Episode Transcript
[00:00:22] Speaker A: It's a sometimes Ashley event.
[00:00:24] Speaker B: It is a tis.
[00:00:25] Speaker A: You can tell because Ashley's on the mic.
[00:00:27] Speaker C: Here I am.
[00:00:29] Speaker A: Jimmy is in Florida at the Florida Natural Gas association spring meetings.
[00:00:38] Speaker B: He's very important over there.
[00:00:39] Speaker A: He is. He's a big deal. It's his home state which we always. We all have our home states. Mine is Oklahoma.
[00:00:47] Speaker B: Is it?
[00:00:49] Speaker A: I guess something happened. I made so many Oklahoma jokes and anybody that knows me, especially the people in Oklahoma that I spend time with. Oklahoma Gas association folks. Okie folks. I always make jokes. Ashley. I've said she's from Oklahoma, which she practically is. And then now I'm basically from Oklahoma. I'm as close as you can get. They just won't let me in.
But we are not in Oklahoma today. We are in Louisiana.
[00:01:18] Speaker B: Your Oklahoma jokes are kind of funny because being from Sherman half of the teaching staff at my high school was from Oklahoma. So the Red River Rivalry is very strong over there. So it's kind of funny. Who knew it would be your home.
[00:01:31] Speaker A: State for events which I saw. What's her name? From Texas 811. I'm gonna put us both on the spot.
[00:01:37] Speaker B: Texas 811.
[00:01:38] Speaker A: Yeah. I'm saying while I was in Oklahoma last year she was at the tina. Yeah. Is that who it is? I don't know.
[00:01:46] Speaker B: You're the one that saw her.
[00:01:47] Speaker A: No, the one that's from Oklahoma like you.
[00:01:49] Speaker B: 00000 I know. Oh.
[00:01:52] Speaker A: All right. We'll come back to that. I'm sorry. That's a burn.
We'll look that up while we're sitting here.
But saw her last week and I was in Oklahoma which made it even funnier. And I saw her across the room and I thought wait a second. Isn't that the one from Oklahoma?
[00:02:12] Speaker B: But she's not from. Okay.
[00:02:13] Speaker A: But she's not. She's from Texas and she's from Texas 811. And so she didn't. She saw me and kind of smiled because I know she was thinking the same thing. She was at my session the next day sitting front row. And so I went up to her and I said I thought you weren't from Oklahoma. And sure enough here we are.
[00:02:36] Speaker B: Wasn't you from like sulfur Springs?
[00:02:37] Speaker A: I don't know. I thought y'all were from the same exact place.
[00:02:40] Speaker B: No.
[00:02:41] Speaker A: Yeah. We're talking about high schools and stuff. I'm sorry. I cannot think of.
[00:02:44] Speaker B: You're like recalling some things that didn't happen. Seemed many moons ago now.
[00:02:50] Speaker A: Now we're both on LinkedIn trying to figure out who it was.
[00:02:52] Speaker B: What was her name?
[00:02:54] Speaker A: I mean. I don't know.
We're gonna have to start over.
[00:02:57] Speaker B: Sarah.
[00:02:58] Speaker D: Gosh.
[00:02:59] Speaker A: Good save there, Sarah.
[00:03:01] Speaker B: Man, sorry.
[00:03:02] Speaker A: Sarah. Like, she probably doesn't listen anyway.
[00:03:05] Speaker B: She's not one of the three subscribers.
[00:03:07] Speaker A: Yeah, we're at the global excavation safety conference, which is neat, because two, three weeks ago, we were in Banff, Jimmy and I at utility safety partners, and there's an overlap there, and they kind of partnered for both of the events. I don't understand the dynamic completely. Maybe we can ask that today, maybe after this week. But Mike Sullivan and Scott Landis and their groups, they do a lot of stuff together, and so it's neat to be here because a lot of those folks were there. We saw the Pelican court people this morning at breakfast. Shout out to them.
We had several of them on in Banff, so we've been following them around. I think I heard them say that when we were leaving. Are you all following us? We are.
We were just here at AmP.
[00:03:55] Speaker B: Yeah, this place was a fast turnaround. This place was packed.
[00:03:59] Speaker A: Yeah. There's another conference just down the space, and there's something like 15,000 people here. So this place is buzzing as a whole with just activity. The downtown area. If you haven't been to New Orleans, we learned last week from our Uber driver, our taxi driver, that this is, like, the third largest venue.
[00:04:22] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:04:23] Speaker A: Or second largest in the US, behind.
[00:04:26] Speaker B: Las Vegas and Atlanta. Atlanta.
[00:04:29] Speaker A: And so that's kind of cool. I didn't know that.
[00:04:31] Speaker B: I didn't know that either.
[00:04:32] Speaker A: And so seeing the space, though, I think you walk a mile, mile and a half inside the space.
[00:04:39] Speaker B: Makes sense, though. They've got New Orleans built, a host plastered all over the place, downtown area.
[00:04:44] Speaker A: So great food here. We had dragos last night. It's just like a staple. You stay at the riverside, can't go wrong. You're gonna eat charboat oysters. It's just what it is.
We saw a bunch of friends already.
[00:04:57] Speaker B: We did. We've seen, like you said, the Pelican Corp group. It looks like our friends from Trident are gonna be here.
[00:05:05] Speaker A: Yep. Nick. We'll see Nick. I was texting with him yesterday. He's supposed to get in today. It's still set up right now. We're actually in the quiet here. Quiet before the storm. We're about to slide up and catch some sessions. Art of storytelling is about to.
[00:05:21] Speaker B: I'm actually excited to sit in.
[00:05:22] Speaker A: Ashley and I are both gonna grab that one.
[00:05:24] Speaker B: Yeah, we're sitting right here in the demo.
[00:05:26] Speaker A: Area.
[00:05:26] Speaker B: I don't think we've said that yet, but there's gonna be a lot of activity going on around us with electricity.
[00:05:32] Speaker A: Fiber splicing beside us. You said the arcing. Also, kinder Morgan has their. I'm gonna call it a boombox.
I think it is. I think that's what she called it. Okay, well, we're getting a scoop on that. Just a little bit of a spoiler alert, is we. We are going to like stuff going on all around us, people setting up.
We are going to do, hopefully, a full episode about the boombox. That's probably not the name of it, but with kinder, Morgan, and Molly and Mark. We met Mark this morning, so that's going to be cool. I'm excited about that. We brought our hard hats. We're basically professionals at this point.
[00:06:14] Speaker B: We are. But I will say the hard hats have been a conversation piece already in the last two days. We got questioned how many times at the airport just coming here.
[00:06:22] Speaker A: Yeah, we had them on our backpacks as we traveled yesterday, and they were quite the conversation piece.
[00:06:32] Speaker B: They are pretty.
[00:06:33] Speaker A: They are. They're beautiful. You can totally tell we don't work. You got yours from mine. Phil Wiggers, Egw, dropped it for me about a month ago. It doesn't even have a sticker on it yet. I just. I don't know what to do it. It's so beautiful. I just don't know what to do. So shout out to them for that. And then yours is from Texas 811.
[00:06:56] Speaker B: Yeah, I won that.
[00:06:57] Speaker A: Yeah, it's pretty sharp.
[00:06:58] Speaker B: I won that.
