Getting Ready For What’s To Come

By Paul Oldham

The World of Concrete/Masonry in June of 2021 happened and in a very good way. There was a lot of speculation about how this year's convention would be. For those of you that did not make it this year, it was a great show. We won’t have official attendance numbers for a few months but the feeling was there were fewer attendees, but the attendance at all of our events was great and on Wednesday for MASONRY MADNESS® the lot was full of people and energy and luckily wasn’t as hot as it had been the previous days. The lifting of many COVID restrictions really provided for a great experience. We saw some great apprentice projects, some crazy CMU walls laid, and then the SPEC MIX Bricklayer 500 contest was as hot as ever.

I would like to thank all of our partners for helping make it a great event and a big thank you to Spec Mix/Quikrete for the amazing event they put on. Their entire team does such an amazing job and this year when Tom turned to me and said let's have SIRI flip the coin for the Fastest Trowel contest, I thought what is he talking about. Sure enough, he pulled his phone out and asked SIRI to flip a coin. It's been amazing over the years to see the event grow but at the same time to see the core, Brian, Nick, Tom, and the always funnyman Jim O'Connor pull it together and put on a great show. The crazy thing is that the 2022 Convention is right around the corner, less than six months away. Hard to believe that will also be the end of my term on the Executive Board.

Our next major event for the year and usually the one most members get the most out of, Midyear is being held September 12th-15th in Memphis, Tennessee. I encourage anyone that has not been to a Midyear Meeting to give this one a try. We are at a great location with the Peabody Hotel as I have talked about in previous issues and Memphis is centrally located within the states makes travel timeless. We will start the week off working with the committees. All meetings are open to anyone that wants to come and please add any insight into the discussions.

Monday we will have the always popular Speed Dating, a great opportunity for our contractor members to be exposed to the latest and greatest and also provides for our presenters to get feedback from the contractors on their products and what we are looking for. On Tuesday we have a great day planned for golf and we don’t have to rush to or back this year, I encourage even those that haven’t picked up a golf club to join us. Our group always has a great time on the course and provides many hours of opportunity to get to know each other and continue networking with each other. If you aren’t into the idea of golf there are many sights and sounds to downtown Memphis.

On both Monday and Tuesday nights, we have optional group events, I particularly am looking forward to the Ghost Tour. Lisa and I still remember years ago while attending a Midyear event taking the Ghost Tour in Chicago, that was an experience that I don’t think we will ever forget. This one may not live up to that one because our guides were just very special people but you never know. Wednesday we will conduct business and have our Contractor Round Table event and for this year we are honoring our Hall of Fame Inductees at Midyear Closing Dinner in lieu of Convention. Hopefully, you can carve out a few days to get away and share your knowledge and experiences and learn about others in this great industry.

Many great things are happening with your Mason Contractors Association and the future looks brighter every day.