Brian Pallasch - Continue to Build With IIBEC’s 2024 International Convention and Tradeshow - PODCAST TRANSCRIPT

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of a live interview with Brian Pallasch from the International Institute of Building Enclosure Consultants (IIBEC). You can Read the interview below or Listen to the podcast.

Intro: Welcome to Roofing Road Trips with Heidi. Explore the roofing industry through the eyes of a long-term professional within the trade. Listen for insights, interviews and exciting news in the roofing industry today.

Megan Ellsworth: Hello everyone. My name is Megan Ellsworth here at rooferscoffeeshop.com, and I am here on a roofing road trip all the way to Hawaii today, talking with Brian with IIBEC and we're going to be talking about the IIBEC Convention and Trade Show coming up this year. So hi Brian, how are you?

Brian Pallasch: Good morning. From a very early Hawaii location, I'm here, excited to be here for our Southern California chapter's Winter Workshop. So glad we could put this together, although it's a little bit early in Hawaii still.

Megan Ellsworth: Glad you made it, glad you survived getting out through all the storms. So let's just have you introduce yourself and we'll start there.

Brian Pallasch: Absolutely. So for those that don't know me, my name is Brian Pallasch. I am the CEO and Executive Vice President of the International Institute of Building Enclosure Consultants. And those of you that are like, what is that? We like to call it IIBEC instead of the long title. And for those who are old enough or might have some gray hair, IIBEC used to be Roof Consultants Inc. The organization was formed all the way back in 1983. In fact we are finishing up celebrating our 40th anniversary.

Those of you that have some knowledge and history with the organization, I certainly would urge you to go to our website and look at our 40th anniversary page if you want to know more about the history of IIBEC. We have a fantastic video that we did that really talks about the history of IIBEC, through some photography that we've had over the last 40 years. And it's a fun look back as to where IIBEC-slash-RCI was in 1983, and how we got all the way to IIBEC, which we became IIBEC in 2019. And now we really encompass all six sides of the building, which is that sort of metamorphic or transition of IIBEC from RCI back in 1983.

And we are that organization of design professionals who specialize in building enclosure projects. Our members design, investigate and manage roofing, exterior wall, waterproofing systems and have started to do building commissioning, which is a new area for us and I'm sure we'll talk about that. But it's an area of interest for owners, and we ensure that those structures follow standards and codes and work with owners on warranty requirements and performance requirements.

So that's sort of who I am and what IIBEC is.

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah, wow. Well thank you, congratulations. 2019, you're coming up on an anniversary soon, so that's exciting. So how did the IIBEC Convention and Trade Show come about, and when did that start?

Brian Pallasch: That's a good question. So I had a little bit of the history on this even though I started in... I started at IIBEC in 2019. So as I like to say, I don't know what that other organization was, it's always been IIBEC for me. So our organization, the first RCI National Convention dates all the way back to 1986, and our first convention took place in Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, April 15 to 18 in 1986. We had a whopping 126 attendees at that convention in 1986, and there were 25 exhibitors.

To sort of give you the bookends of what that might mean, and as we talk about our convention that's coming up in Phoenix in March, we're expecting close to 1700 individuals this year and we'll have 120 exhibitors. So times have changed a little bit, and we've certainly grown as an organization and as a meeting.

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah, wow. Almost times 100. That's amazing. And you said it's happening in March. What are the dates for the convention this year?

Brian Pallasch: So, this year the convention is going to be from March 8th through 11th. We're going to be in Phoenix, Arizona. So for all of you in a place that's not as warm as Phoenix, Arizona in March, it'll give you a chance to get out of the snow or the cold or the rain. And we'll be downtown at the Phoenix Convention Center, and the hotel is the Phoenix Sheraton downtown.

So pretty excited about it and we're excited, the last time we were in Phoenix was at the tail end of the pandemic and we actually had to move our meeting to September. So we're excited to actually have the convention in Phoenix at the right time of the year, in March, and at the right time and with the right number of people. It was a scaled-back convention in 2021. And so we're pretty excited to be a full complement of all of our activities, et cetera, in Phoenix this March.

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah, that's exciting. Yes. And from Denver, Colorado here, Phoenix in March sounds amazing.

So you kind of touched on it, but you have some new things to offer at the trade show this year. What are some of the educational classes and some new seminars that are going to be happening this year?