[00:06:59] Speaker A: Looks like a dip coat on it or something. And then it has like a chrome band around it. I don't know. It's a little pretentious. Yeah, you can tell. Also, she's never had it out in the field. Both of ours. I laughed this morning. Mine has a white mark on the top because I knocked it on the side of my hotel door, I promise you, has nothing to do. So we're looking to get out. Needless to say, I appreciate the group here at excavation Safety alliance. They invited us out to capture this event and then put us right here, dead center in the demo area, which is always cool. There's also some outside demos, I believe.
Big shindig coming up.
[00:07:40] Speaker B: Second line should be kind of cool.
[00:07:42] Speaker A: Yeah, that's right.
[00:07:43] Speaker B: That kicks off the shindig, right?
[00:07:45] Speaker A: It is. We should probably know when these things happen.
[00:07:48] Speaker B: It's tomorrow.
[00:07:49] Speaker A: Yeah. Reception tonight.
[00:07:51] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:07:51] Speaker A: And then tomorrow is the second line into the shindig. If you're not familiar, which we're not.
Basically, like, almost like a parade. They have a band. They take you from one area to another. So it's kind of a tradition in New Orleans. So we'll be doing that. And then Thursday, we probably won't be here for everything. There are some locate demos and different things going on, so definitely folks will be checking out that. Also, on Wednesday at the shindig, they're gonna announce the damage prevention hero of the year, which we have a lot of friends up for that.
[00:08:26] Speaker B: I think a few of them are gonna be on the show.
[00:08:28] Speaker A: They are. We're hoping you have all of them on. And then especially the winner of that prestigious award. I know Raymond. Our friend Raymond from Atmos is here, and he's nominated for it. Karen, who I haven't even met.
[00:08:43] Speaker B: I just briefly met her yesterday. But she'll be on the show tomorrow, so hopefully we get to learn a little bit more about her.
[00:08:48] Speaker A: Yeah, and a few others. But those two, we just. We know from the Internet, from LinkedIn.
Well, Jimmy, you are missed.
We will do our best to stand tall here, of all places. New Orleans 2024. Never speak of it again. Never speak of it again, Jimmy. We will do you proud, sir. Ashley. We'll get some folks.
[00:09:13] Speaker B: Yep. I'm ready to kick it off. Let's do it.
[00:09:15] Speaker A: We'll be back.
Well, I kicked my recording partner out. She's out, and you're in, Roger?
[00:09:24] Speaker E: I feel Ashley today.
[00:09:26] Speaker A: Sometimes Ashley, sometimes Roger.
[00:09:29] Speaker F: That's right.
[00:09:30] Speaker A: I'm here with, like, two legends here. I mean, I feel like it. I'm underqualified, but I do have microphones.
[00:09:37] Speaker E: Two legends if I ever saw.
[00:09:41] Speaker A: Do us a favor, you two. Introduce yourself. Who you guys are with?
[00:09:48] Speaker G: Scott Landis, president of Excavation Safety alliance. And been around since the early eighties in one way or another in damage prevention.
[00:09:57] Speaker A: So I've heard of you.
[00:10:00] Speaker E: Roger Cox, president of Acts Axe. Has been around since 2007.
I've been around since a long time ago.
[00:10:08] Speaker A: Long time ago. He turned the lights on, we like to say these two turn the lights on here. We're at global excavation this week by invite from Mister Scott Landis. Appreciate it.
[00:10:19] Speaker H: Ashley.
[00:10:20] Speaker A: Behind the camera over there.
And we were chatting over there, and you said, man, we got exciting stuff going on. And so he scrambled off. Scott, as you could imagine. Scrambled. Roger. Scrambled off, tracked you down and came back. I know you two are excited about what y'all announced yesterday. After the town hall.
Who wants to jump on it?
[00:10:46] Speaker E: Well, it's Scott.
[00:10:47] Speaker A: Oh, great.
[00:10:48] Speaker B: Scott.
[00:10:49] Speaker G: Yeah.
[00:10:50] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:10:50] Speaker G: Well, yeah, we're excited to announce it, you know, starting really in April.
Ax is gonna kind of take the lead on our major initiatives that we've got going because they've got the same exact philosophy in terms of damage prevention and excavation safety. And they got this great infrastructure doing all the state shows and magazines and so it's going to be a really good way to get the global excavation show moving forward. Even better. And magazines, everything we do. It's just really great and awesomely. Whitney is our main person and she's going to stay with Roger. It's just awesome.
[00:11:28] Speaker A: Complete rock star.
[00:11:29] Speaker E: Whitney is, of course, we've got rockstars on our team and Whitney is just another superstar. We're excited. We know she knows what Scott and his team's been doing for quite some time and so we're going to rely on her, obviously, to keep the ball rolling.
[00:11:46] Speaker A: That's awesome. So what will this mean to like, what could folks expect to see? Is that fair to ask? I know it's early, but I'm sure y'all been working on this for a while. What can. What's some of the output that you think people will see initially?
[00:12:01] Speaker E: I think. I think first off, you can expect the show to move to the fall instead of the springtime.
[00:12:08] Speaker A: And it's loaded. These. These springs are loaded.
[00:12:11] Speaker E: Yeah, they really are.
[00:12:12] Speaker A: There are a lot of events going on.
[00:12:14] Speaker E: I think beyond that, we're gonna just try to build on what Scott and the ESA team has done. I mean, you know, they've done a great job for a lot of years now. What we want to do is to, you know, look at it. Try to keep that which he's made successful, try to do it better. Obviously, that's the goal. If he was going to do it, he'd try to do it better too.
[00:12:34] Speaker A: No doubt.
[00:12:35] Speaker E: So that's just what we do. And, you know, beyond that, just engage with a new group of stakeholders that we don't know. Most of them we do, but there's some we don't know and try to engage with them and see if we can find the solutions to these challenges. Faceness.
[00:12:49] Speaker A: Yeah, I love it. Both orgs are great to work with. I've been on the other side, you know, as a vendor and also, I guess, as the show as well. Y'all both been great champions of what we do. Brought us out. We were just with you in Louisiana. I wasn't. But between all of us, we can cover a lot of ground. I love these types of partnerships.
We're here live at global excavation. You're both here.
What's been the most exciting part for each of you? I'll go with you first. Roger, what's been, other than the announcement?
[00:13:23] Speaker E: Well, other than the announcement, it's a drop off.
No offense, everybody else, but actually, I really enjoyed the live town hall yesterday. I sat through that and really good discussion, and what I really liked about it is not everybody on the panel agreed.
[00:13:41] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:13:41] Speaker E: And I think we need to have more disagreement in industry to get where we need to be.
[00:13:45] Speaker A: Frankly, we need a lot more rumbling, if you will. Right. I agree. We can all still be friends after and have a drink if we need to.
[00:13:53] Speaker E: Absolutely.
[00:13:54] Speaker A: We got to have tough conversations.
What about you, Scott?
[00:13:58] Speaker G: Yeah, I agreed. You know, obviously, announcement was a big deal, but I just love the passion, and you can just see it like you were sitting in that town hall. It's this passion that ends with nobody getting mad, typically. Right. Maybe for that instant, sure.
[00:14:13] Speaker A: But.
[00:14:13] Speaker G: But you're all after the same thing, and it's kind of back to my rugby days. It's like you'd play this vicious game with no pads, and then after every match, the host team had a party for the other team. It's like, you know, you're just out there almost killing each other. Now let's go have a beer. And, I mean, that's kind of the vibe, I think, of the industry. We're all trying to do the same time.
