How Construction Tech Actually Crosses the Chasm: Procore & OpenSpace at Canadian Concrete Expo 2023

0:00This episode is brought to you by our presenting sponsor Payzant Building Products. Payzant Building Products has been providing contractors and builders with the supplies necessary to complete their jobs since 1964. They've built a reputation of honest, helpful, and quality service, serving the HRM for the last 58 years. Now with seven locations in Nova Scotia and one in New Brunswick, our team at the Atlantic Construction Podcast is extremely excited to announce our new co-branded partner Procore. Procore is the global leader in construction management software. We'll be conducting several podcast episodes with Procore

0:31users and construction companies across the country in 2023, among many other things. Stay tuned — we're excited.

0:42Back to the Atlantic Construction Podcast, on site here at Canadian Concrete Expo. I'm here with Ali Halak from Procore Technologies. Ali, thanks for taking a few minutes to chat with us here. What's it mean for you personally and for the Procore team to be at an event like the Canadian Concrete Expo? Well, first and foremost, it's good to have you here, and the Concrete Expo is just a fantastic place, I think, for a lot of our subcontractors and also general contractors involved with our concrete

1:14side of the industry to really kind of come in, really level set in terms of what's happening across the industry for trends — not just technology-specific, but also perhaps trends in actual equipment, materials, best practices, and process, etc. As somebody who works directly with our general contractors and subcontractors in concrete, yeah, I'm just having a great time here. A lot of really good like-minded professionals are here. Absolutely. It feels very tech-forward but it also feels very much like a great investment of Procore's time

1:47and even my time as well, as a professional, as a young up-and-coming professional in construction. Absolutely. And there's a great variety of different setups here — different types of companies, like you mentioned: general contractors, subcontractors, suppliers of manufacturing, suppliers of new tools, new technology. So yeah, absolutely, it's a great way to network and get a feel for what's happening in the industry and in the market here essentially. So absolutely, it's — I think — an essential event for any concrete-related

2:18professional here in the Canadian market. And so this is a big thing for the Procore marketing team — you know, constantly circling these events, touching base, kind of getting the feel, having an ear to the grindstone on what's happening and what's going on. Are there some events later this year that you're kind of looking forward to, or that are going to be significant milestones for the team at Procore? Yeah, definitely. I would say right now there's a big push on from our

2:45marketing team here at Procore, especially specifically for the small to mid-sized business segment, to really start owning a lot of the different networking chapters that we're doing across the entire Canadian region — for subcontractors, including concrete. If not concrete, it could also be anything: electrical, HVAC, mechanical, plumbing, etc. So I think a lot of the audience could probably potentially look out for those. We're really looking to start developing our own, basically in-house, events around that — not just to talk about solutions or products, but to talk about

3:21the trends in construction, to talk about what's going to move the needle forward for a lot of these businesses when it comes to really good processes, keeping your people happy, and keeping your business efficient and afloat, while still being net positive when it comes to profit and revenue. Awesome. Well, thanks for taking the time, Ali, and it's great chatting with you. Thank you. Pleasure. Okay, welcome back to the Atlantic Construction Podcast, on site here at the Canadian Concrete Expo 2023 at the International Center in

3:51Toronto. I'm here with a fine gentleman, Jason Kokolakis, with OpenSpace. Jason, I want to ask what it means for you personally to be here at an event like this and what it means for OpenSpace. But first, maybe just tell us a little bit about yourself — you're from Montreal, fitness is a big thing in your life. I know we were lucky enough, our team, to have dinner with you and some of the other members of OpenSpace last night, some great conversations just

4:16about some good habits for both work and personal life, so maybe just give us — tell us about yourself. Yeah, the 60-second spiel, if you can. Absolutely, and thank you, Dan, for having me on here. I think that that opened up with GSP's speech yesterday — George St-Pierre, UFC champion, was here. It's amazing. And he spoke about, you know, mental resilience and mental fortitude, and his rise to being a champion and staying as a champion, and

