I hope you are all enjoying the winter season. As you look forward to what is ahead in 2019, I hope you have marked your calendars to attend the CISCA Convention in National Harbor, Maryland, April 22-26. Today, I want to share with you several great opportunities available to CISCA members during the upcoming convention. Please take a minute to read all the opportunities and commit to those you can.

We've extended the deadline to vote in our Name the App and Design the Icon contests in light of the inclement weather impacting many parts of the country. You now have until February 7 to cast your ballot! Thank you to all who submitted entries, as well as those voting!

While there are many pros to prefab, there are uncertainties in the future as well, because despite its history, there are many legal aspects to the dynamic building method still being sorted out among industry and legal experts. Until then, the dotted line is sometimes a blurred line.

Power UP Inc. is the first organization of its kind dedicated to educating young female talent on construction career pathways and using industry partnerships to work diligently to remove barriers that previously prohibited the development of a diversified workforce.  

Estimated December not seasonally adjusted construction unemployment rates fell nationally and in 44 states on a year-over-year basis, according to an Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) analysis of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

Three construction company executives share the keys to their businesses' long-term plans, strategies and success. Hear from GPaul Holliman of Sedalco, Mike Ahern of AVP Construction Underwriting and Bryan Meklir of BBMK Contracting & Blue Team Restoration.

The fourth quarter of 2018 saw the Occupational Safety and Health Administration propose hefty penalties for several construction companies. In fact, the agency fined just one contractor alone more than $420,000. However, all of those contractors are relatively lucky they ran afoul of the agency and its safety rules in advance of OSHA rolling out higher fines for 2019 on Jan. 23. 

Reserve your spot for this year's Convention and INTEX Expo, to be held in National Harbor, Maryland, from April 22 to April 26, 2019! We'll see you then for a full week of education, networking and relationship-building!

AD, the contractor and industrial products wholesale buying / marketing group, reported a 11 percent increase in member sales, across 12 AD divisions, totaling $41.4 billion in 2018. Purchases from AD suppliers grew by 13 percent in 2018.

Rockfon has named Warren Dudding as its vice president of marketing and business development for North America.

With the addition of new WoodWorks® Shapes ceiling panels to its offering of DESIGNFlex™ Ceiling Systems, Armstrong Ceiling Solutions is giving architects and designers more options for reinventing the ceiling plane. Wood ceiling panels from Armstrong Ceilings are now available in standard triangles, parallelograms and trapezoids.

Construction costs increased in January, according to IHS Markit (Nasdaq: INFO) and the Procurement Executives Group (PEG). The current headline IHS Markit PEG Engineering and Construction Cost Index registered 54.4 this month, a slight uptick from December’s reading of 53.0, the lowest index figure for 2018.