[00:14:34] Speaker A: Yeah. I heard good things. We were. We were double booked. We were here recording. Someone has to work, you know? No, but we heard great things. Steve Allen came back, and he was in our ear about it and saying that very thing, and I've heard it multiple times this morning about it, about those tough conversations. We need to have more of them.
Appreciate you, too. Thanks.
Letting us have. I don't know if we got the scoop, because everybody else got it, but we're gonna blast this thing out. I think it's an exciting thing for the industry, exciting for y'all and your teams. Great teams to work with. I can't imagine them working together. Yeah.
[00:15:10] Speaker G: It'll be fun.
[00:15:10] Speaker E: It's gonna be fun. Absolutely.
[00:15:12] Speaker A: Looking forward to it.
[00:15:15] Speaker B: We're here.
[00:15:16] Speaker A: We are. We always are.
[00:15:17] Speaker B: Global excavation 2024.
[00:15:20] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:15:21] Speaker B: And we had someone come up and say, hey, I think I'm supposed to be chatting with y'all.
[00:15:26] Speaker A: We figure it out. We can do things on the fly. It's no big deal.
For those that don't know you, do us a favor. Introduce yourself and who you're with.
[00:15:34] Speaker B: Sure.
[00:15:34] Speaker C: Hi, I'm Kesley Tweed, and I'm with the pipeline association for Public Awareness, or papa as a word commonly known in the industry. Papa.
[00:15:43] Speaker B: Yes. All right.
[00:15:44] Speaker A: Proud papa.
[00:15:45] Speaker B: For those back home that don't know about papa, can you break it down a little bit, like, where y'all mix into the industry and what you're known for?
[00:15:53] Speaker C: Absolutely. So we are a 501 C four nonprofit organization, and we're member driven. Our members are pipeline operators, and so our purpose is to help those operators meet their RP 1162 public awareness compliance requirements. So we do outreach to emergency responders, excavators, and public officials mailings on an annual basis. We're doing more email campaigns now, dipping our toes into geofencing using social media. So we pretty much use all kinds of different strategies to get the word out on how to keep our pipelines, and most importantly, our people in our communities safe.
[00:16:31] Speaker A: Yeah, I love that you mentioned geofencing, and I know we kind of geeked out on an email leading up to this, which brought us here. Right. I know there's an exciting initiative going on in regards to the geofencing. Do you want to talk a little bit about that?
[00:16:44] Speaker B: I would love to.
[00:16:46] Speaker C: Thank you so much. So, yes, we're really excited to be launching our first geofencing program that is specifically for high risk excavators. So if you are a one call center or you are an operator who's had problems in specific areas or with specific excavators, this is your opportunity to reach out to them directly. So what you would do is you would enroll either a county or a specific list of excavators who've either hit your line or you've had near misses with or any kind of, you know, write ups, that naughty list that you might have as an operator or a one call center. Right. Yeah.
So in that, and then what we would do is they would be enrolled in a program where we would geofence those office locations of those excavation companies and give them more information about 811 one call, how to do it safely. So that's how the program works.
[00:17:39] Speaker A: So through a series of notifications, or if you get. So, it's geofence. So I understand that you. You're there, you're on site and boom.
[00:17:48] Speaker C: Yes, exactly.
[00:17:50] Speaker A: Push notification. Like that happens.
[00:17:52] Speaker C: Yes, exactly. So they would get an ad in either a website or an app that they're already using. So, for example, let's say we have an excavator who is a sports fan, and they're checking ESPN.com or ESPN on the app. And so they're getting eight one, one messages delivered right to those channels that they're already using on a daily basis.
[00:18:15] Speaker A: I love it. I see. So it's not necessarily through your own app, it's using the apps and services.
[00:18:20] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:18:22] Speaker C: Meeting them where they are.
[00:18:23] Speaker B: Yes.
That was very cool. Yeah. So we've been asking everyone that's here in regards to damage prevention and what you do. It could be something that is an excitement for you or something that stresses you, but what keeps you up at night about Damien? Oh, wow.
[00:18:40] Speaker C: I like the excitement angle. That's a good one.
I think it's just like really recognizing that we are reaching out to real people with real families doing real jobs. So I actually grew up on a farm, and so that's an audience that really resonates with me. I mean, I think about my brothers, my dad, my uncles, my other family members who are out there. They're working in the fields. They're doing the type of work that could create a damage or could have even worse issues. And our job is to make sure that they have the information they need that they know. Call 811, do it safely. So I like to think about those people who are near and dear to me and expand that out and think about all the people, all the families, all the, you know, communities that we're touching through the work that we do.
[00:19:24] Speaker B: Man, keeps us all.
[00:19:25] Speaker A: Mic drop.
Hey, thank you so much for the work you do.
[00:19:31] Speaker C: Thank you guys for helping.
[00:19:33] Speaker A: We will tag you up in the comments so that people can get ahold of you. We'll be back.
[00:19:39] Speaker B: Are the people editing back on?
[00:19:41] Speaker A: Yes, me and Ashley.
That way we can spell everything right. We have screwed up some names before.
[00:19:47] Speaker B: Yeah, it was like you're on the.
[00:19:48] Speaker I: Allegedly a couple ways. Yeah.
[00:19:52] Speaker B: Occasionally you frequent that platform.
[00:19:54] Speaker I: Occasionally check in.
[00:19:56] Speaker A: We are here with what's who. Steve Allen called a legend, which, coming from a legend, it must be true. No big deal.
I mean, don't freak out.
[00:20:08] Speaker I: I'm flattered, but I'm now questioning his sanity.
[00:20:12] Speaker A: Do us a favor. For those that don't know you, introduce yourself and who you are. Sure. Who are you with?
[00:20:16] Speaker I: My name is Ron Peterson. I'm the executive director of NAlCa. Been in the industry for about 30 years. Locator. I work with excavators. Just work with all parties to prevent utility damage.
[00:20:28] Speaker A: Yeah.
And listening to you and Steve talk, just reminiscing and stuff when you don't know, but when you walked off, Steve came by and he just feeds off being around the industry. Right. And he was like, that was worth coming here, which is his thing. Right. He loves it.
One thing we're talking about with the show is trying to like, tell the story of folks and how they got involved in the industry, how they got started. Kind of that origin story a little bit. Sure.
For those back home maybe that are thinking about our industry, you know, we're always looking for more talent. And I think sometimes people think you just wake up and you decide, like, I'm gonna go after this career and do this thing. Some of us end up here as fast as we could. Right. Do us a favor. Just high level, you know. How'd you get involved in damage prevention?
[00:21:21] Speaker I: Sure.
Totally an accident.
[00:21:23] Speaker A: It's a short show. You know, it's only about 45 minutes.
[00:21:27] Speaker I: Well, that ends that then. So, no, I was in manufacturing. I ran a very large manufacturing facility for a family. Was bored to death. No challenge in it. I looked out my back window one day and there's a guy spraying paint with a machine. And I went out and said, what are you doing?
[00:21:44] Speaker A: What are you doing?
[00:21:44] Speaker I: He said, well, I'm locating utilities. Do you like it? He said, yeah, this is great. So I got nobody looking over my shoulder. Everything's different every day. And of course my next question was, how's it pay? He said, well, not worth a damn.
And I said, well, what about upward mobility? He goes, oh, I can't keep supervisors in these companies. Okay. So I went and applied. They told me I was overqualified and my next response was, what do you care? Give me a chance.
