Learning from Austin luminaries

We’ve been spending the last couple of days in Austin, a splendid place to get our leaders together and think about the futures of the places we serve. Not wanting to miss an opportunity to learn, we invited a few guests to come and talk to us about their home town. Surprisingly, there were striking parallels between what our guests spoke about in terms of growth and our own experiences. 

Some of our takeaways from what our guests shared were:

• excitement and anticipation with funding and policy alignment to enhance mobility in Austin;
• concern and a need to fresh thinking on rising construction inflation (not just in Austin but throughout the US);
• a need to make project risk sharing attractive to the design and construction sector (progressive DB, CMGC in, high risk transfer to private out);
• a workforce development challenge to match the ambition of the funding available for infrastructure. Not just where the engineers and construction folks are coming from but who’s going to operate new assets; and
• a desire to learn and apply lessons from elsewhere to the unique opportunities in Austin.

Thanks to all our guests for their leadership and sharing their time this week.