4:46that led into a nice conversation over dinner, and then fitness and things like that — which is where I started, in sales. And yeah, it was great chatting, great meeting you, and happy to be here. It was a great two days with OpenSpace. Met a ton of clients and was able to show what we do, which is 360 documentation of the job site — great for, you know, the theme of this, which is concrete. We can do things like

5:18compare job site past to present and really see the progress side by side — really cool to see for concrete, you know, pre-pour, post-pour, things like that. And so, yeah, we got a lot of attention. A lot of people interested, lots of people stopping by the booth, for sure. Yeah, yeah. Construction technology is kind of growing really quick. We're doing stuff with drones, with robots, so it's rapidly changing. Yeah, we've been getting a lot of traction just showing and

5:48demoing the product here. Yeah, and I find it's really neat to have this tech side — it's kind of an interesting enmeshment of different people in construction. You have the white collar to blue collar, and then just the rapid growth in technology to try and sell that to — let's face it, sometimes the blue-collar side can be a little bit stuck in their ways, maybe for lack of a better term, just not willing to adopt new ideas. But

6:14knowing that you have a product that's going to help them so much — I think your colleague Thomas was talking about last night, you know, doing whatever he has to do to kind of get that product in the hands of that drywall contractor or that concrete contractor or electrical, because they don't know how much they need it. Can you speak to that — just the target you're after, and sometimes just trying to sell or to get that new technology in the hands of people who

6:39need it but they don't know they need it yet. Does that make sense? Absolutely, that's a great question. And it's actually one of our core company values: simplify everything, keep it simple. And it's a great question in terms of mixing the white and the blue collar, and how do we integrate that technology so that it sticks and so that the users are engaged and getting the most value out of OpenSpace. And our tech on the back end is quite

7:06complex. So we use — and that's you, on the back end, in that side of things, more so? That's right, yeah. Yeah, I work with our existing clientele across Canada. So I help them — I train the teams, and I help them really adopt OpenSpace and set the clients up. And yeah, so keeping the tech simple, coming back to that — we're using machine learning, we're using AI, we're using computer vision. Our founders actually developed

7:35this tech out of MIT. Wow, yeah. And so the back end is quite complex, but the cool thing about that is the UI — what the users, what our clients are interacting with, is really simple to navigate and use. And I think that's, you know, why we've been successful in bridging that gap. Awesome. MIT — wicked smart. All right, love it. Thanks, thanks for doing this, Jason. Pleasure chatting with you guys. It's been a pleasure being across the way here in our

8:03booth here, combined with the whole team from Procore. And yeah, it's been a fantastic couple of days, and we'll definitely look to see OpenSpace at some more events later on this year. From our team at the Atlantic Construction Podcast — thanks a lot and cheers. Absolutely, thanks so much, Dan, for having me on. Cheers. Welcome back to the Atlantic Construction Podcast, here on site at the Canadian Concrete Expo. I'm here with Arabi Siva —

8:30RBC? Well, yes. Can you say your last name for me please? Arabi Siva. Arabi is the marketing manager — marketing lead — for all of Canada with Procore. Yes. Thanks for taking a few minutes to chat with me. Yeah, happy to be here. It's my first podcast for construction. I have a feeling that's you and Kimberly both have been some very busy ladies. We keep busy — that's the start of the new year here, we keep busy. Yeah, yeah. What's it mean to be at an

8:58event like this? Do you actually get some time personally to kind of breathe a bit when you're able to come down to site here? Oh yeah, this is really rewarding for you. Totally rewarding, because like, we do all the work behind the scenes, and then to actually come here in person and connect with customers, just talk — and not have to think about our day-to-day, but actually, you know, boots on the ground, and see how our work impacts the industry in person. Take

9:22us through — take us through a typical week for yourself. I'm assuming you're constantly traveling, communicating with the marketing team, delegating. Can you just take us through, if there is such a thing as a typical week for you? I don't think any week is typical, except meeting the team with all of our cross-functional stakeholders — so whether it's marketing, product, sales, customers — we meet with everybody every week to connect on what our weekly

