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KP Unpacked
KP Unpacked explores the biggest ideas in AEC, AI, and innovation—unpacking the trends, technology, discussions, and strategies shaping the built environment and beyond.
KP Unpacked
Threading the Future: How Specs Hold AEC Together
In this episode of KP Unpacked, the number one podcast in AEC, Jeff Echols, Executive Director at Catalyst, KP Reddy Co. kicks off a brand-new series featuring the in-house research team at KP Reddy Co. He’s joined by Senior Research Advisor Ted Kenney, who brings years of experience in AEC technology and building product specifications.
They explore the untapped potential of specifications in driving collaboration across architecture, engineering, and construction. Ted explains why specs are often overlooked, how they act as the connective tissue across stakeholders, and what’s missing from the current software landscape.
They also dive into the research goals of the Integrated Owners Forum—KP Reddy Co.’s initiative to empower owners with actionable insight—and why discovering core problems is more valuable than surface-level disruption.
If you work in AEC, product development, or innovation, this episode will shift how you think about specs, data silos, and the future of collaboration.
🎧 Hosted by Jeff Echols, Executive Director at Catalyst
🎙 Guest: Ted Kinney, Senior Research Advisor at KP Reddy Co.
🔍 Topic: AEC specs, owner-driven innovation, qualitative research, and SaaS licensing hot takes
Ignite what's next
We're launching something new... It’s called Catalyst.
It’s a space for AEC forward-thinkers are reimagining what’s next. This is where the top minds in the industry are sharing ideas, leading change, and pushing the future of AEC forward.
Sounds like you? Join the waitlist at https://kpreddy.co/
Check out one of our Catalyst conversation starters, AEC Needs More High-Agency Thinkers
Hope to see you there!
All right, welcome back to KP Unpacked. This is where the biggest ideas in AEC, in AI, in innovation they all collide here, right here on the KP Unpacked podcast. It's powered by KP Ready Company. This podcast breaks down the trends, the technologies, the discussions and the strategies that are shaping the built environment and beyond. As you know, if you've been listening along, if you've been following along the journey here, kp Reddy and I started out this podcast I don't know about a year, year and a half ago I guess, as we're recording this but we started this by unpacking his posts on LinkedIn, kp's posts on LinkedIn. So, by the way, if you're not following KP, you should. So it's just KP. The letters K and P ready R-E-D-D-Y. Follow him on LinkedIn.
Speaker 1:He posts several times a day about his insights, the things he's seeing, the things he's hearing, the things he's thinking about in the AEC world as it goes around, working with advising leaders throughout the industry, speaking and working on projects that are propelling innovation throughout the industry.
Speaker 1:So KP and I started this podcast by unpacking those posts and we've had lots of different versions of the podcast over time. Right now, frank Lazzaro, who's a teammate of mine here at KP Ready, he and I sit down and record. You don't know this. You can listen to it anytime you want, but Frank and I sit down every Friday and record a couple of episodes of AI and AEC. So we're unpacking AI and how it's used across the AEC world and giving you actionable tips and insights into the tools and the strategies that are out there. And now I'm about to embark on the series with the KP ReadyCo research team. I find this fascinating. We do have a research team I don't know how many people know that, but we have in-house researchers who are highly qualified, highly experienced throughout the AEC industry and they're looking into things that may boggle your mind.
Speaker 1:It's like why are you thinking about that? Why are you researching that? So I'm going to sit down with each of our researchers. I'm going to find out who they are, I'm going to find out where they came from, what they're bringing to the conversation here, to the research, and where they think all of this is headed. So today I'm launching the series with Ted Kinney and I'm going to tell you, before we got started. Ted said I love being the guinea pig, and I'm glad he said that, because he's the first one Absolutely Well.
Speaker 1:Welcome, ted. I'm glad you're here. I'm glad that you're happy to be the guinea pig, because not everybody is to be honest. But what could possibly go wrong?