Brian Pallasch: So, we're making some changes, as all these things need a little bit of change. So one of the things we're going to do is we're going to have three general sessions, which are sort of technical sessions that are... Everyone will go to those. One of those that I'll highlight for you today is we're doing a session on the design load... design for... Well it's easy for me to say. Design for tornado loads in ASCE 7 and the 2024 International Building Code. The new ASCE 7-22, which is the standard by which structures are designed, and it's a very long-standing standard created by the American Society of Civil Engineers, has a new chapter, if you will, or a new piece of it which allows for the design for tornadoes, which is definitely an area of new practice in this building enclosure space.

Marc Levitan is going to be the presenter of that. He works at the National Institutes of Standards and Technology, which is a government entity. His presentation is going to provide an overview of the tornadic hazards and the rationale for actually trying to figure out how to design for some of those tornadoes. I think the idea, and having spoken with Marc about this at some length, is there are structures that we really do need to design for and ensure that there's safety in them from tornadoes. And those structures are places where we want to shelter people during tornadoes, or structures where you don't really have a chance to, if you will, shelter people 'cause they're already sheltered.

And the idea, the notion behind that would be hospitals or firehouses and places like that that just automatically need to... We need to make sure that those structures are as safe as they can be, regardless of the hazard condition. And so this is a sort of a new twist for design professionals, and I know Marc's been doing a lot of talking about this so we're excited to have him present that to the full group.

And then we've got our full complement of classes, over 20 seminars that we're going to be giving. We are doing a special auxiliary seminar, if you will, that will be on the Friday, which is March 8th, so if you come in early to the meeting. And that's a whole class on re-roofing. So, since this is RoofersCoffeeShop...

Megan Ellsworth: That's perfect.

Brian Pallasch: That's the right subject matter, obviously. This class covers a whole range of concepts, including... It really focused on roofing consultants and the steps that they're supposed to take to successfully evaluate an existing roof and to make decisions regarding roof design using the current tools and evaluation techniques. It's one of our newest sort of standalone courses that we've put together, it was offered the first time last year and we're offering it there. And it's an eight hour course, so it's a full day of chatting about re-roofing.

And then we've got... We do concurrent sessions and that's where you get your number of 20 or 20-plus. And we've got subject... I'll bore folks with the subject matter because I think they'll... We're doing a deep dive into hail-caused dents, again, which is a roofing course. A Not-So-Perfect Storm, Wind, OSB and Low-Slope Roofing Systems, Decades of R&D Advancement in Roofing is another course. Roof-Mounted Solar, The Return on Investment in Best Practices. Certainly roof-mounted solar is a big subject matter in the industry today.

And then another one just for grins, so people can see the broad nature of what we're doing, Cold Weather Condensation Problems in Fully-Insulated Low-Slope Roof Systems, to meet the NFPA 13 requirements. And again, so a lot of these are technical, but they really provide the tools that our members and anyone in the roofing business needs to design and build the best roof for the client.

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah, wow. I mean the hail, the dent... I mean, all of those sound really interesting. So if anyone out there listening is not already registered to come to the convention, you should be interested now.

Brian Pallasch: And if you want to learn more about it it's real simple. You just go to iibecconvention.org or just iibec.org and you'll be able to find your way to the website to look at what more is going on.

Megan Ellsworth: That's good, awesome. So I know you all have an award luncheon. So what's going to be happening there and what awards are being presented?

Brian Pallasch: Well, that's a great question. So this year for the first time, and the folks who know a little bit about IIBEC-slash-RCI know that we used to have something called the Document Competition. And there was a group of IIBEC members that felt that it was time to sort of breathe a little bit of new life into this award presentation. And what we've renamed it and reimagined it, and it is now called the EBEC Awards, the Excellence in Building Enclosure Consulting Awards.

And it really is trying to look at the full contribution of a building enclosure consultant. And it recognizes outstanding contributions by building enclosure professionals, their collaborators and their clients, in support of the design, delivery and advancement of building enclosure performance. And we're doing it in five different categories, roofing, exterior walls, waterproofing, building enclosure, so broadly building enclosure, and the last one is commissioning. So five different areas.

And really what we want to do is celebrate the contributions of the team and the cool projects, as I like to say that our members do. We had a pretty good, for the very first time, number of entries, and we have awards that will be given out at each of those five categories. And we're sort of excited, I think this will be the maiden voyage for this project. And folks will see it and they'll be like, "Oh, wait a minute. I didn't submit my project from last year. Shoot, I know I'm going to have a good project this year. I got to submit." And we really want that to really promote the kind of work that building enclosure consultants do, not only solely but also as the team, the team approach.

