The 2025 AMCA/MCAA Annual Scholarship winner, Michael Snook from Centigrade, has shared a summary of his experience attending the MCAA 2026 MEP Innovation Conference in Austin, Texas.

Run by MCAA, SMACNA and NECA, the conference focused on how mechanical, electrical, and plumbing contractors are responding to the current state of the MEP industry in the USA. 

Read Michael's summary below:

It was eye-opening to engage with peers throughout the course of the conference, and to discuss methods and lessons learned surrounding the various issues our industry is facing. 

• The US mechanical industry appears future-focused and industry leaders are unafraid of employing new technologies (including AI)
• Leading mechanical contractors are employing senior managers to lead changes and employ new technologies, focusing on top to bottom systemic evolution and creating SOPs to capture new ways of doing things.
• It was surprising to learn that although the outcomes and objectives of our industry remain the same, the ways in which the US achieve them differs from Australia in many ways. Examples of this include:
  •  The use of local unions as a centralised labour pool and training providers for upcoming projects.
  • The blending of demarcations between project stages, for example:
    • The leading American mechanical contractors use specialised software to streamline mechanical drawings into their in-house duct and pipe fabrication.
    • The use of software to forecast labour and resource requirements over the course of a project.
  • The focus on prefabrication and trying to do as much work as possible onsite.
• The results of employing software to integrate each work element across the course of the project was impressive.

In summary, I left the conference with a new-found understanding of the future of the industry and an appreciation of the magnitude of what can be achieved when companies align their goals and make marginal improvements year on year.

- Michael Snook, Centigrade