Hello world! (nod to Walker Lockard) Remember me? Been awhile, I know. I’ve been on the road a good bit lately doing this Construction Dork thing and meeting up with many of you wonderful people out there fighting the good fight. Through all the tech and conferences and speeches and adult beverages I feel that I’ve gleaned enough of the common vibe among us dorks to be able to really start build out a Manifesto and perhaps help take this movement to the next level.

I’ll start with the Manifesto.

One of the greatest things I am finding about my fellow Dorks when we get together is that we’re all about making the entire industry better. We definitely have very vested interest in our own companies, careers, or solutions, but all of that is secondary to helping our peers with leading innovation in their own companies. I truly love this about us. We realize that it is NOT a zero sum game. If you get better, your partners get better, your competitors get better, YOU get better. We can’t do it all on our own and we all know:

The Construction Dorks I’ve met have really embraced that. We need to keep pushing this forward. We need to sell it within our companies right along with all the shiny toys and the AIs and the drones. We need to continue this grassroots push to drag the industry through this transformation. This is an exciting time!

So, my fellow Dorks, I implore you to always keep this in mind when you are talking to a peer about a problem or solution. Use your empathy. Openly and freely share your opinions on possible solutions but happily support and encourage whatever path they choose. Because, let’s face it, sadly, whatever path I choose is probably better than the nothing or almost nothing I was already doing.

We need to work together to keep building the tools better and better and enjoy this embarrassment of rich choices that allows us to pick the tech stack that we know will be utilized in our companies. We need to remain as agnostic as possible when networking and focus more on the people and the process, as well as the way to sell change, and less on specific platforms.

Now for the Dorks pledge:

I, state your name, do solemnly swear to support my fellow Dorks. I will bring them drinks while we are “networking” and listen with the deepest empathy I can muster to the hardships they may face as they stride boldly into this exciting new world of construction technology. I will not pull any punches and tell them flatly when they are being stupid, but I will follow it with a “there, there” and a “bless your heart” and then kindly advise them of other possible avenues for them to try. I will do all I am able to lift up those around me so we, as a whole, can raise up the entire industry. So help me Elon.

Now for the next level sh…stuff. After all these travels and discussions there has been a steady ground swell of support for the idea of having our very own event. The goal of the event is to share our wins and losses, to learn from each other, and to build a tighter network. The vision is more round table and sharing and fewer presentations of sessions. NO SELLING. If someone has a solution that has worked well for them and would like to discuss it, we’re more than happy to listen to that as long as it is not a sales pitch. If you think you’d be interested in gathering with a larger group of Dorks with a one to one and a half day event, please click the link below and fill out the form.

www.constructiondorks.com

May the Force be with you!