Culture isn’t soft—it’s strategic. In this energizing session, Joey Havens explores why culture is the foundation of performance, retention, and long-term business value. Discover how investing in magnetic culture can help you attract the right people, drive clarity, and differentiate your business in a tight market.

Finding and keeping the right people is one of the most urgent challenges facing construction companies today. In this panel, industry leaders share how they’re developing talent pipelines, investing in education, and rethinking how to build the next generation of workers at the state, local and individual level. Expect candid insights and actionable takeaways.

Policy doesn’t feel like a boardroom issue until it is. From tariffs squeezing material margins to labor laws reshaping your workforce strategy, policy changes aren’t abstract and may already be on your jobsite. HORNE Partner and DC insider Scott Keller gets straight to the point on how federal and state decisions around trade, regulation, and infrastructure influence the construction landscape. Keller will connect the dots on how it hits your bottom line and walk through how you can adapt, respond, and get ahead of coming shifts.

With the presidential and congressional elections of 2024 in the rearview, our eyes turn to 2025. Has the Federal Reserve engineered a soft landing, or is stagflation on the way? Can America continue to pace the advanced world, or will expanding indebtedness, policy uncertainty, and over-extended asset values prove our collective undoing? This presentation focuses on US and regional economic performance with an eye toward discussing emerging risks to what has thus far been an economy that has surprised to the upside.

Most owners don’t wake up one day and decide to sell, but many wish they had prepared years earlier. In this session, Neal Stephens will pull back the curtain on what buyers really look for and how to start increasing your business’s value now, whether you’re planning to sell or just want the option. You’ll leave with a practical playbook to make your business more attractive, more transferable, and more profitable.