PCCA Celebrates 80th Annual Convention with Packed Program

Nearly 450 Power & Communication Contractors Association (PCCA) members, family and friends traveled to the Grand Hyatt Scottsdale Resort in Arizona to celebrate the association’s 80th Annual Convention.

And while PCCA members always enjoy a good party, what keeps them coming back in big numbers is the quality program. This year’s focus was on advocacy, safety, education and workforce development. Members also attended to association business, explored Scottsdale and the Sonoran Desert, awarded scholarships, inducted two industry luminaries into its Hall of Fame, and networked throughout the week.

Fiber

Soon after November’s elections, PCCA leadership started hearing a lot of negative talk about the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program and its slow rollout by the Biden administration, and they identified its survival of the as the number one short-term threat to our industry.

PCCA promptly engaged a highly connected PR firm and began work on an aggressive campaign, the BEAD Barrier Break Down Agenda, with the tagline Deploy Broadband, Not Bureaucracy. During the Government Issues Panel during the convention, members were updated on the ongoing work and several positive developments.

Former Senator David Vitter (R-La.) has been working with PCCA on the campaign, and during the panel he explained our strategy with the Trump administration: “Let’s actually do the build out. Let’s actually put shovels in the ground and do what the Biden administration was never competent enough to do.”

Safety

One of PCCA’s top priorities is damage prevention. Each year it holds an Excavation Safety Summit along with the Common Ground Alliance and NULCA, the association of locating professionals. PCCA Past Chair Jerrod Henschel, Mears Broadband, moderated the event and gave this advice to contractors: get involved in CGA, submit your data to DIRT, and consider joining the Damage Prevention Institute.

Education

This year’s convention included the Leadership Development Program on the Power of Effective Teams, a keynote speech on the Future of Leadership, the Utility Construction Market Overview from FMI’s Chris Daum, the Economic Issues Panel with Continuum Capital’s Mark Bridgers and FMI’s Dan Shumate, and the Annual Associates Exhibit, where contractors learn about the latest products and services in the industry.

During his talk, Chris Daum discussed the ridiculously slow rollout of BEAD by the Biden administration. “Put another way, imagine a seventh grader in Mississippi, where 60 to 70 percent of the population has no access to the internet….,” he said. “You could have been in middle school, with the promise of your community having broadband built, and you will graduate from high school and have never seen it. That’s an entire lost generation of education.”

The Education Issues Panel encompassed PCCA’s all-of-the-above strategy for workforce development, proving members with reports on technical school partnerships, registered apprenticeships through the Learning Alliance Corporation and TIRAP, the Dura-Line Academy, and the PCCA Education & Research Foundation.

PCCA Honorees

On the final night of the convention, members honored outgoing Chair Matt Gabrielse, Gabe’s Construction Co., with the 2025 PCCA Distinguished Service Award and welcomed new Chair Rob Pribyl, MP Nexlevel, and new officers Chair-Elect, Craig Amerine, 1st Vice Chair Heath Sellenriek, 2nd Vice Chair Chase Lapcinski, Treasurer John Audi, and Secretary Garrett Akin.

And finally, the association honored two industry legends by inducting them into the PCCA Hall of Fame: Todd Myers, Kenneth G. Myers Construction Co., and Larry Pribyl, MP Nexlevel.

PCCA’s next meeting is its 2025 Mid-Year, Sept. 17-20 at the JW Marriott in Savannah, Georgia.

SOURCE – PCCA