[00:22:10] Speaker A: How's that your problem?
[00:22:11] Speaker I: So manufacturing wouldn't seem to equate with locating. But I had to read schematics and things like that. I'm not an engineer, but I had a lot of that experience within the manufacturing side. So locating came easy and worked my way through that company, got into claims within that company, was hired away from them by a company developing claims processes for the utility industry. Did pretty well there at a point decided, let's do something different. So I became an excavator and I worked as an excavator for a contractor for the gas industry. And at a point decided that, you know, I think I want to do more locating. Private locating, ground penetrating radar. So really developed that. And at some point, well, Nullco has been around 30 years. I joined in 96. So 28 years I've been around.
[00:23:08] Speaker A: You turned the lights on? Almost.
[00:23:09] Speaker I: Almost turned the lights on.
I wasn't the father of it, but I might have been the son. I don't know.
You know, at a point I was on their board doing all this stuff. And we had a good executive director. As far as a guy that ran the association. But he knew nothing about locating. Literally. We decided to let him go. And I left the board meeting to go the route restroom. When I came back, I was the executive director.
That point is, never leave a board meeting or any meeting until it's adjourned.
[00:23:41] Speaker A: But no.
[00:23:41] Speaker I: And I've been there since 2009. I really enjoy the prospect of promoting the locating industry.
We've got a lot of things working to do that. So it's been a totally accidental journey. But it's been great. I've enjoyed every minute of it.
[00:23:57] Speaker A: Can I ask one question before we get too far down the road too. Is for those that. I mean, we have all makes and models that watch our show. Right. Can you do a favor? Just kind of at a high level explain Nullca for those that maybe aren't as involved as we are in the industry.
[00:24:12] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:24:12] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:24:12] Speaker I: So NaLCa was the national utility locating Contractors association. Founded by contract locators over the last. Well, we're now in our 30th year. But over those 30 years the industry's changed dramatically. We went from having, you know, 15. What we'd call good size contract locators. To about, well, one gigantic one and several big ones, but not as many. But during that time, what's grown is the private locator industry. So by number of companies, NaLCA has far more private locators than they do.
[00:24:44] Speaker A: See a bunch of them here too. Yeah.
[00:24:46] Speaker I: Than they do contractors. Now by number of technicians, the contract guys are about 25,000. So it's really changed. So with that, we had to change from locating contractors. To just NaLCA representing utility locating professionals. So it's supported by the industry. Most of the people at this trade show are members of NOCA.
[00:25:06] Speaker D: So it's great.
[00:25:08] Speaker A: And being a part of Nolco, I know where you're going. And I want to get it in with that. Oh, please do.
[00:25:13] Speaker B: I have a different question. So yesterday, for those that aren't here. I overheard that you were a part of a session yesterday as well. There's a number of different education sessions going on. It was a trial. Is that. What was that all about?
[00:25:25] Speaker A: Mock trial.
[00:25:26] Speaker I: A mock trial tried for many years.
Two of the attorneys here, Anthony Jorgensen and Jim Prozek. Have done a mock trial.
[00:25:33] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:25:33] Speaker I: To help people understand how trials work. And of course we throw some iffy case involved so this year I got to be the excavator. In years past, I've been the locator, I've been the utility company. But we go in and show people how, how court works and how the ones that make it the court aren't cut and dry. And it's a really good experience. Then we followed that up with the next session was damage investigations and talked. Since Jim is the guy that does a lot of these cases and I tend to be an expert in a lot of stuff on cases, we gave them what we feel, the current shortcomings in investigations, how you can improve it with three easy steps, so to speak.
[00:26:15] Speaker A: Very cool.
[00:26:17] Speaker B: I hate that I missed that one.
[00:26:18] Speaker A: Yeah. We're asking people what keeps them up at night. You know, when it, when we think about damage prevention right now. And this could go either way. Right. Sometimes you're excited about something that keeps you up. Sometimes it's. It's worry. Right?
[00:26:33] Speaker I: Sure.
[00:26:34] Speaker A: What keeps you up at night from.
[00:26:37] Speaker I: The worry side of it? Is this really the status of the industry in general?
[00:26:41] Speaker D: General.
[00:26:42] Speaker I: But more specifically, my industry's inability to retain people.
We have crazy turnover ratios in our industry. Plus if you've listened to some of these sessions, it's hard to get. You know, we have what they say, 30% of our younger people aren't even looking for jobs. So the people we can attract to a job. Because of the pay levels and the perception of professionalism in the industry currently we are a great training ground. We get the guy acclimated to utilities in a basic and then the higher paying, better benefited utility company hires them with a contractor's hire. So that keeps me up at night. How to move that now? The exciting part of it is, man, there's so much potential in the industry to move it forward and we've got a lot of great things going on. So we've got certification coming down the line for NalCA which hopefully will alleviate my first point.
[00:27:35] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:27:35] Speaker I: And I'm excited about taking the locating industry kind of to the next level.
[00:27:40] Speaker B: Oh man, that was a good episode. Sir, maybe. You are a legend.
[00:27:45] Speaker A: You are a legend. You lived up to the hype, I think.
[00:27:48] Speaker B: I think so. Yeah.
[00:27:48] Speaker I: Well, somebody once told me that I was the CGA or excavation safety show's version of the Walmart door creator. I've been around so long.
[00:27:59] Speaker A: I know. Everybody compliment Ron. I'm not sure I appreciate all the work you do for our industry and keep doing the good stuff. We'll be back.
We got fancier since last time. You saw us. We try to upgrade some piece every time.
[00:28:22] Speaker F: I think you had.
I thought you had the circular light last time.
[00:28:26] Speaker A: Well, maybe. Well, never mind.
[00:28:28] Speaker B: We're not. We're the same level of faith.
[00:28:33] Speaker A: We might have downgraded. Well, since last time, these coasters.
[00:28:36] Speaker B: I'm consistent from the last time. But James wasn't in the last one, right? Or were you?
[00:28:41] Speaker A: Where did you see Jimmy last?
Were you? Yes. Louisiana one. No.
[00:28:46] Speaker B: No. So you.
[00:28:47] Speaker F: So it is the same midwest damaged french lake.
[00:28:51] Speaker B: Oh, so I.
I'm the difference.
[00:28:53] Speaker A: Talking trash.
[00:28:55] Speaker F: Yes. But I saw you. I saw you before that.
[00:29:01] Speaker A: So, yeah, that was a good point you made. I like it.
[00:29:05] Speaker B: My joke backfired on me.
[00:29:06] Speaker A: We were in french work, right?
[00:29:09] Speaker I: Yeah.
[00:29:09] Speaker C: Y'all were.
[00:29:10] Speaker B: I was not.
[00:29:11] Speaker A: Yeah. For those that don't know you, Jimmy, do us a favor and introduce closer.
[00:29:17] Speaker F: I mean, I don't know where you get. I don't know how you get the best quality. That's close enough.
[00:29:22] Speaker A: He's better professional.
[00:29:24] Speaker F: Yeah, close enough. Given the budget you guys are given.
[00:29:27] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:29:28] Speaker B: Oh, man.
[00:29:30] Speaker A: How did you know that?
How did you know about our budget? Budget consistency?
[00:29:35] Speaker B: Who have you been talking to?
[00:29:36] Speaker A: Just kidding. Steve's talking too much.