Speaker 2:Right, it's an honor and pleasure, Jeff. Yeah, it's great to be the first one from the research team joining the podcast.
Speaker 1:I've been a longtime listener so it's great to be able to be on the podcast for once. Yeah, well, I appreciate that and I'm glad you're here. And I am glad that you and I are starting off here, because we do not have dissimilar backgrounds. We both have experience in the AEC world. Both of our experiences are somewhat alternative than a traditional architect or engineer or a contractor, something like that. So it's kind of fun to be talking with a kindred spirit here. So why don't you let us all know, tell us, I mean, right, you're a senior research advisor here at KP Ready, you know, colloquially known as one of the researchers. How did you get here? What is your background and what are you bringing to the research that you're doing? And then we'll dive deeper into the research itself.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so, funny enough, the way I got here was actually from a KP Ready post. So, like I said, I've been a longtime listener of Paul KP. For a long time as well, he put out a post on the things holding back the AEC industry. One of them was a product I was involved with, masterspec and I almost spit out my coffee. It was early in the morning and I immediately pinged KP and was like, hey, this is phenomenal, I love the way you're shooting with master spec. And I almost spit out my coffee. It was early in the morning and I immediately pinged kp and was like, hey, this is phenomenal, I love the way you're shooting shots out on, you know, linkedin and then getting that engagement right, um, to see what what people are thinking about, the topics that he's posting about. And you know I said I would love to meet some time and have a chat.
Speaker 2:Long story short, wound up being a part of the team. Um, so really excited to be joining kp. Ready, co. Um, yeah, I mean, if you're not following kp, if you're, you're not commenting on his posts and reading the comments on the posts would highly recommend it. I mean it's a fantastic resource to kind of see where people are thinking, you know, on the, the bleeding edge of of aec yeah, I mean it's interesting, you know, he, he attention.
Speaker 1:I mean he already had your attention, but he really got you to the point of spitting your coffee out with his mention and commentary about master spec. And some of our listeners know, and others that you know, longtime AIA member here right, my background is architecture. Long time member and a couple of episodes ago as we're recording it, I think it's actually the most recent episode that's been published but he and I talked about AIA construction documents.
Speaker 1:So, I'm headed to an AIA event in a couple of weeks and I expect a little bit of maybe a little bit of a blowback from that.
Speaker 1:A little bit. A little bit, but that's part of what you get with KP's post and that's part of what he and I talk about. Right, it's let's get real here, right? Or is this the? Are we doing this because this is the way we've always done it? Is this the thing that's really going to support innovation throughout the built environment, or is there something that we need to tear down or talk about or reimagine? So that's kind of what you get in all forms throughout the KP ReadyCo ecosystem. Yep.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and my background was coming from AEC technology. I basically spent seven years working in the spec, so from the old stalwart of AIA, master spec, developing that business line, and then also kind of burgeoning off into new technology around specifications, both on the BPM side as a product placement tool, and then also, you know, working with new technology and specifications, new ways to develop specifications. With my previous position at Conspectus, I come from a sales background but I do think that you know sales is kind of the tip of the spear for customer feedback. So you know, I've talked to thousands of architects from some of the largest firms, small firms, everyone in between, same thing on the BPM side.
Speaker 2:And I do think that part of the reason I was so excited about that post is I'm a firm believer that the spec really is the platform that connects the industry. You know people don't like specs, they're kind of pushed away and done at the last minute, right. But in a lot of ways it really is kind of the connective tissue that makes the project happen, right. So I think there's a lot of you know ways to innovate within specifications and I think that they should be brought up to the you know surface taught in school, maybe perhaps, which seems like most people never get any experience with specifications in school. But yeah, I do think they're a really important part of the ecosystem and they are connecting most of the stakeholders.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I think that's an important point. Now to your point about teaching it in school. We may be seeing it more on the academia side as more programs are combining, say yes, I think, specifications, and you know the building materials obviously is what we're talking about. I mean, I think those are the things that are touching everybody. But I think it's also kind of interesting because you know from the experience of working working in architecture and in AE offices and similar for 20 some odd years what happens.