9:47priorities are, to get them done. And we obviously have quarterly goals, and across all that from a marketing perspective, you know, we do events, we do educational webinars, content sessions, we create reports, research — we create campaigns, digital. We work with customers to create stories. I mean, there's a lot of different moving parts, but we want to bring it all together and integrate them so that there's a story, and that we're telling the industry story, right? We're telling our customers' stories the right way. What's the most satisfying

10:13part of your position with Procore for you personally? It's really as simple as when customers walk by events like this and I hear 'we love Procore.' Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, yeah. That easy. They talk about how much it changes their day-to-day, just being able to use it. So the work that we do has impact, right? When they adopt the technology, yeah — you're helping them sleep better at night, I think is the key. Yeah, 100%. Awesome. Well, thanks for taking a few minutes to chat with me.

10:35Thank you for having me. Awesome. We'll see you. Okay, welcome back to the Atlantic Construction Podcast. We're here on site at the Canadian Concrete Expo at the International Center here in Toronto, and I'm blessed to have the presence of Omer Younus from Urbacon. Thanks for taking a few minutes just to chat with us. So Omer, can we start just by explaining a little bit about what it is — your role at Urbacon — and the service that you're providing to

11:01your clients? Well, first of all, thank you for the introduction. Absolutely. I'm a business analyst at Urbacon. I've been there for over five years now. I guess the role kind of started with one thing and you start — you know, you end up adding more and more and more. A few different hats? Yeah, exactly — well, a few more like, you know, 100. But I largely work with people, so it's like business processes, software, anything from onboarding any new software, onboarding into the actual company itself, right, anything SOP-related.

11:29Just kind of working with people. So I do work in the IT department. There's definitely a huge part of that that involves your basic desktop support — a lot of turning it off and on again, that sort of stuff. But my primary focus is just with people and how they interact with the business and the software that drives all the construction, everything that we do. And I think it's more and more common, more and more well-known, this day and age — you know, with a

11:53contemporary mindset — like, you can't run these large, complex construction projects, these large-volume companies, as a contractor, as an engineer, as a consultant, without some sort of software to tie everything together, to integrate different changes in your business. Absolutely. I'm laughing just because, you know, we have tons of examples of that where, if you're doing a smaller job, maybe there's like five people on it and it's under a million dollars — maybe you'll get away with Excel and a spreadsheet. Yeah, but it's like really

12:22unrealistic to think, you know, I'm going to build a 300-million-dollar building or whatever it is you're working on and not expect to use some kind of software. For sure. The issue I find — well, not issue per se, but what I see a lot — is, I guess, sort of like a generational gap, coming from clipboards and 'I'm just telling you what to do, the knowledge is all up in my head,' to, you know, 'I gotta sign in here now, and I gotta use

12:44this software and that links with this' — and just bringing a whole subset of people into this new world that they didn't care about or they had no interest in whatsoever. Yeah, and it's just unique to see and it's interesting — you always hear new perspectives and figure things out along the way. Yeah. What a daunting task to streamline that, eh? And I mean, it's a 30,000-foot view of the construction industry — so many different backgrounds coming together to

13:10accomplish goals. I'm assuming — correct me if I'm wrong — your target market, your clients, are contractors and subcontractors, site supers, and people like that. And you're providing this complex software to make their life easier. But you're talking with two different types of people — different backgrounds — but yeah, to learn to kind of appreciate each other, like 'hey, I'm here to fill this void for you, you can fill that void for me — I need you to explain this side of it so you can

13:34explain.' Right, that's like the thing. When you mentioned making your life easier — that's truly my goal. It's like I want to make your job as easy as possible. So if it takes you an hour, let's try and make it so it takes 15 minutes, and you do whatever you want with the 45. I don't give a crap. Yeah. But what I find is they see it as the opposite — it's like, 'no, no, this is making my life more difficult,' and you

13:52gotta — like you mentioned — find a way to sort of translate that, to make them understand it may be 30 minutes of work now but you're saving hours down the line. Yeah. That reminds me of a piece of advice that my father told me, and — only just kind of old enough now to realize he had a lot of wise things to say. I probably should have listened to him more. But I get that more and more. Yeah, so it makes me feel better about myself. He was right. Yeah, he had some damn good