So I don't want to give away what the award winners are, I want everyone to be excited about this and I think it's going to be very cool. And it's going to be something that we can promote moving forward in terms of the important and interesting projects and activities that our members do on these building enclosure jobs.

And then of course we will also be giving out, as we have for many years, the other, what we call IIBEC Honors and Awards, which we recognize people for their longtime contributions to the organization and its success. So we have a Joe Hale lifetime Achievement Award, we have a Michael DeFrancesco Outstanding Volunteer Award. We have an Emerging Professionals Award, we have an Outstanding Educator Award. So all those awards will be given out as well.

And then lastly, and not least, we also honor our chapters. So IIBEC has 26 chapters spread around the country and in Canada, so spread around really North America. We now have a branch in Mexico City. And we honor those chapters for the work that they do and how they've kept up with meeting the goals of being an outstanding chapter. So we'll do those as well.

So lots of awards to be given out. Most associations do that, and we're not alone. So we like to celebrate the good work of our members and the good work of our chapters.

Megan Ellsworth: That's amazing, wow. And it's so exciting, as a roofing contractor or a general contractor, to have your work recognized in that sense and voted on by peers and people you look up to. So it's really... I always love [inaudible 00:14:32]-

Brian Pallasch: We're really excited about... And sorry to talk over you. We're really excited about the EBEC Awards, and I think, like I said, this first time is going to be the light for people to see like, "Oh, wow, I really need to get involved in that." So that's the hope.

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah. So personally, what are you most excited for this year's convention?

Brian Pallasch: Well again, I'm a little bit excited to see what Phoenix has to offer, right? I mean, I have been to Phoenix, but it's just the notion... I'm excited to do a convention at the right time at the right place in Phoenix. I know that sounds silly, but that's exciting. And I really think we've been building since that meeting last time in Phoenix to, if you will... I'll say it another way, to get back to where we were. I mean, a lot of organizations are still just getting back from COVID. And I know in what our members do and in what roofing contractors do, none of them really stopped doing work, right? Buildings still had problems, roofs needed to be replaced, buildings needed to be constructed. However, all the work that folks do and engage in with their associations and meetings they go to, not all of that was back 100%.

We saw last year in Houston... So we celebrated our 40th anniversary last year in Houston, and our numbers were fantastic. The meeting was terribly successful, but we were still a few people short of where we had been in Houston the three years prior to that. And what I'm excited about is I think really our meetings continuing to get... Lots of folks are interested, we've had lots of interest from exhibitors. We are within one or two exhibitors of beating last year's square footage for the trade show, which for the folks, that's an important thing. We're excited about that.

And I just think IIBEC's got a lot of good things that are going on. We're providing a lot of good education, we've got... As I alluded to, we've got this new focus on some commissioning and we have a new credential for that. So we'll at least celebrate the fact that we've got new credential holders in this new commissioning credential, which we've got 24 of them now, or 25 of them, which is fantastic already. So right from zero to 25 in one year, which is pretty exciting. So that's exciting.

We do have, I think will be an interesting keynote speaker. Nikki Greenberg is, I guess, a lapsed architect. Maybe she wouldn't like my terminology of that. But she has training in architecture and she's going to present... Her subject matter is The Future of Building Enclosures, Robotics, Moondust and More. And really, she's really focused on the next wave of technology that's going to affect all of us. And we got a session at our meeting, at our Building Enclosure Symposium last fall, on artificial intelligence. And she's going to build a little bit on that. And just the idea of how we... A couple of things, like how we incorporate all that technology into what we're doing in roofing, walls, waterproofing, et cetera. Use it to improve what we're providing to the owners, number one. And also she's going to talk a little bit about how we engage and attract the next generation of talent to this profession and to this industry.

Megan Ellsworth: Good.

Brian Pallasch: I know talking to IIBEC members, there's a couple of constants. One, everyone is very busy, which is great, we like to hear that. But all of them could use to hire more people. And I think that runs the gamut of people that are manufacturing the roofing materials and wall materials that our people use, to the contractors you talk to who are trying to get the jobs done, and certainly the consultants that need more hands on to design and inspect and do the work that they do on these projects.

So any tips that folks can bring us, and I think Nikki's going to bring us some ideas, will be fantastic. Some of that is going to be leveraging this new technologies that we can use, but it's also, some of those new technologies are going to, I think, spur young people to enter this profession and this industry. 'Cause some of this stuff is cool, and when it's applied it'll be great for... It'll make it more interesting to certain people to come to this profession.

