Your Groundbreak Day Two Recap – Mike Rowe, Women in Construction, Tan Le and more

Another day at Groundbreak and what a success it was!

We kicked the day off right with a keynote from Mike Rowe.
He highlighted the importance of the skilled trades and vocational education. Rowe challenged the status quo and argued that we need to encourage people to pursue a career that is meaningful.

“Don’t follow your passion, bring it with you.” -Mike Rowe

The Women in Construction panel was a hit.
It was visibly a relevant and important topic for attendees.

We heard from women leaders throughout the industry including: Nancy Novak, National VP of Operations at Balfour Beatty, Barb Jackson from Daniels College of Business, Barbara Res an Engineer Attorney and Sr. VP of Risk Management from Skanska, Ivette Vanas.

The panel offered new advice for young women in construction and useful feedback around how to combat gender inequality issues within the industry.

“One of the most important things we can do is encourage women to advocate for women. We can learn so much from each other. We have to look for those opportunities to help one another, navigate difficult situations and develop our individual journeys.” -Ivette Vanas, VP of Risk Management of Skanska

The day wrapped up with a poignant and intriguing keynote from Tan Le, the founder of Emotiv.

Emotiv is a company that has designed a technology that can be used to control objects with your mind and easily record brain activity and pathways. She talked about the potential to use such technology to enable professionals in the construction industry to operate construction vehicles or lessen risk.

When asked in an interview what her motivation was to create such technology and to found Emotiv, she answered:

“The motivation for me was to create something that was going to have a positive impact on the world. When I looked at where the world was going, it was very obvious that this was going to the be big endeavor for the 21st century and it has been phenomenal.” -Tan Le, Founder of Emotiv

It is clear that attendees are taking a lot away from the conference and Procore is excited to be a resource to construction professionals.

Tomorrow will be the last day of the conference. Check back here for an overarching wrap-up of the entire event come Wednesday.