Speaker 1:Right, the product rep comes in and does a lunch and learn and I've got a whole thing on lunch and learns and chocolate chip cookies, basically. But the product rep comes in and does a lunch and learn right, hey, specify my product, here's our catalog, here's our specs. Somebody's making a selection, right, how does that relate to the owner's needs or the user, whatever we're calling, calling our uh, uh, our client at that point? And there's, there's this whole almost, almost chain of custody in a way, from you know the the product manufacturer has developed a product, developed the spec, et cetera. It's passed down through the reps to the design professionals, um, into the documents to the design professionals, into the documents to the contractors.
Speaker 1:And I find it very curious. I think, as we know right, there are many things that we do because this is the way we've always done it. This is the way it's been done for a long, long time, the way it's been done for a long, long time. I'm very curious what this starts to look like in the future, based on the value that it produces or not for the end user, for the owner, for the operator, something like that. How much thought do you give to things like that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, quite a bit. I mean I was really lucky working at Conspectus to work with a really brilliant team of specifiers. So they're a specifications consultancy firm first and foremost, so they kind of have this roster of amazing specifiers and when firms either don't have the time to write specs or don't have an experienced specifier on staff, they come to conspectus to have them write for projects. And I was really lucky to learn a ton from those folks and also kind of innovate on you know how can we create more collaboration and specifications. Because in a lot of ways the specifiers are the you know product Jedis, if you will, of the industry. Right, they have that wealth of knowledge around products and applications. They have the networks of reps that they've worked with. But in a lot of ways again, they're kind of pushed to the side and then it's that last minute oh, we got to get the spec done, let's get the specifier going.
Speaker 2:Part of the premise that we were working on at Conspectus was like, hey, let's start the specifications much earlier in the process. Let's let's invite the owner to the process to be able to be commenting on you know systems and assemblies in a uniformat way and then translating that over to you know, a master format, csi master format, which is what AIA master spec is formatted in. You know, let's try and bridge some of those communication gaps. And I think, in a lot of ways, specifications, not they haven't been left behind, but they have kind of been consolidated and locked in in a kind of walled garden. You know, master spec is very, you know, tightly held on to right, but it really is an industry resource in a lot of ways. And I think a lot about how can you get more people involved in specifications, in product selections, more early in the process. I think it's a really, really important thing to start thinking about products very early and often, sometimes even in concept, if you can right, some owners care about products, some owners don't. It depends on the building type, right, what the purpose of the building is. Is it to flip the building in five years? Or is this a school that we need this HVAC system to have really great air quality for our children and run for 20 or 30 years? So obviously, specifications come in different contexts and different project types, but I do think it is really important for the sake of collaboration to get people involved as early and often, and all of the stakeholders in the chain too. Letting the BPM take a look at your spec. Are we specifying your products correctly? We have these two or three other options.
Speaker 2:In a lot of ways, product reps are the on-the-ground experts. In a lot of ways, product reps are the on the ground experts, right, they're not just salespeople, they're a wealth of knowledge about not only their products but all the other competitors in the industry. Yeah, so getting them involved it was fun. We had a licensing model where you could invite everyone to the project and you would be amazed at the amount of pushback you'd get. Like people don't really, you know, especially you know architects and engineers. They don't want owners to see how the sausage is made, right, or they don't want to bring in the BPM because, oh, they're going to, you know, somehow finagle and force me to make them basis of design right.
Speaker 2:But in, yeah, in a lot of ways that open collaboration can really produce better projects at the end of the day. But yeah, again, you know, my career comes from kind of especially in AAC. I break it up into two halves, right. One, I kind of came from a technology startup background and then I had the opportunity to get into AAC with AIA master spec. So that's kind of my view into the industry and where I've learned everything kind of branching out from that. But so I am biased on the importance of the spec. But I do think it is a very important kind of platform that connects a lot of the stakeholders.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree. I think your point about the building product manufacturers or the product reps right. They are experts, they do know the competition, even if they do sometimes show up with oatmeal raisin cookies, which are the most evil cookies on the planet. If you disagree, just put a comment in the show notes below.