And then a couple of other things, I will wax on and on, but it's our meeting and I'm excited about it. It's a fun time and a good... Number one, just the networking that goes on is tremendous and it's really great. We're doing one sort of new networking event this year, on the Sunday night we're doing a reception for our younger professionals, which we're really focused on engaging with them and seeing how IIBEC can better serve them as a subset of our membership. So we have a special reception for them, it's one hour long. We're seeking sponsors for that reception if anyone has interest, it's a relatively modest sponsorship. But the idea just being to engage and bring those folks together, and listen to them and chat with them and thank them for being a part of an organization.

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah. [inaudible 00:20:23].

Brian Pallasch: So those are the main things. What's that?

Megan Ellsworth: And encourage more young people to join and come and experience events like this. That's so important. So...

Brian Pallasch: Absolutely.

Megan Ellsworth: Well, this sounds like it's going to be a really great show. So where can people register to attend, and maybe talking about the awards luncheon, where can people register to put themselves in the running for the awards?

Brian Pallasch: So, the awards stuff is closed for this year, unfortunately. So we're done, 'cause you got to make the awards, you understand that. But if they're interested we certainly... Basically I think the deadlines were just... I'm going to assume that the deadlines are going to be the middle of November for 2024, so that's for next year.

But as I said earlier, the convention website is pretty simple. It's just iibecconvention.org, or you can go to iibec.org. The entire schedule is up there, all the education sessions and networking events. If you register by February 12th, so a pre-Valentine's Day registration, you can save $100.

I will say this, probably for those folks that are interested or on the fence, hotel rooms will likely sell out. That seems to be a thing that happens at IIBEC meetings, our hotel blocks sold out last year. We had to scramble and get people more rooms. We will have the trade show. So folks who are interested in the trade show, and maybe you're just in the Phoenix area and you don't want to partake of all the education but you just want to come by the trade show, the exhibit hall is open on Saturday, March 9th and Sunday, March 10th.

I would note, a little shout out for you guys, you guys are going to be at the trade show. We're excited about that. You guys are going to be in Booth 839. I actually have that number, so...

Megan Ellsworth: Oh, perfect.

Brian Pallasch: A little bird told me. So, you guys, we look forward to seeing RoofersCoffeeShop there. And I think it's just going to be... It'll be an exciting event. I think it will showcase what we're doing at IIBEC from an association standpoint. We have redone our strategic plan and we're really focused on four different areas. One is just the value of IIBEC to our members and to the community out there, and so we've focused a lot on that. We're focused on advocacy, which we're not going to talk about today, but making sure that we're advocating on behalf of our members at all levels of government, Canada, US, et cetera.

The credentials, which I talked about, which lots of folks that listen to this probably have an RRO or an RRC or one of our seven credentials. So there'll be a focus on that. And I talked about the new credential we have on commissioning. And then lastly, just this whole idea of knowledge transfer. Anyone involved in this industry and this profession is better by the knowledge that we share. And so I think IIBEC's Convention has really staked out a place where we are a key focus or a key place to get that cutting-edge education that you need to succeed, whether you're a roofing contractor, certainly a consultant for building enclosures and a manufacturer.

So we want to continue that, and we're excited to see everyone who's going to be there in Phoenix. Geez, it's really about six or seven weeks. I don't want to say that too loud. Luckily my staff can't hear that. The staff can't hear that, 'cause I know they're busy working while their boss got to come to this meeting in Hawaii, so...

Megan Ellsworth: Oh man. Yeah, six, seven weeks, it's coming up. It'll be here right before me know it. And everyone that's listening, go to the website and register, get your hotel rooms booked. This is definitely a convention you do not want to miss.

So Brian, thank you so much for sharing all the goodies and talking about the convention and everything we should be looking forward to. It's been really awesome and eye-opening and exciting.

Brian Pallasch: You're welcome. It was great to talk to you.

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah, it was great to talk to you too.

For everyone out there listening, make sure you hit subscribe and get notified when we upload our next episode. This has been Roofing Road Trips with Roofer's Coffee Shop, and hopefully we'll see you at the IBEC 2024 Convention and Trade Show.

Outro: Make sure to subscribe to our channel and leave a review. Thanks for listening. This has been Roofing Road Trips with Heidi from the rooferscoffeeshop.com.