Jimmy, for those that don't know you, do us a favor. Introduce yourself.
[00:29:44] Speaker F: Yes. Jimmy Wang with Creative Partners LLP. And I do a lot of consulting inside the industry and outside.
[00:29:51] Speaker A: How many years in the industry again? I'm like, oh, my God.
[00:29:55] Speaker B: Are you throwing.
[00:29:56] Speaker F: Close enough?
[00:29:57] Speaker B: He's throwing jokes back.
[00:29:58] Speaker F: 2022. Now 21. Yeah.
[00:30:01] Speaker A: Yeah. So, you ever been to this event before?
[00:30:03] Speaker F: Yeah. Yeah, a couple times.
[00:30:05] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:30:06] Speaker F: Big supporter of Scotts and IR and ESc.
[00:30:12] Speaker B: So we've been asking people, when it comes to damage prevention, what keeps you up at night? And that could be good. That could be something. That's.
Yeah.
[00:30:22] Speaker F: You know what keeps me up at night? Nothing actually keeps me up at night in the sense that what we have right now, the system and processes we have right now is. Are good enough. But I think that in itself is dangerous in that we can be complacent about a lot of things. We can be complacent about how much we can improve if we.
If we change some of the systems and processes. Right. So it's because there's nothing critically urgent, in my opinion, that we may be too complacent so that we don't go for the quantum leap improvements, but it's.
[00:31:03] Speaker A: Just enough that it keeps us sound asleep. Right, exactly. You know what I mean? It's not scary enough that it's waking us up, but deep down, it is because we're becoming more and more complacent.
[00:31:14] Speaker B: With, you know, we sat in the art of storytelling this morning. He even talked about complacency and how that's when errors can occur.
[00:31:23] Speaker F: Right, right.
Because something is good enough for good enough results.
Few people feel the urge to examine the foundation of that. Right. Because it's good enough. Right. So the perception is, I don't want to. I don't want to tear down even part of something that's good enough. And then when we're, like, captive to this good enough mentality, that's awesome.
[00:31:53] Speaker A: So a little bit of both. It sounds like one answer to. Yeah, for both. Yeah.
[00:31:58] Speaker F: So I. So I'm almost kept awake at night in that, about there being nothing critical to be kept awake at night about.
[00:32:07] Speaker B: Right.
[00:32:08] Speaker F: That's. That's what's kind of meta. That's kind of a little too.
[00:32:14] Speaker A: I didn't know we were going.
[00:32:15] Speaker F: We don't have to draw that out on a full chart. No, I think we need to go ahead.
[00:32:19] Speaker A: I know you led the town hall today. Town hall live today. And we were double booked for it, but Steve came back. Hi. As a kite on it. How do you think it went today?
[00:32:31] Speaker F: I think it went great. And I think it's sessions like that that are important for an industry where we go in and ask some of the tough questions and then get into some kind of head to head, real discussions and even semi arguments about where we need to go. Because too often we come to these conferences and we leave to say, you know, holding hands, seeing Kumbaya, and saying, yeah, we just need to communicate more.
And to me, that's like, I mean, I'm all for communications, but that's kind.
[00:33:09] Speaker A: Of like we can always be.
[00:33:11] Speaker F: We're just punting, right? We're punting from the 40 yard line because the. The 50 yard field goal is a little stretchy for us. Right.
[00:33:22] Speaker A: Let's.
[00:33:23] Speaker F: Let's. Let's go for it.
[00:33:25] Speaker A: That's interesting. And we don't see each other enough. I mean, we do through all the events, but you think about an event like this and going a year without, you know, making some waves, we got it. We got to have those tough conversations. We do. That's what we're coming together for.
[00:33:41] Speaker F: Right.
[00:33:41] Speaker A: That's how we make the change that's happening all around us.
[00:33:44] Speaker F: Right. And that's how we have some, what this economist called shumpeter called creative destruction. Right. So often, in order to have these quantum leap improvements you need to break something. You need to tear something down. Not necessarily a whole system, but just parts of it. And I think right now it's good enough that there are too many stakeholders who are, who are resistant to that and are like, no, it's good enough. So why, why have these wholesale changes or improvements? But if you look at the a eleven process in 2024, it's fundamentally the same process flow, process workflow as 1984 or 1989, 35, 40 years ago.
[00:34:31] Speaker B: That was before I was born.
[00:34:32] Speaker A: Yeah.
That's not good.
No.
[00:34:37] Speaker F: But if you think about all the technologies that have come since then.
[00:34:41] Speaker A: Exactly right.
[00:34:43] Speaker F: Laptop computers, GPS, cell phones. Right. GPS, cell phones. Just all these things that did not exist back then. But the process flow is still fundamentally the same. I use this example, the cell phone that I have, and probably you two have the cell phone that we have. The fastest computer back then, in the mid to late eighties, was this computer called the cray.
[00:35:05] Speaker A: Two big mainframes.
[00:35:08] Speaker F: You're old enough. Like, I am, too.
[00:35:10] Speaker A: Sorry, I'm just nervous.
[00:35:12] Speaker F: What's a Krayt, too?
But the cell phone we have is about 1000 to 1300 times faster than the fastest computer in the world in the mid late eighties. And you add in all this other technology, and the process flow is still pretty much the same.
[00:35:30] Speaker A: I like what you said about, you know, I forget how you said it, but basically us getting together in these rooms and deciding things we want to break, you know, that creative destruction, I guess, is what you said.
I get to go to a lot of conferences. We do. You do.
And that Kumbaya moment of leaving together is great, don't get me wrong, but we can get really safe in our echo chambers, and we are doing great things. We are moving the needle. But to get those big jumps that we're looking for. Right. Those quantum leaps, as you will, we got to challenge each other. That's how we got here.
[00:36:10] Speaker F: Yeah. And you know, another thing, another kind of takeaway, I think, from the session at 02:00 p.m. At tube, the town hall is, I think the improvement opportunities are not up to any one stakeholder in that. All the stakeholders right now are doing what is rational for them to do in the current system. So it's not the players of the game, but it's rules of the game right now. Right. So I never, I never blame any one stakeholder or two stakeholders for resisting change or whatever, because I know they're pretty much all doing what is rational.
[00:36:46] Speaker A: For them given rules of business.
[00:36:49] Speaker F: Right.
[00:36:49] Speaker A: They built a business, a successful business, and they've got a lot of product in the ground or above the ground or in people's hands, whatever it is, and you've got a transition in some way.
So I.
Low hanging fruit is a great place to start, but at the same time, then at some point, you got to look at really, what's going to move the needle big time within your group and then plan to get there. Right. I mean, it is project management.
[00:37:18] Speaker F: Right? So all these players are playing with the same rules of the game, fundamentally the same rules 35, 40 years ago. And that's especially.
That's an especially stark statement given how much technology has come out over those 35, 40 years. Right. Just incredible technology.
And yet the process flow is still the same. I think all of us would be hard pressed to name something else that we do frequently, that. Where the process is the same as 35, 40 years ago?
[00:37:54] Speaker A: No, very little. Very little.
[00:37:56] Speaker F: Yeah. But in this space, it is Jimmy.
[00:38:00] Speaker A: Always a pleasure to stop by, and.
[00:38:02] Speaker B: Always, this has been a mic drop moment by. Jimmy.
[00:38:06] Speaker A: Don't freestyle. They're very expensive. Hey, we'll be back.