Speaker 2:They have to have chocolate chips. They have to have chocolate chips, then that's a passable cookie.
Speaker 1:Just don't pretend to be what you're not that's my biggest requirement, um, so, all right, so, so specs. Specs are the thread that's holding it all together. That's just tying all the stakeholders stakeholders together. Um, you know that. I know that a lot of the people that are listening, listening to this episode right now from architecture firms, engineering firms, construction firms, maybe they're developers, maybe they're building product manufacturers. Why research? What do we need to be researching right now, in this environment, in 2025? What's the purpose of the work that you're doing right now?
Speaker 2:Yeah, great question.
Speaker 2:So Integrated Owners Forum is what we're building and you know, I think the purpose of the research comes from the perspective of empowering the owners, right, giving them more information, giving them a better window into how their projects are being built, giving them more information and really the projects are being built, giving them more information.
Speaker 2:Really, the whole goal is to create a more informed owner because, at the end of the day, you know they're the entrepreneurs, they're the ones taking on the risk, they're the ones creating the built environment around us, regardless of, you know, whether they're a multifamily developer or college.
Speaker 2:You know, building buildings for their college or a hospital system, right, they're the ones taking on the risk to build the new facility that's going to be used by the populace. So I think the whole intent behind our research program is to really bring out and suss out, not get to the core problems, not the you know symptoms of the problem, right, because everyone has an opinion on what are all the problems in our industry. We want to get really to the core big problems and not just the kind of surface level symptoms that are the annoyances that everyone deals with on a day to day basis and I think, if we can, through our research and through the conversations we're having with the different stakeholders in AEC, if we can find those core problems, bring them to the surface, get perspective on them, we're going to create a lot of value for owners and creating really integrated or much more informed owners long term.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think those are good points and they remind of of all the hats that I wear here at kp ready company, you know, running our mastermind program but also our startup incubator. Our incubator is focused on early stage startups and basically we spend all of our time with our startup founders working on customer discovery, which is not altogether different than what you're talking about, right? It's hey, here's your idea, here's the product that you're building or you want to build, et cetera. The problem that you're trying to solve what can we learn? How much can we learn about this problem as it applies to our? You know, in incubator world it's called ICP, your ideal customer profile, but I see the research that you're doing and the way that you're talking about it being quite similar to the customer discovery that we have all of our startup founders going through.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, and I think you know technology is changing so fast right now. It's a breakneck speed, right, and owners, I think, in a lot of ways and you know, we'll find this out more through our research but it's hard to keep up with everything that's out there. Right, only just the problem. But what are the solutions out there? What are all of these innovative folks bringing to the table that could provide more value to the owner? And, if they can take advantage of those solutions, hopefully, at the end of the day, they're going to create better projects that are more efficient, that are more collaborative, that get done faster and, especially with all the kind of economic headwinds and things that are, um, you know things that are going on in our world right now, those are all moving very fast too. Um, if we can provide information on the various solutions that are out there to owners, uh, hopefully they can take advantage of that to to deal with, uh, you know a lot of the uh tumult, if you will, that that's happening in the world today.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, and I always look at owners. You know there's a spectrum, right, I'll say that there's a spectrum of unsophisticated to sophisticated owners, and that's no judgment on the human beings, but it's hey, if you have never worked with an architect, engineer or contractor before, you're not going to be a sophisticated owner. You don't know what the process is like, you don't know what you don't know, etc. Etc. Maybe this is a one-time thing, for you it's a dream house or your pizza shop or whatever it is. Other end of the spectrum is what I typically call a sophisticated owner. Maybe it is a college or university that right now has 15 residence halls under construction or whatever's going on, and so they know the process, they know the players. But also, I think, even at the end of the spectrum, where the sophisticated owners reside, I think there's still some aspect of they don't know what they don't know, which is not to say that they're the only ones, right, there's also architects, engineers, contractors, et cetera. Growth mindset and learning is incredibly important in this space. But when you're talking about the specifications, the materials, building products and things like that, I don't know a whole lot of owners that are keeping up to date with all of the innovation that's coming out of that space and how it might impact their goals.
