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300 Attend INSTALL Flooring Conference
5/23/2007
More than 150 flooring contractors from the United States and Canada were guests of the INSTALL program at a floor covering conference dedicated to sharing best practices in the floor covering industry from April 30 through May 3.
These business leaders heard from Bentley Prince Street’s President, Anthony Minite, industry analyst Jonathan Trivers, and installation trouble-shooter Lew Migliore to launch the four-day event, which was hosted by the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America (UBC) at its International Training Center in Las Vegas. In addition, 13 mill and manufacturer partners of INSTALL presented a product exhibition during the event’s first two days.
INSTALL, the International Standards and Training Alliance, is an alliance of mills, manufacturers, contractors and the floor covering arm of the UBC, and is the flooring industry’s only four-year, industry-endorsed training, marketing and certification program in North America. INSTALL’s marketing, training and certification programs were the focus of discussion at the conference, which also saw present about 150 INSTALL business representatives and training instructors from the USA and Canada.
Pre-Conference Registration
A diverse audience of mill and manufacturing reps from companies such as Mohawk, Nora, Armstrong, Beaulieu, Johnsonite, Tarkett, Orcon and the NWFA joined INSTALL Director John McGrath for an INSTALL partner roundtable discussion. The two-hour event centered on teamwork, and how an active INSTALL partnership allows its alliance members to address everything associated with the flooring industry, especially training, marketing and certification.
“We are most effective when we align ourselves in a task,” said McGrath.
Chris Drummond, vice president of customer quality assurance for Bentley Prince Street added: “I am a veteran of this industry, and I can say that this INSTALL program is very impressive.”
The roundtable also explored the INSTALL certification program. The process – which tests INSTALL professionals in a difficult hands-on skill demonstration, “is uncompromising in its depth and requirements for skill,” McGrath explained. And INSTALL isn’t fooling around with the implementation of using certified installers on a job site. If an installer does something that’s not up to the INSTALL standard, that installer can have his certification card pulled, McGrath explained. “This is not a rubber stamp. It’s meant to raise the bar in flooring installation across North America. Anyone employing an INSTALL certified installer will know that they have a well-trained and competent professional.”
Helmitin Adhesive’s Director of Flooring, Larry Press, said: “I really believe in this program. I can’t compliment the program enough. A lot of the contractors who have facilitated (INSTALL’s apprenticeship and certification program) have found that it pays off.”
Day One - AM
INSTALL Labor-Management Committee Co-Chairman David Meberg, who is president of Consolidated Carpet, Inc., of New York City, offered comments about the progress INSTALL has made over the last few years. “Opportunity is knocking and INSTALL is ready,” said Meberg, echoing the conference theme. “Together, we provide the best flooring solution in the construction industry.”
Trivers, Minite and Migliore spoke about the importance of competence in installation. Trivers complimented INSTALL on the quality and authenticity of its training program and flooring installer skills, while Minite and Migliore each lauded INSTALL for its attention to training so that products are installed according to specifications.
Day One – PM and Day Two
Participants were divided into six breakout groups, and attended six educational sessions in a round-robin format, all with the goal of giving practical strategies which could be implemented immediately when participants returned home. The sessions centered on training, marketing, presenting continuing education classes to specifiers, forming and/or nurturing labor-management or contractor associations, contracts, and best practices in sports turf, certification testing, building specifications, on-site training, youth recruitment and foreman/supervisory training.
Day Three
UBC General President Douglas J. McCarron closed the conference by hosting a Q&A session with participants, and fielded questions from contractors representing everywhere from British Columbia to Boston. Contractors received answers to questions about training, expanding market share, and marketing the INSTALL program.
“You are agents of change,” McCarron said to the contractors and INSTALL representatives.