The Bottom Line: Conference ROI

Posted on October 15, 2009

You’re keeping a close eye on costs this year and you’re not sure that the ACCA Annual Conference and Indoor Air Expo is going to make it into the 2010 budget.

But imagine for a second that your investment in this targeted HVACR contracting education resulted in a 20 percent jump in your gross profit margin? Or a 200 percent increase in productivity per employee? What would that do to your 2010 budget numbers?

These numbers may seem like a stretch, but there’s plenty of research in the marketplace that contends that while traveling for conferences and trade shows may be a painful expenditure when cash is tight, a down economy is actually the perfect time to breathe new life into your company.

“Firms that invest $1,500 per employee in training compared with those that spend $125 experience an average of 24 percent higher gross profit margins and 218 percent higher revenue per employee,” according to officials at Howard Community College, Columbia, MD, citing Laurie J. Bassi et al. ("Profiting From Learning: Do Firms' Investments in Education and Training Pay Off?" American Society for Training and Development, 2000).

Closer to HVACR home, plenty of contractors are looking to ACCA’s 42nd Annual Conference and Expo as a springboard for 2010 and making it through the remainder of these pinched economic times.

"Now is the best time to sharpen the saw,” says David Kyle, general manager, Trademasters Service Corp., Newington, VA. “Now more than ever, it’s important to do this stuff because you can—you have the time. When you’re not as busy, you’ve got to keep an eye on other parts of the business.”

Kyle points out that during the booming years of 2006 and 2007, contractors were often so busy that businesses practices got lax, spending habits might have been a bit loose, and companies just didn’t have the time to invest in retaining the best employees. Now’s the time to get better, he says, which is why he plans to arm his company with tools and information at ACCA’s annual conference and expo.

“If you pull back now and you’re not ready when the market hits, you’re going to be playing catch up for the next year or two,” he says. “I’m actually excited for the next upswing, because I know I’m in the driver’s seat this time.”

The excuses are valid—but what will likely separate companies at the other side of the downturn is which ones gave into the excuses, and which ones continued to prioritize future growth. “Business as we know it has not come to an end, things will start up again, even if right now feels like a holding pattern,” writes one blogger who addresses common excuses to skimp on training. “On the other side of the current crisis, the wisest of us will be retooled, with a well-trained, re-invigorated work force, distribution channel, or volunteer base, ready to take on new challenges.”

For more information about the powerful re-tooling workshops included in this year’s conference, click here.