14:17things to say. But one was, you know, 'we're different but we need each other,' and we're all different, but that's kind of what I'm taking away from what you've just explained. And, you know, any final comments on that? It's been a pleasure to have you here just to chat for a few minutes. Oh, I appreciate you having me. Nothing really — I mean, that's pretty much most of what I do. I enjoy doing it, it's fun. And

14:39what's it mean for you to be at an event like this, and for your company? You're all here as kind of a milestone — 'hey, it's a big event, we can kind of sit back and say, you know, we've come this far this year, we're meeting people, sharing stories, networking.' What's it like for you to be here? So far it's been a pleasant experience — my first time coming here. It's just funny because there's all

15:00these big machines and all this new tech as far as tools go, but then I'm seeing a lot more — which I don't imagine was there 20 years ago — there's a lot more software vendors. And it's like, well, you know, I came to Concrete Expo expecting anything related to concrete and the work that's involved in the tools. Yeah, but it's just cool to see how much of it — a large portion — is the software that's enabling you to do those things, right? Even though the Concrete

15:21Expo — software somehow just snuck in there. Great, great. It's been great. Thank you. Awesome. Yeah, thanks for being with us. Welcome back to the Atlantic Construction Podcast, here on site at the Canadian Concrete Expo 2023 at the International Center here in Toronto. I'm joined by Cadman Turner, executive sales with Procore Technologies. Cadman's from Australia, and happy to have him here just to chat for a few minutes. Thanks for doing this, man. Thank you for having me. Cheers. Tell us a little bit about working at Procore,

15:52your position — a lot of the team is here today — and being at an event like this. What's it like as a sales exec with Procore and what are some of the challenges? Yeah, so I work exclusively with the small to medium-sized business, okay, so in Western Ontario. Some of the biggest issues that we do face there is the lack of technology that people use. Yeah, like, one of the biggest competitors — yeah, so like me as a sales

16:24rep, a lot of my job is focused on educating prospects. And, absolutely, investments online — yeah, there is a real value here. And, you know, we save a lot of time, a lot of effort, and money. So educating customers on that as well. And, you know, it's just — because we are dealing with smaller budgets, so like, yeah, yeah, there's always an issue. But it's definitely challenging. But there's also a lot of people out there — like, there's nothing

16:58better than when you get a prospect on the line and they've got a bunch of software already. Yeah, like, that's my job — that's not my job done. Yeah. And it makes me think — you know, like a lot of us in the business, we're concerned about the big clients, high-volume stuff. But you know, we're talking about small to medium-sized companies, so I'm assuming like these guys are taking on jobs, you know, $5-10 million maybe in revenue, maybe 100 employees

17:20or less, 50 employees or less. But, you know, some of those are the targets where your software, implementing it, can make some of the biggest difference, right? I mean, the big companies that are doing complex stuff all the time, obviously they're going to be aware of Procore and you're going to be competing with your competitors and other software providers. But like you said, you're competing with pen and paper. And a lot of these

17:43guys are so immersed in their business they can't step away enough to have the headspace to see how much impact, how much of a difference it can make. And I know that's a daunting task in sales, to try and sell something to someone who doesn't know they need it. But, you know, like three months from now, if they adopt it, they're going to come back to you and be like, 'man, I wish I did that two years ago.' What we're perfect for is — there's two people that we're perfect

18:04for. We're perfect for the customers or the prospects that want to grow and expand, because they were able to implement this. So you do have the ability to keep track of your financials or project management. But then on the other hand, we're perfect as well for the customer that wants to maximize what they have and maximize their margins, to ensure that they're tracking their invoicing and they're getting paid on time, all that sort of stuff. So

18:30we're perfect for both. But also, getting in early — if you do want to grow, like getting into the businesses, getting involved with Procore early, like when you are at the $5, $10 million, $20 million marks — you have that foundation. Yeah, because — what happened — so a lot of things: there's tons of software out there, don't get me wrong. But it's like when you go with a smaller-size software — you've got to think about what happens when you start doing 30, 40

