The two-year-old Dirt World Summit, started in 2023 by BuildWitt and sponsored by Ariat, is taking the construction workforce by storm in all the best ways. Debuting with an attendance of 750 registrants—including exhibitors, speakers and audience members—Dirt World nearly doubled its registration just one year later, a shock to no one as the skilled-labor shortage and generational talent gap grow. From Milwaukee to Procore to Sargent, from 1st Phorm to Youturn to the Texas Department of Transportation and beyond, this year’s Dirt World Summit convened not only an array of players within the construction industry, but also those tangential to it, in San Antonio to talk about the industry’s leading workforce challenges.
It is an apt adage that the construction industry is not a business of building but rather a business of people—and the Dirt World Summit wants to show that it is a business of building people. “Take care of your workers and the work takes care of itself,” author and emcee Marcus Sheridan stated as he took the Dirt World stage on opening day. It’s nothing earth-shattering, but the sentiment is nonetheless impactful—and is exactly what Dirt World attendees came to hear. BuildWitt founder Aaron Witt said it himself: “None of this is groundbreaking. Go out of your way, meet new people, share something, learn something.” Entrepreneur, author and rapper Jesse Itzler echoed that simple, yet powerful notion when he took the stage and said, “The one thing everybody wants [to get out of this week] is mindset.”
With that in mind, Sheridan closed out the welcoming ceremony with these words of encouragement: “Get out of your comfort zone, get out and meet someone. The value is going to come very likely in the conversation you have with that person in the hallway.”
What then does taking care of your workforce entail if not something mind-blowing? Dirt World speakers addressed it all, from physical to mental, emotional to financial and more. Here are the top takeaways:
Chadd Wright, Founder, 3 of 7 Project
“Pick something every year that scares the ever-living crap out of you.”
“If your business is the same size as my business, I don’t want to have a conversation with you. Mywhole life I have had a desire to be around people who are so much better than me; your job is to become that person for the people around you, for your team, for your business, for the sake of this nation. You have a job to do and it matters, and it doesn’t just matter for you.”
Sal Frisella, CEO, 1st Phorm International
“If you don’t communicate, you’ll be the only guy in a ski suit on the beach.”
“If you want to change the world you have to change yourself first. If we are going to change the culture of our organizations, we have to change ourselves, we have to look in the mirror.”
“The best way to curate culture inside an organization is to make sure you express humility on a daily basis. It doesn’t matter what car you drive, I matters how you treat your car.”
“Clear communication allows you to go a lot faster because you don’t have to go back and correct.”
“Collective responsibility is in the little things, because those will bleed into the big things.”
Herb Sargent, Founder, Sargent Corporation
“You don’t have to say I love you. You have to act it.”
“‘The best equipment is useless without great people to run it’ is what my grandfather would say. People are working capital. Our investment in people pretty much equals what we do financially.”
“We are staring in the face of an incredible opportunity right now. We have momentum for our workforce, not just for the benefit of us, but for the benefit of the society in which we work and for which we serve.”
Ken Simonson, Chief Economist, AGC
On the election: “The major challenges will be the ones you’re already dealing with every day: finding talent, retaining talent, upgrading skills, getting jobs done with fewer workers.”
“We are so far short of having [that] robust pipeline of workers needed in construction, manufacturing, healthcare. Restrictive and hostile immigration policies are threats to construction and also to economic growth. I’m confident most of the money that was promised under IIJA, Chips and IRA will still be there and give a boost to construction in 2025. If there is action to roll it back, it won’t hit until 2026 or even later. Most things are going to stay as-is, but we could be in for a surprise. I expect the economy to keep growing, construction to do well and be profitable.”
To learn more about the Dirt World Summit and get involved, visit dirtworld.com.
SEE ALSO: DIRT NERD: HOW AARON WITT BUILT HIS MULTIMILLION-DOLLAR CONSTRUCTION MEDIA COMPANY BEFORE AGE 30