Speaker 1:I thought you laid it out really well earlier. Right, is this something that we're going to sell? Is this something that we're going to keep and operate? That's going to serve generations of students here at our university, or you know what are the goals. So that really resonates with me. The way that you were talking about that, as you think about the research and a lot of the research that you were talking about that, as you think about the research and a lot of the research that you and the rest of the team are doing is early. Right, it's a lot of it, especially in this framed in this way. That we're talking about right now is very early. So you've talked about the fact that you're going out and doing this exploration that's similar, maybe, to customer discovery. How do you see this process going and do you have any hot takes on things that you may learn through this research process?
Speaker 2:I don't know about hot takes. I will say it's been.
Speaker 1:Sorry to interrupt, but no one has ever equated hot take and specifications. Yeah, just throwing that out there, Sorry, continue.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, so I maybe would have one kind of hot take. It's kind of a high level hot take, but I will say it's been really fun building the research program out. You know we get a great team. You know Dave and Frank. It's been awesome working with them.
Speaker 2:I think the challenge that we're facing is a lot of the research we're going to be doing is conversational right, it's qualitative research. The research we're going to be doing is conversational right, it's qualitative research. We're trying to understand the why and the how of the big problems you know in the industry. Right, it's. How do we then take those conversations and make it quantitative and break it down in a way that can be digestible? For you know our owners that will be following us and reading. You know our research.
Speaker 2:So we've been formulating a strategy where we have a set of questions. Right, we want to keep it as open-ended, these conversations, as open-ended as possible. We want to be able to let people flow all the way down to the big problems, right, get past the kind of small talk and the generalities of a lot of the symptoms of the problems that we're seeing, right, and really get to that core. But we have a set of you know, 10 questions, 12 questions, just kind of a guideline, guidepost, right. But the reason we've kind of set those up is a way where we can take those qualitative answers and be able to quantify them and lay them out in a way that, you know, from my perspective I'm coming from the BPM side I'll be focused on building product manufacturers I know BPM is sometimes a term that some people don't know.
Speaker 2:Some people know it the manufacturers you know, and suppliers within the industry. You know we want to have a certain set of questions that can relate to them and is contextual to them, but also is trying to poke at the same things that we're asking the architects, the engineers you know, the construction professionals you know, gcs, contractors, subs you know, the actual workers on the ground, right, but then also the owners too. So it's been a fun path of kind of formulating our strategy and setting it up in a way that's, you know, formulaic, but also still trying to keep questions open-ended so we can get as much good information as possible.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I didn't mention this at the beginning, but we've talked about the research team and you're part of the research team and everything, but we didn't talk about the fact that your focus on the building and product manufacturer that's your background, all right, that's what you're bringing to the project. Zig is bringing architecture right.
Speaker 2:Experience in architecture, absolutely.
Speaker 1:And that's a good point.
Speaker 1:Everybody on the team has a wealth of knowledge in the area that they're coming from so Zig's coming from architecture and Frank's coming from engineering and David's coming from from construction, and hope is coming from from owner side, and that that's also one of the unique aspects of of this research team here at KP Reddico is that that we have sometimes we call it and I don't you know, somebody may well comment you know, somebody may well comment, you know in a section on YouTube or whatever, that this is not exactly the right term, but sometimes at least, I use I'll fall on the sword for this one. Sometimes we use the term circular economy, whether or not this is technically a circular economy. We're getting all the players involved here deep experience in all the stakeholder areas here, and so that's one of the things that I think is really exciting about this research team itself and the work that you're doing right now. So you know, no matter where you are in the ecosystem, let's say, of the stakeholders, there's someone on the team that has a deep experience in your area.