[00:38:09] Speaker B: Thank you, Steve.
[00:38:12] Speaker H: So what do you want to talk about?
[00:38:13] Speaker B: Well, I want to know, personally, what keeps you up at night? About damage prevention.
[00:38:18] Speaker H: About damage prevention. What keeps me up at night?
[00:38:21] Speaker A: Whoa. Okay, Valen.
[00:38:24] Speaker H: Wow, that's really good. What keeps me up at night? Damage.
I'm sure it's gonna hit.
[00:38:31] Speaker A: It.
[00:38:32] Speaker H: Hitting a large pipeline, that's like, holy cow. Whoever is unfortunate enough to, like, doing field tiles or something like that and hit a big transmission line, if you survive, you've been living. Right. You know, because that's just. That would be probably the one incident that would keep me up. The other incident would be, you know, someone. Of course, I live out in the middle of nowhere, so it's not like I have a lot of underground facilities up in front of my house.
Allegedly. Yeah.
[00:39:10] Speaker A: Undocumented.
[00:39:11] Speaker H: No, there's a lot of fiber, you know, but no gas lines or anything like that. But anyway, my. My family does so, you know, to have someone hit a line and. Or, you know, a sewer line transection or something like that, where all of a sudden, you know, my son, his wife, and their family's house fills up with gas and kablooey. Yeah, that's the. That's the type of stuff about damage prevention. It's scary, for sure.
[00:39:39] Speaker A: And that's why we're here live at the global excavation safety conference. It's a mouthful. We're here live in New Orleans. It's kind of the come before the storm here.
I think the hall opens in a couple of hours. This demo area back here will be full. We got a lot of action back here. I thought you were going to go a different route with your answer. I did, too. Okay.
[00:40:05] Speaker H: What did you think?
[00:40:05] Speaker A: I thought you were going to, you were going to say, well, mostly I'm kept up at night with excitement because I know a lot of lot is going on. You know, in the pipeline safety world.
[00:40:17] Speaker H: Right now, that's a different question. But when you pose a question, what keeps me up at night, that means you're worried.
[00:40:23] Speaker A: Some of us are a little positive, more positive. Sometimes I'm up and excited about getting up and I want to do the things that are out there. Right. And right now is a really exciting, exciting time for pipeline safety. Well, it is a subsection of damage prevention, or vice versa.
[00:40:38] Speaker H: It is. It very much is. In fact, this morning at one of the sessions, I think I mentioned to you earlier that I met the congressman and for life, me, I can't think of his name.
[00:40:48] Speaker A: We won't hold that against.
[00:40:50] Speaker H: Yeah, no, memory's fine. Recall sucks. But anyhow, anyway, I met the congressman back in like two, 2005, wrote the bill to nationalize 811. That was really very cool. Anyway, as the conversation went, the audience had some questions about, well, why can't we nationalize some of the pipeline safety rules and say, well, it's not as easy said as done. Okay, but I did mention that with like, the pipeline safety reauthorization it's currently going on, we've got, we've got damage prevention related items in there that Congress, if it's passed, Congress is going to mandate PHMSA to promulgate some rules related to damage prevention. Well, there you go. It's coming. Just like psms, it's coming.
[00:41:46] Speaker A: We were in your session this morning on contractors in psms, and I know this is something you've been passionate about. We've talked about it on the show, but here we are still talking to a room of operators, you know, in some instances about contractors. And of course, we have some contractors joining us. But how sticky, in your opinion, is that becoming? I know you're saying it's coming, all of it's coming, but you've been talking about contractors and psms. I know we've had a lot. You talked about it in your presentation. A lot of progress in that regard.
Where are we at?
[00:42:24] Speaker H: Wow. Okay, so five years ago, you asked the contractor about, hey, you know, you really need to get on board with psms across the board. The answer was, what's that?
Well, after that, it's. Well, our customers aren't asking for it, so they didn't do it. Okay. Then all of a sudden, you have some big holy cow. Operators have some problems, and they get a lot of pressure, and all of a sudden, that operator gets on board with psms more so than they had been, and they start to bring their contractors into the fold. And then all of a sudden, somebody else hears that, and then somebody else hears that, and then it starts to get traction, and then there's. All of a sudden, there's this realization, I think, that contractors make up 75% to 80% of the workforce of an operator. It's like, oh, yeah, this is kind of important. Maybe we ought to do something.
And then, you know, the contractors themselves, because of, you know, their desire to avoid another OQ debacle, okay. Being held accountable for 20 different PSMS programs. All right. They get ahead of it and develop their own program, and then get with the American Petroleum Institute and all that. And I was. I was there. You know, I helped do all this. And so now it's gotten to a point where it's like, okay, now our customers are asking for it, and there's been a lot of attention and realization and recognition that you gotta have the contractors involved. So that's where we are. I think that, you know, this next round of 1173 is gonna have some revised section 8.4, references to contract.
[00:44:13] Speaker A: Yeah. Which is like that small reference to contractors you talked about, almost like the last bullet of that section. I know you're headed out of here tomorrow. We're live at Global. For those that don't know, we spoke today. And then tomorrow you'll get on a plane, and then you're speaking at Finga, is that correct?
[00:44:33] Speaker H: In Orlando, Florida.
[00:44:34] Speaker A: Natural gas association. Same message. Pipeline safety still there?
You don't know, man.
[00:44:40] Speaker H: Yes, yes. But it's. It's the who, what, why, and how of psms. And I was telling you this, this morning for the. For the audience here, James was. Was curious about how long winded I really can be. And, you know, we hadn't gotten off the first slide, and we're already a half an hour into the first slide.
[00:45:07] Speaker A: He had covered three slides, but one of them was the title slide, actually.
But you had nailed it.
[00:45:14] Speaker H: I got. I got through it all. I mean, there was. There was.
There's rhyme to the reason. A reason to the rhyme, Harry. But anyway, so Thursday's presentation, I was telling you, it's like 50 some pages of PowerPoint presentation, but I got 90 minutes to give, 90 minutes to deliver it.
[00:45:35] Speaker A: Almost.
[00:45:35] Speaker H: Yeah. Yeah. 90 minutes.
[00:45:38] Speaker A: You're a busy man. Is this your first event this year on the road? You've been somewhere else? Mm hmm.
[00:45:44] Speaker H: Well, and it's. It's gonna really pick up.
[00:45:47] Speaker A: You're speaking at CGA, as well, aren't you?
[00:45:50] Speaker H: I am. We're doing a panel conversation, talking about Indiana stakeholders group that I stood up and moderate. That'll be fun. That'll be fun.
[00:46:00] Speaker B: You're in high demand, Steve.
[00:46:02] Speaker A: You are. But he's still booking.
More info on Steve Allen, or he's cheap. Yeah, but seriously, if you do have a question about psms, obviously we know a guy. He's right here. But Steve is always available, whether it's a little nugget that you need an answer for or. Or sit down with your team and understand a little bit deeper.
[00:46:25] Speaker H: So I said it multiple times this morning, and I like to joke about it. I'm kind of like Jerry Maguire. You know the line in Jerry Maguire, where you had me in.
[00:46:34] Speaker A: Hello.
[00:46:34] Speaker H: So all you have to do is mention psms, and I'm all on piers.
[00:46:40] Speaker A: Thank you, sir.
[00:46:41] Speaker H: Thank you. All right.
[00:46:44] Speaker A: Always. We'll be back.
