# Event Highlight: CEBA — The Big Question Is Not How We Build Today. It’s How We Build Next.
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At the 43rd CEBA Conference & Expo in Palm Springs, I spent my keynote focused on a phrase that I think captures one of the biggest changes underway in construction: Methodology modification. The question is no longer simply how we can make today’s construction methods a little better. The bigger question is: what will tomorrow’s construction method actually look like? CEBA’s members operate in the world of sophisticated controlled-environment facilities — complex, high-performance projects where precision, reliability and execution matter enormously. At the same time, the sector is dealing with labor shortages, cost pressure and a rapid wave of new construction technology. That creates the perfect conditions for reinvention. Robotics are beginning to take on more repeatable, precise and labor-intensive tasks. More assembly can move into factory-like environments where quality and consistency can be controlled more effectively. BIM continues to become more central to planning and coordination. Digital twins allow teams to model, simulate and improve facilities before and after construction. Drones add new capability for surveying, inspection, measurement and project visibility. Each of those technologies is interesting on its own. The real story is what happens when they begin to come together. That convergence changes the methodology of construction itself. It changes where work takes place, how projects are planned, the skills the workforce requires and the assumptions leaders use when they think about productivity. That was the point I wanted the Palm Springs audience to take away. Too often, organizations try to use tomorrow’s technology to make yesterday’s method slightly more efficient. That misses the larger opportunity. A major technological transition should cause us to ask whether the method itself is becoming obsolete. My challenge to CEBA’s members was straightforward: Do not simply ask how to improve today’s method. Ask what tomorrow’s method will be — and begin aligning to it now. Because the future of advanced facility construction will not simply involve better tools. It will involve entirely new ways of building. Read the full keynote case study, or explore more event highlights.

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Source: https://jimcarroll.com/2023/12/event-highlight-ceba-2023/