September 2026 - An Idea That Exceeded Our Expectations

Earlier this year, as we were preparing to open registration for IMUA’s first Advanced Builders Risk Forum, I had a goal in mind: 100 attendees. I thought that if we could get 100 people to attend a brand-new event focused on a subset of our industry, that would be a success.

To say it has been a remarkable few months would be quite the understatement, as we ended up more than doubling that number, coming within just a handful of registrations of filling every seat we had available. That is a pretty incredible result for an event that didn’t exist a year ago!

This week, those attendees are gathering in Northern Virginia for two days of what is arguably the most comprehensive builders risk education IMUA has ever offered. The sessions cover issues that are very much in front of the market right now: power and energy systems supporting data centers, NFPA 241 and construction fires, commissioning risk, site security technology, data center capacity and accumulation, wood-frame construction, reinsurance and emerging trends among general contractors.

We also wanted this Forum to be different from a traditional conference. Thanks to HITT Contracting, some of our attendees will get out of the meeting room altogether and onto an active construction site. HITT also helped us arrange access to a data center currently under construction, which is no small feat given how difficult it is to gain access to these projects. I’m very grateful to Chase Leist and the HITT team for opening those doors for us!

But what I’ve enjoyed most about watching this Forum come together is how it started.

The idea wasn’t mine, and it didn’t come from the IMUA staff. It came from Dustin Jones, a longtime board and committee member. Just before our 2025 Annual Meeting, Dustin approached with an idea. He felt there was room for a different kind of builders risk program: smaller and more focused than our Annual Meeting, but with advanced technical content and opportunities to see real construction risks firsthand.

We liked the idea, and Dustin never let it go. He chaired the planning committee. He worked with the group to select topics. He helped find speakers and identify possible sites for tours. He reached out to sponsors and brought in an incredible amount of support for a first-year event. And throughout the entire process, he kept asking what else he could do to help move it forward. I can say without hesitation that this Forum would not have happened without Dustin’s leadership.

It also took an enormous amount of work from our staff. Lillian Colson has led the effort internally as the project manager and has spent more hours than I can count working through hotel arrangements, vendors, transportation, hard hats and all of the other details that come with trying something for the first time. Eileen Monreale has been on dozens of calls with our presenters helping pull together eight separate education sessions. Allie Monreale has handled the promotions, registration, tour lotteries, website and Cvent app. And Kayla Cook, despite being the newest member of our team, jumped into the middle of it and immediately took on many of the complicated aspects surrounding the tours and venue logistics. I could also thank many others: our incredible planning committee, speakers, sponsors, and everyone who volunteered time or made an introduction that helped us along the way.

One of the things this experience has reinforced for me is that our staff is not going to come up with every good idea for this association, and I’d argue that shouldn’t be the goal. The people in our membership are underwriting these risks, brokering them, engineering them, adjusting claims and working with clients every day. They are often going to see an emerging issue or an unmet need before we do.

Part of our job at IMUA is to listen when they do. If a member comes to us with a good idea, we want to be an organization that can help turn it into something real. Sometimes that may be a webinar. Sometimes it might lead to a new educational program, a committee initiative or something we haven’t thought of yet. And occasionally, as Dustin proved, that idea might turn into a brand-new event that nearly sells out in its first year.

We are doing a lot right now to expand the way IMUA serves the industry. Our new Foundations of Inland Marine certification is being developed to provide a strong foundation for professionals earlier in their careers. The Advanced Builders Risk Forum is almost the other end of that spectrum: experienced professionals getting into the technical details of some of the most complicated risks in the market.

I’m incredibly excited about both, but I’m just as excited about where the next idea might come from. If you see something IMUA should be doing, I hope you’ll share it with us.

Matt