Construction is the very foundation of the modern landscape, with roads, housing, and businesses needing construction in order to thrive. Because of this need, industry professionals and educators gathered in Bemidji on Wednesday for a conference centered around the future of construction.

“North Country Vocational Cooperative Center has brought teachers from around the region to meet with both industry professionals and different members of post-secondary also, St. Cloud State, Bemidji State, and Northwest Technical College is also here tonight,” explained Bemidji High School construction trades teacher Tony Hommes.

Much of the event was focused on the many subfields that construction can provide to an up-and-comer hoping to get into the industry.

“There’s not just one end game when you wanna go in the construction field,” aid Knife River Ready-mix Division sales member Dan Bennett. “There’s several different avenues and going one way to start with may take you somewhere else actually at the end.”

“It’s really about exposing students to, ‘Hey, these are the careers that are out there and you need to try to find what’s of interest to you,'” said St. Cloud State Environmental and Technological faculty member Kurt Helgeson.

Besides being a meet-up for those in the construction industry, it was also meant to showcase the latest innovations in construction technology.

“We’ve got some great things to show these folks coming out from the teachers to the business personnel and end users alike,” said Milwaukee Tools senior national accounts manager Peter Carlson.

Ultimately, while showcasing flashy tools and brick laying robots was certainly a draw to this event, at the end of the day, it was meant to show educators what fields their students might someday break ground in.

“This just really opens up the doors to show ’em, there’s several avenues that you can go and not everybody needs to go down that same route, and just getting that message out to teachers that they can relay onto the students.” said Bennett.

By — Justin Othoudt