy for economic reasons. I think technological advancement is a great thing. We should look forward to that. The issue that I have with that, and I think we need to have a good conversation as an industry about how we're going to overcome this challenge that we're creating is the autonomous equipment that we are developing these days, the two machines that I just mentioned, are where we put entry-level operators. We are now displacing not the bottom rung on the ladder, but a gap in the middle from the shovel to a dozer and an excavator. We just displaced a gap. And we appreciate manufacturers looking for technological advancements, helping us with the labor shortage. But there's a gap exposed. And I think that trend is going to be very important. We've got to figure out as an industry how to leverage that trend for complete positivity and not a mixed bag.
Taylor White: Yeah, I love it. That was a great, solid point on that. Just somebody would quickly want to answer, I mean, they want to know this, and that's the audience that's here listening. How far in advance do you start planning what you'll do and who you'll see at the show? Does somebody want to give a good, quick answer to that?
Ebony Jennings: I think now.
John McDonald II: Now, six months.
Ebony Jennings: That's a good time.
Taylor White: Three weeks?
Ebony Jennings: That is way too short. Don't listen to her. You need to start planning now on who you're going to see. Three weeks, you, oh Lord. It takes three weeks to look at the map, you know. So.
Taylor White: Okay, and then I'm going to go to the last one. Do you usually partner with your preferred dealer to meet OEMs at the show, or do you walk the show by yourself?
John McDonald II: Both.
Amanda Kurt: Both.
Nic Parish: Both, yeah.
John McDonald II: Yep.
Nic Parish: Love connecting with my local dealer to talk to someone from corporate and get more, especially the ones that understand our business and understand our goals and our direction. And they say, "Hey, come on, I want to introduce you to this guy from corporate."
John McDonald II: He's...
Nic Parish: He's working on the stuff that you like.
Taylor White: Okay, awesome. Well, thank you guys so much. And thank you, guys. Let's give a round of applause for them. Thank you.