18:59million, right? Yeah. Does that software keep up? Whereas the benefit of us is we work with some of the biggest builders in the world, yeah, and we also work with people doing a million dollars. Yeah, so you have that exercise of scale. And so when that volume does come, you're able to handle it and we're able to handle it, and you're able to grow and continue to work. And you're avoiding a big transition into a new form of software — you're going to

19:23have to train your employees, you gotta learn this and that, and it's — yeah, implementing software is not easy. Well, it's not hard, I should say, but it takes time and effort to implement software. So you would imagine, like, you put in two years with another software, and then it's like, 'now it doesn't work, so you gotta go through it again.' Yeah. Like, I think the moral of the story is — just buy in early. There you have it, folks. Nice. So,

19:49before we wrap up, tell us a little bit about — I think something that I've heard a lot, and it's interesting to get some context on different people's backgrounds. Obviously the team here in Toronto is very diverse, lots of different cultures working together. Just tell us a little bit about some of the similarities between, you know, being from Australia — kind of like the culture here in Canada. I've often heard people say, you know, people are very energetic and it's kind of the

20:13same mentality as Australians. Canada-Australia seems to be a lot of common ground. Is that true in your experience? Yeah, the personalities and culture is very — there's no kangaroos here. But like where I live — I was living regionally — I would have like a mob of 50 kangaroos every night at my door. What's that like? It gets annoying, really. They're just — I'd like to experience that at least once. Yeah, they're just everywhere. It's like

20:40they're attracted to your lawn for some reason. They're like deer, I guess. Yeah, okay. Yeah, there's lots of deer on the East Coast. So yeah, where I'm from — but you've got to go up to the mountain. So deer might be a little more graceful than kangaroos — I'm not sure. I think so, I think so. But they're crazy, man. Like, I've seen them jump a six-foot fence. No way. Yeah, they're massive. I feel like kangaroos are more dangerous than people

21:01give them credit for. You don't want to get on a kangaroo's bad side. Hey, thanks, Cadman, for doing this, man. Pleasure, pleasure talking with you. No worries, thank you. See you later. Welcome back to the Atlantic Construction Podcast, here on site at the Canadian Concrete Expo at the International Center in Toronto. I have the pleasure of introducing you to Aaron Shean, the customer success manager at Procore. Aaron, thanks for just taking a few minutes to sit and chat with us. We've had many members of the Procore team

21:48stop by and have a quick chat throughout the day. Just tell us a little bit about your role and what it means to you to be at an event like this with the team. Yeah, absolutely. So my role within the Canadian organization — I take care of some of our enterprise customers on the East Coast. And so my main role is to ensure their success — it's in my title — I want to make sure that they're adopting Procore well, rolling it out smoothly,

22:11helping them overcome any obstacles that they may have when it comes to Procore and their usage. And making sure that they're aware of all the new product updates — that they're making good use of their investment. Just for some context: so focusing a lot on the East Coast, these would be mostly general contractors, some subcontractors, different consultants. Yeah, we have — so with my book of business, it's majority general contractors. I also have some specialty contractors under my belt as

22:41well, and then we have another colleague on my team — customer success — she takes care of our owner customers. So we're segmenting in Canada so that we can have better industry knowledge and serve our customers better. And I imagine there's a lot of longevity to that — even if a general contractor has been using Procore for a long time, they're familiar with the software but they're growing and there are new members of the team. You're constantly troubleshooting, new software updates, things like

23:07that. So yeah, I'm sure that there are many points of contact with these different GCs on the East Coast where you're monthly touching base, bi-weekly, even weekly, just to stay up to date, make sure everything's running smoothly — just constant. Yeah, yeah. Even working at Procore, it's so hard to keep up with all the updates our product team makes — it's constant, every day there's new updates. And so if it's overwhelming for me sometimes, I can imagine there's a lot for our customers. But that's all

23:32to say we're working hard on pushing out updates and continually improving the platform. Awesome. And just to wrap up — to be at an event like this, the Canadian Concrete Expo — you're here with a lot of other colleagues and team members. Is this — what's it mean to you to be at this, and for Procore? It's a big networking event, a lot of potential clients, current clients — there's manufacturers, suppliers, contractors. What's it like

