ALH Conference program finalized

The speaking roster is now confirmed for the third Access, Lift & Handlers Conference & Awards (ALH C&A), Oct. 12, at the Marriott Biscayne Bay in Miami.

Kicking the morning off will be keynote speaker Michael Kneeland, president and chief executive officer of United Rentals. Kneeland will touch upon the theme of the event – Aerial platform rentals: Planning for the future – with his talk about the evolution of the equipment rental industry. With two recent major acquisitions (NES Rentals and Neff Rental) under United’s belt, the presentation is sure to spark conversation.

Following the keynote will be Ken Simonson, chief economist of the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) who will present about current construction market trends and outlooks.

Earlier this year, Simonson said he was optimistic about prospects for the U.S. economy and construction with contractors generally “upbeat” and order books reasonably full.

“It will be spotty in terms of business segments that are growing. And there is a huge amount of uncertainty that didn’t exist [before the Presidential election],” Simonson told Access Lift & Handlers (ALH) magazine, “But contractors are still mostly upbeat and order books are reasonably full, for building contractors in particular. On the highways side it is more limited.”

Further topics will cover the following:

Rental management and market trends

• Rental finance: How to attract investment funding - Henry Kirn, Founder/Senior Consultant, BeyondIR Consulting Services
• Rental mergers & acquisitions: strategic drivers and trends – David Felts, Managing Director, TM Capital Corp.
• Waste management & environmental concerns in rental operations – Stephen Huyzk, Vice President of Sales, Quest Resource Management Group

Future technologies

• Future technologies and the access business: Robert Messina, Senior VP, Engineering & Technology, Chief Technology Officer, Oshkosh Corp
• Maximizing efficiency of rental operations using mobile technology: Jim Green, CEO, Spartan Solutions
• New rental models for the future - Nabil Kassam, Chairman and CEO, Noble Iron and KJ Park, VP Growth & Strategy, Noble Iron

Safety and training

• Contractors’ attitudes toward safety and building a safety culture – Donna Laquidara-Carr, Industry Insights Research Director, Dodge Data & Analytics
• ANSI standards changes and rental business: What is going to change? – Teresa Kee, Corporate Director, Field Safety, United Rentals
• Virtual reality technology and its impact on operator training – Giles Councell, Director of Operations, International Powered Access Federation (IPAF)

The event will also include an awards dinner in the evening.

Reserve your place by booking at www.alh-ca.com.

Gold sponsors for the event are: JLG Industries, Perkins and Skyjack. The Silver sponsor is Genie. JCB is the Lunch sponsor, and Supporting sponsors are Haulotte, Hy-Brid Lifts/Customer Equipment and RentalYard.