Speaker 2:It's been great to learn from the team and as far as hot takes, I'll try and formulate one off the cuff here and again it's coming from my niche experience, but really from kind of the software and tech side of things. I think in a lot of ways the processes and the way the industry has evolved has kind of been like the economy has gone ahead right and you're trying to catch up with the demands of the industry, right. You know, obviously there's been lulls, the seventies, all that stuff, right. But I think the industry has been consistently trying to catch up with the demand and oftentimes the demand is what holds back like or fosters that. This is the way we've done things, mentality right, cause you're just so busy like, hey, let's just do it the way we've done it before, right. I think in a lot of ways the way the software side of the industry has developed it's been to kind of nurture that way of thinking and make people feel comfortable, because I've found this, you know, selling into some of the largest firms they're very risk averse. Implementing a new tool at a large firm is a real headache, right, it can be a real challenge, and so a lot of the software companies kind of come from the perspective of like, hey, we just want to innovate, just enough, but we also want to be able to do things the way that they've kind of always been done. So there's that kind of push and pull between innovation but also being able to have product market fit with your customers, right?
Speaker 2:My hot take would be I think that, from what I've seen on the software side, the licensing model of the software itself is a huge hindrance to the industry. So most software is licensed on a per seat basis, right. So you know you run into instances and I had this happen. All the time. People will be calling me up like, hey, we need three more seats, we needed them. Yesterday we got to add these people to the project. They need to get their input in there as well, right. So I think that's created a lot of constraints, both monetary too, because seats get expensive as you expand it out or scale it out.
Speaker 2:Through a large firm, it can be a big cost center, right. Where does that cost eventually get passed off to? Right? At the end of the day, it's the owner. I would also say that the silos of data within these firms, as you're taking on a lot of these different solutions or software, different tools, they all kind of come with their own data silos. They all kind of come with their own data silos so it creates a fragmentation that is almost an internal hindrance to collaboration, communication and transparency. So in a lot of ways I think that there is a really innovative opportunity for a lot of the startups out there.
Speaker 2:Maybe for the startup folks listening to rethink the licensing model. Right, you know thinking about, hey, let's just give everyone access and charge one large cost. Right, but right off the bat for a large firm they can scale throughout the firm very quickly. Or maybe we're doing pricing on a per project basis. Right, where it can be a line item that can be passed off to the owner eventually, but it could be more cost effective. But it still is open-ended.
Speaker 2:From a seat perspective, you allow the collaboration to happen. So maybe not too hot of a take. But I do think the kind of software industrial complex, if you will that exists in our industry, a lot of the old stakeholders that are there, I think in a lot of ways even some of the new startups just kind of mimic their not their business models as a whole, but kind of their go-to-market strategies, the tool that they're trying to use Right. So that would be my hot take. I think business models need to evolve very quickly. In tech and SaaS to serve this industry in a better and more collaborative way. In tech and SaaS to serve this industry in a better and more collaborative way.
Speaker 1:Now for those of you listening, this is not a gotcha moment. Ted already knows this, but we're going to.
Speaker 2:We have recorded.
Speaker 1:We've recorded that take. It's on the record and we're going to come back in a few months and we're going to record another episode and see how that played out. We're going to do that with the whole team. Actually, excellent, you'll hear a series of interview with each of our research team and then we'll come back in a couple of months and revisit it and say, hey, ted, how's it going? What are you learning? What about when you talked about software licenses? Is that playing out the way that you thought? And I like that.