[00:46:47] Speaker D: You know, I'm just a bill up on Capitol Hill, but they want to do it about best practices.
[00:46:53] Speaker B: So he was telling me.
[00:46:55] Speaker A: Please.
[00:46:55] Speaker B: He was telling me.
Yeah, about the band and.
[00:46:59] Speaker D: Oh, the gig safely band. So, yeah, so, back. There was a period back with these. With these things where they asked us to. There was a lot of us that were musicians. So, JJ, who ran Colorado, was a drummer. Mike Sullivan from Alberta, plays bass, keyboards, guitar. We had a few other people, and they. We decided we were going to do the opening thing at the show while they're doing the hors d'oeuvres and all that playing music. So we created this band called Gig safely, and we had t shirts made, like a dude, you know, holding the guitar instead of a shovel, standing on it with the colored flags and everything next to it.
[00:47:37] Speaker A: Isn't it crazy what we get paid to do? I mean, that unsupervised almost.
[00:47:42] Speaker D: Seriously?
[00:47:43] Speaker A: For sure. We're a liability, obviously.
[00:47:46] Speaker D: It's hard to believe we're in the safety industry.
[00:47:49] Speaker A: They just let us run them, just let us roll. Yeah, but that's how we make. Make things happen. Cool things. Do us a favor before we get too far. Absolutely. Introduce yourself. Who you with?
[00:47:58] Speaker D: My name is Louis Panzer. I'm the executive director of North Carolina 811.
[00:48:02] Speaker A: You got mobbed on the way over here by two legends that's coming in. I heard them say, yeah, like, that. They were your biggest fans.
[00:48:11] Speaker D: I was shocked.
[00:48:12] Speaker A: How cool is that?
[00:48:13] Speaker D: Sometimes you never know what kind of reach you have, I guess, out there.
That's great to hear. I've been there for 13 years, so as executive director, and I took over a center. That was great already. I mean, great people.
We did make some modifications, and we made modifications to our law. We made modifications internally, technologically, so there was just a ton of different things that occurred.
And it was all, in my opinion, very successful. Should I be glancing this way?
[00:48:45] Speaker A: You can do anything you want. All right.
[00:48:46] Speaker B: This is your show.
[00:48:47] Speaker A: Friends here.
[00:48:48] Speaker D: Okay, cool.
[00:48:49] Speaker B: You can bust out. Sing for it.
[00:48:51] Speaker D: No one watches my voice. I was lucky this morning.
[00:48:54] Speaker A: I got more left for you.
[00:48:56] Speaker D: I know.
This is just this, your fortune. I have evil at the moment, honestly. But it's all good. It all came back. It's got that little smoky.
[00:49:09] Speaker A: It's cool on the mic. I thought it was part of your bit.
[00:49:12] Speaker D: Well, you know, I like to go deep sometimes, but I always. But I always call. I always call before I go deep.
[00:49:21] Speaker A: Call before you deep.
[00:49:22] Speaker D: That's it.
[00:49:24] Speaker A: We're at the global excavation safety conference. That's the longest name on earth. One of them for sure. There's a couple more.
[00:49:32] Speaker D: Is there an acronym?
[00:49:33] Speaker A: Yeah, I promise you there is. GSC.
How long have you been coming to this show? Since before.
[00:49:42] Speaker D: Yeah, we were talking about this. I've been in the industry 25 years. And when it used to be APWA, and then it changed into something else. Morphed. And then when the CGA came in, they kind of. They were merged together with these conferences.
Kind of a sort of spot, but anyway. Actually, kind of sad now, but yes. So I've been coming to these things for 20 years, something like that. And I started out in this industry just as a dude who was looking for a job and had no idea, didn't. Didn't do any utilities or anything. Learned about it pretty quickly. We did CDs with maps on them for Florida power Light and Florida progress, and from that migrated up to being a board member at sunshine and then working through the CGA, which was really for me, my introduction to this whole national thing, and did some research and gave some presentations. I'm a huge data guy, very much into data.
Wrote a book during the pandemic.
[00:50:46] Speaker A: Really.
[00:50:49] Speaker D: Published.
[00:50:51] Speaker A: How do I get a copy?
[00:50:52] Speaker D: Well, you just google my name and put ASce behind it, and I was.
[00:50:57] Speaker A: Trying to get it for free.
[00:50:58] Speaker D: You know what? I just got my royalty check today in the mail. Just so you know, nothing free. And, well, last year was $70. I'm not sure what's in this one. It might be.
It might be 20. I don't know. It's not flying. It's not a New York Times bestseller or nothing.
[00:51:15] Speaker A: We'll see by the end of this podcast.
[00:51:18] Speaker D: All right, everybody wants to go and spend $50 for a book about the industry that they probably know a lot about. But it was a great opportunity. We've done a lot of research, published research through ASCE and the Journal of Engineering, Construction Management, a lot of our research about, information about North Carolina's damages.
We've done surveys with excavators and locators. We really try to make sure that we embrace the concept of shared responsibility so that everybody really understands that you've got a piece of this. And before you go, point a finger at somebody, look in the mirror and realize, what can you do, man?
[00:52:00] Speaker A: It's pointing right back, right?
[00:52:02] Speaker D: Yeah, it's a mirror. We're all living house mirrors.
[00:52:04] Speaker B: Did I hear, did you lead a session here while you've been here? Are you speaking?
[00:52:08] Speaker D: I'm speaking at 404:00 in a panel. And then I'm speaking again tomorrow with a, with my own solo gig.
[00:52:14] Speaker A: Today?
[00:52:15] Speaker D: No, today I'm speaking at 04:00 got it.
[00:52:19] Speaker B: And what is that on?
[00:52:20] Speaker D: It is about fiber and the onslaught of what's coming with the infrastructure bill along. I'm on a panel with Chris Russ from USIC and Arianne Schaefer from Google Fiber. And the three of us have been working to try to coordinate with the states individually as that money starts to get released through their it broadband folks to put some parameters around contractors coming in to make them understand they need to train, they need to understand what those laws are individually. We would like them to participate with the UCCs because that's a great opportunity to network and get everybody to know everybody. We would like them to white line and we would like them to take this mandatory training there's. We have for sure.
[00:53:05] Speaker A: That's awesome.
While we're here, we're asking everybody one question, okay. It's a big deal.
Get your mind right. No, we're asking everybody good, bad and different.
Excitement, angst. There's really no wrong answer here. But when we think about, when you think about damage prevention, what keeps you up at night?
[00:53:29] Speaker D: You know, an incident like what happened in Durham, frankly, and that explosion changed my life because I had been in, you know, my position for some time and had not actually had experienced what that looks like, what that feels like, the loss of people and, you know, just in general. Well, there's that part of it. Then there was the onslaught of the media. Wanted to know, well, what happened, what can you tell us? And all? It was very intense. And so what keeps me up at night mostly is the concern. I just want everyone to go home at the end of the day, you know, in North Carolina, we have about 16,000 damages a year that we know of. And thank God, you know, other than that incident some years ago, we haven't seen something on that scale. You know, a gas explosion.
[00:54:22] Speaker B: All right, well, thank you so much for taking the time to sit with us. It was good hearing about it.
[00:54:27] Speaker A: All smooth.
[00:54:28] Speaker B: Yeah. All right, thank you. We'll be back.
[00:54:32] Speaker A: Yeah, I guess.
[00:54:33] Speaker B: All right.