24:02for you to be able to kind of step back and just spend some time here with the team at an event like this? Well, I just love meeting my customers face to face. It's so valuable to me, and just to see their excitement around Procore — it energizes me. And I hope we're helping them get excited about the platform too. So it's just great to be in person and meet customers and get all excited about Procore. Awesome, amazing. Thanks for your time,

24:26Aaron, and just a pleasure to chat with you. Enjoy the rest of the conference. Thank you, Dan. Okay, welcome back to the Atlantic Construction Podcast, on site here at the Canadian Concrete Expo 2023 at the International Center in Toronto. I'm here with Brianne Price. Brianne, thanks for taking a few minutes to talk with us. Talk to lots of members of the team today — just tell us a little bit about your role with Procore and what it's like, a day in the life, and

24:54what you like most about your role. Awesome, well thanks for having me on. I've been at Procore for just over two years now. I was hired during the peak of the pandemic, December 2020 — so it was about nine months. Yeah, it was really sad and dark in the winter of that year. But at least I had my job at Procore. And yeah, it was about nine months working remotely, fully remote, before I even met my co-workers. But even then, I knew it was a good

25:23decision to join the team. And my role kind of transitioned — I was marketing to all segments at Procore, so all verticals of GCs, subs, and owners. And over time, over a couple months when I started, I moved into the upmarket space. So I market to GCs — like some of the biggest builders in Canada — owners, private owners, developers, and in the public sector space as well, so public sector project owners too. Yeah. Tell us a little bit about — you know, we're here on site at this

25:55Canadian Concrete Expo here the last couple of days in Toronto. And as we immerse with your team here on site from the Toronto office — so diverse, lots of different cultures, lots of different backgrounds — talk a little bit about culture at Procore and what it is that you love most about the culture side of Procore. This is a great question, because we just had a happy hour last night with some of the execs visiting

26:24from the United States. Anthony Fratelli was in town — he's like the top sales guy on the Procore team. And even he said he could just feel the culture on the team and how much we all got along and really enjoyed being there. And I think that was one of the decision-makers for me when I was being interviewed by Procore — was the culture. My current manager RB brought me on; we used to work together at a previous company. I had never heard of

26:51Procore, never worked in construction — I'm a marketer, that's it. And she's like, 'no, you really have to talk to the people at Procore and learn about it and learn about what they're doing for the industry and how important it is.' And so once I spoke to everyone — our VP of Canada and some of the sales people — I really understood the mission and how important the software was, and just that they hire really good people. And everyone we work with in the industry, everyone here at Concrete Expo,

27:17are just amazing people getting work done for the country and trying to improve Canada. Wow. I mean, it's so great to hear that from you, and certainly being here with the team on site you can feel just the atmosphere, the uplifting positivity, and the immense professionalism, both at the same time. So it's great to be here. Thanks for taking a couple minutes to chat with us, Brianne. Enjoy the rest of the conference. Thank you. Cheers. Welcome back to the Atlantic Construction Podcast, here on

27:40site at the Canadian Concrete Expo 2023. We're at the International Center in Toronto. It's been an amazing couple of days. I'm here with Kimberly Corlett, field marketing manager with Procore Technologies. It's been a pleasure, Kimberly, to be here with you and your team. Thanks for sitting down and chatting with us for a few minutes. Thanks for doing this. No, thank you so much, and I'm glad you guys are out here. Yeah, it's certainly a glimpse inside to see all the

28:07logistics that go into getting the team here, getting organized — a big event like this, so much opportunity to connect. Tell us a little bit about the last week or so, kind of leading up to the event, and then what it means for you to have the team here at an event such as this. Well, for Canadian Concrete Expo, we're actually the returning title sponsor — we did pre-plan all the way back in September. And so if you're talking about the

28:33last week, it was just getting everything — getting our vendors all organized, giving them that barista experience that we have today, but also keeping in touch with our partners such as yourself. I'm so happy you guys are out here again today. Yeah, I mean, it's such a great experience to be here with the Procore team. And yeah, so many users of Procore here on site. And like a lot of our previous guests here have been talking about — there's manufacturers here, there's

