The frigid temperatures and heavy snow of winter can be dispiriting, but they have not hampered the optimism of the citizens of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Mayor Sam Katz says. Instead, “We’re one of the cities that tries to embrace winter, as opposed to complaining about the cold days,” he says.
Located at the junction of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, Winnipeg’s European history goes back to 1812 when a group of Scottish crofters set foot on land inhabited by First Nations and Metis people. In 1873, with a population of 1,869, it was incorporated as a city.
If you had to choose between good business results and good business relationships, which one would you pick? This might seem like a trick question – after all, results are what you put into the bank at the end of the day, but you know that a hard-working team of motivated people makes those results possible.
But it isn’t a trick: there's a conflict between people and profits playing out everyday that executives need to be aware of.
Construction executives are always looking for ways to make their building projects more appealing and increase their value. Three ways to attain both of these goals are by reducing building operating costs, constructing a healthy building environment and looking to achieve sustainability for commercial, industrial and residential properties.
To achieve these objectives, we encourage our Canadian construction partners to include clean, green and indoor air quality (IAQ) systems in the planning, design and construction of a new building, or its renovation. Until recently, our building customers’ needs for clean air had been limited to keeping their HVAC equipment clean and operating. If there was any need to improve IAQ, it was simply through higher efficiency filters, which really address mostly particulates, not the full range of indoor air contaminants. But they also added energy consumption through more restricted airflow.
No matter how functional a floor plan or impressive the curb appeal, the key to selling a newly built home is to inspire families to picture themselves living in it and loving it. Homebuilders simply can’t do that the way we used to. Gone are the days of empty or sparsely decorated model homes that showed the house as a blank canvas full of possibilities. The truth is, people simply don’t relate to empty homes. Seeing that blank, empty space doesn’t just leave them uninspired – it can actually leave them feeling cold and unwelcome.
“Go for the jugular” is a phrase that describes a jump-start approach to marketing. It is aimed at getting to the heart of an issue and doing it quickly. It is an in-your-face marketing tactic, which is anything but subtle. There are no simple niceties or inferences here.
It means tapping into the lifeblood of the organization with innovation, guts and practical actions. It’s about numbers and accountability. While jugular marketing, by its nature, is not a strategic or long-term approach for the construction industry, the concept does offer short-term value based on the need to boost sales now.
It is one thing to produce an event, but it is another to hold one that strongly impacts those who attend it. Sarah Segal, director at Informa Canada, says the Construct Canada Tradeshow and Conference in Toronto accomplished that objective again in 2012.
“Construct Canada continues to advance thought leadership, demonstrate new innovations in products and offer world-class speakers who can bridge ideas with implementation,” Segal says. The annual show, held at the Toronto Convention Centre last November, is actually five expos under one roof.
Throughout the last two decades, the pace of technological advancement in the construction industry, like most industries, has significantly changed. This has contributed to the development of more collaborative forms of project delivery, such as integrated project delivery (IPD). At the same time, the development of building information modeling (BIM) technology, which involves the 3-D modeling of project designs and building functions, has been of fundamental importance in enabling and encouraging the use of IPD. However, the rapid pace of advancement of technology and the development of the collaborative approach contemplated by the use of IPD and BIM creates numerous legal challenges for project participants given its divergence from traditional approaches.
Montreal-based SNC-Lavalin ann-ounced that it won a contract from the Central District Cooling Co. to provide district-cooling facilities to the Jebel Omar Development in Mecca, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Under the contract, which has an estimated value of $92 million, SNC-Lavalin is responsible for the design, procurement, construction and commissioning of a district cooling plant, 1.5 kilometers of pipeline and 10 energy-transfer stations.
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