[00:54:35] Speaker A: All right. The end.
[00:54:36] Speaker B: Yep. It was good seeing everybody. Peace out, Girl Scouts.
It's been a day. It's been a full day.
[00:54:43] Speaker A: We always worry after day one, which I don't know why we worry, but we do. We're warriors. And when we get done with night one, which is usually just a reception, which was exactly what happened yesterday. And we have three recordings, and one of them is the intro, we always go, oh, my gosh, we have a.
[00:55:04] Speaker B: Lot of work tomorrow.
[00:55:05] Speaker A: We're not gonna make it. We're the worst podcasters of all time, whatever it is. And then what happens? And then we get absolutely obliterated.
[00:55:16] Speaker B: Three what?
Oh, yes. And so today was full.
[00:55:23] Speaker A: Some sound issues. We're new at this.
[00:55:26] Speaker B: It's our first time.
How many do you think we got today?
[00:55:29] Speaker A: Probably 15.
[00:55:32] Speaker B: Yeah, probably.
[00:55:32] Speaker A: I mean, total. I don't know. Twelve.
[00:55:35] Speaker B: You know, you're probably right, because there was a couple that we didn't really have on our time slots that popped in.
[00:55:41] Speaker A: I mean, one awesome interview after another. I felt like I learned so much today, and I'm not even joking. I'm not trying to make it sound.
[00:55:48] Speaker B: No, you're right.
[00:55:50] Speaker A: I didn't know. I didn't even factor in the insurance side of things.
[00:55:54] Speaker B: Smart.
[00:55:54] Speaker A: That is, for someone who is paying out insurance claims to be in the damage prevention space.
[00:56:00] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:56:01] Speaker A: Like, isn't that what you would want to be?
[00:56:04] Speaker C: You know?
[00:56:04] Speaker B: Who has a highlight for me?
[00:56:06] Speaker A: Tell me.
[00:56:07] Speaker B: Who do you think?
[00:56:07] Speaker A: I'm gonna say I can't.
From North Carolina?
[00:56:14] Speaker B: Yes. He was just such a vibe.
[00:56:17] Speaker A: Why can I think? Louis Panzer.
[00:56:19] Speaker B: Google him.
[00:56:20] Speaker A: Star. Literally.
[00:56:21] Speaker B: Go Google.
[00:56:22] Speaker A: Or don't.
[00:56:24] Speaker B: I don't know what he'll think.
[00:56:26] Speaker A: He was awesome.
[00:56:27] Speaker B: He was funny.
[00:56:28] Speaker A: I'm so passionate about it. And funny. Yeah, he was great. In fact, the interview after the interview was the best part.
[00:56:34] Speaker B: I know, but that's not on. We didn't capture that.
[00:56:36] Speaker A: So Roger Cox and Scott Landis announcing their partnership. Yeah.
[00:56:43] Speaker B: You never even told me.
[00:56:46] Speaker A: Oh, really?
[00:56:46] Speaker B: Yeah. No.
[00:56:47] Speaker A: Holy cow.
[00:56:48] Speaker B: I thought it was something.
[00:56:49] Speaker A: So Roger Cox and Axe is now partnering with Excavation Safety alliance.
[00:56:57] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:56:57] Speaker A: And moving forward, the global excavation and other products is what I heard will be managed by X. So there be magazines and other things that axe manages for them, but also, they will be taking over this event in the next year.
[00:57:13] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:57:14] Speaker A: So starting in April, those groups are going to be working together. They announced it yesterday after the town hall live, and so we got the scoop on it, and they came on the show and talked about that partnership and those two orgs working together. So imagine a world where Carrie and Whitney worked together on these events.
[00:57:32] Speaker B: That'll be great.
[00:57:32] Speaker A: We love them both, right? Great groups. And they were really excited about that.
Who else was awesome?
[00:57:40] Speaker B: Jimmy Wang always has some knowledge. He drops that dude. Yeah.
[00:57:44] Speaker A: Why is a bigger champion of us? I have no clue.
He surely has better things.
[00:57:50] Speaker B: He actually wrangled people for us. He brought. He brought you Hoyt and Wayne. Oh, well, Karen may have brought some.
Karen?
[00:57:58] Speaker A: Yeah, Karen. Two of our DP heroes of the year.
[00:58:03] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:58:04] Speaker A: Which is awesome. Ray. I mean, Ray almost made us cry.
[00:58:07] Speaker B: I know.
[00:58:08] Speaker A: Shot out there. And him leaving atmos after all these years, he had nothing but positive things to say. Wow.
[00:58:15] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:58:16] Speaker A: I don't know where he's headed, but we'll know by the time this comes out. I'm sure it's gonna be something epic.
[00:58:21] Speaker B: Mm hmm.
It has been a full day, and then tonight we are gonna go over and document a little bit of the second line. I really might. I think I may take the road mics and just see what happens. I mean, they're. They're portable. They're easy. I can stick it.
[00:58:37] Speaker A: We've never been a part of one of them. I've never, in all my years here, and I've done these shows a lot.
[00:58:43] Speaker B: And then there's a shindig. A safety shindig.
[00:58:45] Speaker A: Safety shindig. I think the word shindig, it's one of my favorite. You love the word cancel.
Yeah, I'm not. I don't know what's up. Shindig sounds weird. So we're gonna be doing that. I think that's sponsored by Pelican Corp. Yep. Our friends over there Bob Bishop was a highlight today.
[00:59:01] Speaker B: You only like besties, man.
[00:59:03] Speaker A: You start talking barbecue, would we got something to talk about.
Lots of friends.
Hey, good job this week. You're really coming around.
[00:59:13] Speaker B: I'm not a gym, but you're coming around.
[00:59:16] Speaker A: Yeah, you'd be a podcast.
[00:59:18] Speaker B: Karen at one point said, I'm really behind the scenes person. I said, me too, me too.
[00:59:22] Speaker A: Sometimes we pull those people in front of us.
[00:59:24] Speaker B: Sometimes.
[00:59:25] Speaker A: Sometimes, Ashley, we leave here and we have a little bit of a reprieve with the show until I believe common ground aligns.
[00:59:36] Speaker B: Yeah, that's my next show. Yeah, absolutely.
[00:59:39] Speaker A: I may take the show with me and record with a few people on Atlanta in a couple of weeks, but the show itself will be live again in common ground alliance in Colorado Springs. So one damage prevention event to another, that's gonna be an epic event as well.
[00:59:56] Speaker B: That's a busy couple weeks.
[01:00:01] Speaker A: Natural Gas association of Georgia.
[01:00:03] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[01:00:05] Speaker A: And then Aga, Seattle, and some, some really cool stuff coming up as part of that trip that we can't wait to share with people as well. Something exciting we've been working on.
Yeah, we'll get you there, don't worry. But busy, busy, busy. The first half of the year will be over just like that.
Season five is well underway. Appreciate everybody checking in. And man, all those podcast listeners really showing up these days.
[01:00:35] Speaker B: I know. If you haven't subscribed, though, make sure you hit that button.
[01:00:38] Speaker A: Oh, if you're hearing this, you probably have maybe. Oh, yeah, you should subscribe. Go find us on LinkedIn, Jimmy, we will see you at the next show, like it or not.
[01:00:48] Speaker B: Until next time.
[01:00:49] Speaker A: Cheers.
[01:00:49] Speaker B: Bye.
Peace.