28:58service providers, there's contractors, suppliers of materials — all, you know, not just concrete, but there's a lot of technology booths here as well. Maybe just talk a little bit about what that means for Procore. You see, even with the traditional forms of construction like concrete, technology is a big theme here, which means it's a big theme in everything now in construction. What does that mean for Procore? Yes, so digital transformation is definitely something that's going to occur over the

29:26next few years. However, us being out here at Canadian Concrete Expo, we wanted to connect with the concrete industry — whether that's with material suppliers but also the contractors themselves. So with Canadian Concrete Expo, this was the place to be, and we're really excited to again repeat as a title sponsor here and showcase our technology. But also with OpenSpace, who joins us here today. Yeah, we've had the pleasure of being here, obviously, with you and the Procore team, and Thomas and Jason from OpenSpace. And yeah, just a

29:59lot happening here right in this one section. Kimberly, I know you take a lot of pride in what you do, and it's difficult — you're constantly bringing people together, managing partners, managing different sponsorships, events, constant logistics and organizing. But you're very passionate about what you do. We can sense that. Our team, Atlantic Construction Podcast media, is just being a partner. Tell us — what do you cling to to keep going when it's, you know, high stress, a lot of energy, you

30:27know, long days, and it just keeps compiling — just tell us a little bit about what keeps you going with your passion when things are really, really busy. Oh, that's a really good question. So I do come from a construction industry background, and I guess it's just that passion of what I had gone through — being in the field, what it was like for those eight years — and just seeing how much this tech can be used and utilized in

30:54the field. And I think what makes it easier, when you have so much going on handling field-related events, industry partners, communicating with them — especially the Atlantic Construction Podcast team — you guys are so committed to uplifting the Atlantic, but also the entire Canadian community of construction. So it just makes it easier to work alongside those passionate individuals as well. So thank you so much, Dan. Yeah, actually, well, it certainly shows. You know, like you mentioned, it's really nice to get a glimpse inside some people's journeys

31:27and their past, and how they kind of arrived at the role they're at today, and where the soft skills and the hard skills came from. And you know, coming from the industry, you can definitely see that in the way you handle people and organize things. That's what a lot of construction is about — just getting things done, checking things off the list, seeing the critical path. And then your passion to kind of give back to that group of people that you were part of before, knowing how

31:47much tech can help them. So it's just awesome to be here with your team and yourself. And thanks for taking a few minutes — it's been a pleasure to chat with you. Thank you so much, Dan. And before you go, I do want to ask — why did you not smile at that time? I have not let this one down. And it's obviously because, you know, nine o'clock and hadn't had a coffee yet. But as soon as I got an espresso and a coffee, I smile from ear to ear for

32:1348 hours after that. Okay, okay, that's my excuse at least. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thanks. Okay, welcome back to the Atlantic Construction Podcast, here on site at the Canadian Concrete Expo 2023 at the International Center in Toronto. So I have with me right now Thomas Del Orario. You gotta say it with a little thing — no, it wasn't Texas Longhorn, it wasn't Texas Roadhouse, it was Lone Star Texas — some ripoff of those larger steak places — with garlic there, for sure. Yeah, yeah. We had a — it's been, it's

33:08been quite a couple of days here at this event. You just gave a conference presentation a couple hours ago — sure has. It went pretty well. Met up with Tim Allsop, okay, and as well as Omer from Urbacon. They talked about a little bit of their usage, talked a little about how it integrated within the Procore platform there. Gave a live demo, which is always nerve-wracking — up on stage — but your workout went pretty smooth, pretty smooth,

33:35I thought. Gotta be happy with that, man. Yeah, yeah. Hopefully get a few closed deals, walk away with some sales. Yeah, there you go. That's a couple days' worth — well, that's the name of the game in construction. Yeah, more steak dinners — that's essentially all we're trying to do. Yeah, and you have an interesting background, Thomas. Yeah, you know, you spent a lot of time on the sites here on the tech side, but I think you know that's a neat journey

