Source: National Ready Mixed Concrete Association, Silver Spring, Md.
The 2011 ConcreteWorks conference and exposition (September 25–27, San Diego) will open with a look at how federal policy is hampering economic recovery, and close with a motivational presentation from an official who has led testing of World War II concrete bunkers at the allied forces’ D-Day landing site in Normandy, France.
UBS Financial Services Senior Vice President of Investments Tom Freeman will kick off the opening (September 26) General Session by examining the government’s basic supply-and-demand equation, its discouraging affect on hiring and job searches, and link to below-average economic growth rate. He will also discuss how pro-growth policies in the form of lower business taxes will more effectively allow employers to allocate stimulus funds, while making the case that allowing businesses—rather than government—to allocate resources is a better use of tax dollars.
The closing General Session (September 27) will feature Dr. Tanya Wattenburg Komas, director of the California State University, Chico, Concrete Industry Management (CIM) Program, and Dr. Willard Wattenberg, senior research scientist for the school’s Research Foundation. Dr. Komas has participated in ongoing research and testing of Nazi troops’ concrete bunkers at Pointe du Hoc, and now serves under a cooperative agreement with the National Park Service as director of the CSU Chico Field School at Alcatraz Island. She will discuss the need for increasing the collective expectation of personal responsibility and accountability, while Dr. Wattenburg gauges how some of the most important issues affecting concrete industry growth can be addressed by holding people and groups accountable through straightforward science and broad vision.
ConcreteWorks will be staged at the Sheraton San Diego Hotel & Marina. Activities begin early Sunday, September 25, with the National Mixer Driver Championship; networking sessions, timed with exposition hours, and education tracks continue over the next two days. Activities will coincide with NRMCA committee and Board of Directors meetings. Additional information on the program and registration can be obtained by clicking here.