Program for mid-level managers stresses workshops, seminars, and networking.
By Jean Thilmany, Associate Editor

A new ASME conference directed toward mid-level engineering managers makes a departure from the traditional way that the society’s conferences have been conducted.

ASME’s Global Engineering Management Conference, called GEMC for short, will be held April 11 to 14 in Dallas.

“We’re billing it as an innovative approach to ASME conferences in that it’s not paper driven,” said Howard Berkof, conference chair and recent past chair of the ASME management division. Berkof is an assistant program manager for the U.S. Navy.

Mid-level engineering managers from industry will attend workshops, seminars, networking events, and even field trips; all of which will give them an opportunity to interact with speakers and educators. Seminars will provide continuing education credits that meet participants’ specific state requirements, Berkof added.

“It’s a new way of doing business for ASME conferences, being industry and not academic focused,” he said. “To plan this conference, we assembled a team of ten industry engineering managements and executives to get their guidance and advice. We asked, ‘What would it take to send your engineers to this conference?’ And we took their answers and that’s what we planned.”

Taking the Tour

One feature of the conference will be a tour of the new Cowboy Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

Scott Woodrow, the stadium’s director of engineering, will lead conference members around the structure and will share his first-hand experience in stadium design and engineering. The retractable-roof structure seats approximately 80,000 fans, and can be expanded to seat up to 100,000 for special events like the 2011 Super Bowl.

Arches that stretch for more than a quarter of a mile span the length of the stadium. The tour will include an examination of the stadium’s 11,520-square-foot scoreboard and high-definition television screen, the largest in the world. Discussion will include how the elements of the scoreboard were hung and implemented and how they are controlled.

As director of engineering, Woodrow sought to efficiently use energy and water, minimize waste, and maintain the mechanical equipment throughout the stadium.

There will also be a tour of Texas Instrument’s LEED-gold-certified semiconductor manufacturing plant in Richardson, Texas. In 2004, Texas Instruments became the first semiconductor manufacturer to comply with Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, said Paul Westbrook, Texas Instruments’ sustainable design manager, who will lead the tour.

Sustainable buildings are conceived with particular emphasis placed on environmental and economic considerations to help minimize these impacts, Westbrook said.

Debra Fine, a former engineer who describes herself as an “enginerd,” will lead a networking workshop. The Denver-based company that Fine heads, The Fine Art of Small Talk, teaches the art of conversation, focusing specifically on technical professionals.

Her interactive presentation will help engineering managers hone their conversation techniques and will offer networking tips, including pointers on how to strike up conversations and keep them going, how to avoid conversation killers, and how to come across as composed and self-assured, she said.

Real-Life Lessons

The conference will also feature case-study presentations in which engineering managers will discuss real-world industry situations they faced and resolved.

“Attendees can come away from those sessions with examples of how to approach a situation, or how not to approach a situation, as the case may be,” Berkof said.

Conference events are designed to encourage interaction among all conference participants, he said.

“We really planned this as a collaborative event for attendees,” he said. “We’ve filled it with networking and audience-participation opportunities so attendees can feel like there’s plenty of time for two-way conversations. They can feel they’re engaged, involved, and learning as much as they can through methods different than a lecture or a paper reading.”

Details are available on the conference Web site at http://asmeconferences.org/gemc10/.