34:00because you can see the value of the tech — you know what it's like to be in their shoes and how much value it can bring back. What's it like trying to sell something to some of the blue-collar trades who don't know they need it yet? How do you stay passionate when you just want to help them so bad but sometimes you can't get through to them? Yeah, that's a really good point. I think my answer there is two-

34:23tiered. One is, when you finally do break through that tough, grizzled exterior of those site supers — they truly are — they truly are, melt in your mouth like a nice piece of — but I think it's really just the fact that I've built a personal relationship with those guys and we're relatable to them as well. Yeah, yeah, the trust level is going to be more. Yeah, yeah. I got yelled at by them consistently. I was in over my head. I was a horrible

34:54superintendent. Yeah. So I couldn't run my own job, but I understand the pain points of building and construction and I think that does help. And then, you know, actually building out those connections with some of the champions of the software — and just getting texts saying, 'hey, you know, this has ended up saving me maybe three or four K on rework costs just from this one little issue alone.' It's the little stuff like that. And, 'hey, man, we're loving it, seamless.' So

35:22yeah, that's kind of what motivated me. Yeah, it's nice because it's a product that I believe in. And you can actually get the tangible ROI from it. And you know the client, you know the target, you know the industry, and it's a product you believe in because you know it's going to help. I mean, pretty good spot to be in as far as business development and sales goes. Yeah, it was kind of a stroke of luck. I mean, like I said, I used it — we

35:45had a big water damage event in our last project. I mean, sheetrock completely soaked — had to blow out four floors of sheetrock, casework, flooring — yeah, the whole gambit. And they had me out there, I had to get everything reinstalled, track all the reinstallation. I was just taking a whole bunch of individual photos. So my main kind of corporate office said, 'hey, we have OpenSpace, try this out.' And of course I didn't want to

36:12be the guy with the camera on the head. Got a few jokes. But I ended up using it, and then bam — it's getting brought up in the OACs. Bam, it's getting brought up. How long ago was this? And here you are, five years later. Yes. Yeah, this was right before the pandemic hit. Okay. Yeah, relatively recently. Pretty big pivot — coming from the industry. And I think the pandemic actually helped OpenSpace, because, sure, when the sites were shut down, exactly where they were, they were kind of getting that digital twin. A lot more people working remote, a lot of remote clients, so just having that access — it's been positive for a lot of tech within the construction industry as an essential service. Outside of things, well, thanks for taking the time, Thomas. Lastly, let's end on this — you're living in Boston. Tell us some of your favorite films based in Boston. We were talking about this. Favorite films based in Boston? I mean,

36:40when the sites were shut down, exactly where they were, they were kind of getting that digital twin. A lot more people working remote, a lot of remote clients, so just having that access — it's been positive for a lot of tech within the construction industry as an essential service. Outside of things, well, thanks for taking the time, Thomas. Lastly, let's end on this — you're living in Boston. Tell us some of your favorite films based in Boston. We were talking about this. Favorite films based in Boston? I mean,

37:11there's a few golden ponies, if you will, of that. Really anything with Mark Wahlberg. So I mean, you got The Departed. Yep. Matt Damon, Good Will Hunting — 'Good Will, how do you like them apples?' My boy's wicked smart. Yep. 350 in late charges at the local library. Yeah, all that good stuff. Awesome, man. Yeah, The Town — yeah, of course, of course, of course. Yeah, yeah. Absolutely. All right, folks. Sorry. Thanks, Tom. Been a pleasure, and we hope to see you again. Yeah, on

37:43our Atlantic Construction — yeah, very soon. All right, I'm an avid follower as of 24 hours. Let's go! And I walked away loaded. LFG for the Atlantic Construction Podcast — just make it happen. Clip that, make that a clip. Clip it. This episode is brought to you by Cook Insurance, your trusted insurance broker in Atlantic Canada for 50 years. Insurance is complex, and the Cook team focuses on delivering comprehensive solutions for your construction needs, including builders risk, wrap-up liability, performance bonds, and project-specific construction. A Navacord partner since

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