Start your May off with the 56th Annual MBCEA Conference

By Emma Peterson.

It’s time to head to Charlotte, North Carolina because you do not want to miss this year’s MBCEA Conference.

Every year, the Metal Building Contractors & Erectors Association (MBCEA) hosts a conference full of educational opportunities, networking spaces and an exhibitor floor. This year the conference will be hosted at the Sheraton Le Meridien Hotel in Charlotte, North Carolina from Wednesday, May 7 to Friday, May 9, 2025. Recently, Megan Ellsworth sat down with Sasha Demyan, the executive director of MBCEA, and Robert Tiffin, MBCEA’s president, for a MetalCast about the upcoming conference.  

Sasha gave a bit of an overview of what attendees can expect, saying, “There will be educational sessions, networking sessions, an exhibit hall and a golf tournament. It's a time to rekindle old friendships and make new ones. This is the opportunity to have face-to-face time with your peers, your customers and your suppliers.” This is truly the moment for the metal building system sector to come together to grow as an industry, especially as the MBCEA conference is sharing the space with the Metal Building Manufacturers Association (MBMA)’s Spring Meeting this year.  

The agenda is packed with things like the return of the popular Field Personnel and Management education session tracks. Sasha explained, “These tracks are each specific to either running your business or training field personnel. So you can bring several employees from your company to gain education and information relevant to the role that they play.” On the field personnel side, there are incredible presentations to look forward to, like Craig Schafer of Safety Works’ OSHA fall protection talk.  

For managers, there are great opportunities to talk to MBMA members, manufacturers and suppliers about the larger happenings in the industry, like litigation risks. Robert shared a bit about how this plays out, saying, “We make round tables. This is where the folks that are making the buildings and the people that are putting them up get an opportunity to have the healthy conversation of what is needed in the sector to deliver a quality product.” This year, the MBCEA team has reimagined this session a bit. Where it used to be a panel, they are getting attendees more involved than ever. Robert explained, “Each individual table will be having a conversation and presenting it to the floor. It’s a little more organic this way and we’re hoping to create better conversations.”  

Read the transcript or Listen to the episode for more about the MBCEA’s 56th annual conference.