Speaker 1:I like this idea of coming back and revisiting and I like the idea. You know, what you're saying is hey, I think this is how it's going to play out, because that's an important component of customer discovery. Right, that's an important component of research. Is this is what I think, but I'm not attached to that? Right, that's an important component of research. Is this is what I think, but I'm not attached to that? Right, I'm going to let that go and we're actually going to learn this.
Speaker 1:Um, we're not going to create a bias around what I think is going to happen. Just, hey, this is this is me answering Jeff's question about a hot take, and then we're going to see how this actually uh, how this actually plays out in our research. Um, so, stay tuned, everyone, uh, and we're also I will also give you a panel discussion at some point in the future where we bring the whole research team together, uh, and we just basically have a big collaborative discussion about what everyone is learning through the research process. So I think this component of the podcast is going to be a lot of fun over the next couple of months. As we flesh this out, ted, as you think about what we've been talking about, what you and I have been been talking about, and you think about the people that are listening to this, this may be the first they're hearing of of the fact that we have a research team here at kp ready co.
Speaker 1:It may be the first they're hearing of of this new research that we're doing right now. As you think about the listeners, what is it that they should be maybe taking away from or wondering about, based on our conversation? Maybe what should they be paying attention to, based on what we're talking about today?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a great question. I mean, I think we really come from the perspective of putting the owners at the center of the conversation and I think, whether you're a building product manufacturer, you're a contractor, you're a general contractor, you're an architect engineer, at the end of the day, the projects are being financed by the owner. So I would say, focusing on that as your true end of the line customer right At the center of everything is a good perspective to have and to think about all the things that you're doing on a day-to-day basis. Is this eventually gonna provide value to the project and the owner? I would say, also, just get involved as much as possible.
Speaker 2:I think that the fun thing about being involved with the team is just the wealth of knowledge and different channels that I've been exposed to and different innovators and thinkers that are in the industry. I think you know the team at KP ReadyCo is fantastic. They're putting out a ton of awesome content on a regular basis. So, yeah, finding ways to get more involved in community. If you have the bug of like, hey, there's something wrong in this industry or I know that this industry needs to change for the better, hopefully with that outcome being for the better of the owner, you know. Get involved as much as possible. Join a mastermind group whether it's KP's or others, you know, try and find those resources to get out in front of the things that you're thinking and to listen to the people that are kind of on the bleeding edge, if you will, of innovation in our industry.
Speaker 2:I'm sure most folks that are listening to this are probably already doing that, but in a lot of ways like especially for me, you know, it's really exposed me to a lot more being being a part of the team, and that's something that I'm kind of. I'm a very voracious, curious person and learner, you know, and it's allowed me to feed that appetite in a lot more ways. So, yeah, I mean that would be my takeaway Get involved, you know. Network with folks, you know, as much as possible and, you know, sign up for everything that KP ReadyCo is doing because, you know, generally speaking, it's a fantastic resource and a great network to be tapped into.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's great advice. Things that we've talked about here Ted and I have talked about, obviously, the KP ReadyCo research team. That's our purpose for being here. Ted's a senior research advisor on that team. We've also talked about the Integrated Owners Forum and that's actually going to be rolled out live in a big event that we'll have in Atlanta on May 20th in a big event that we'll have in Atlanta on May 20th. We talked about our mastermind groups. We have innovation leaders and construction technology leaders and early and mid-career professionals. We're getting ready to roll out our sustainability leaders mastermind group and we talked about our startup incubator. Probably some other things that I've forgotten about in the last 20 minutes that we've been talking about, but anything that we talked about that needs it, we'll have a link in the show notes below. Our production team is really good at picking up on the things that Ted and I have been talking about. They'll put the links to all of these things so you can find more information about everything that we've talked about in the show notes below.
Speaker 1:Please feel free to comment. Probably, youtube is the easiest place for you to comment versus one of the podcast the audio only platforms. But leave a comment, leave a question, leave something for us to respond to there on in the comments, and we will come back in a future episode with answers and responses to those. And, as always, feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn. Reach out to Ted on LinkedIn.
Speaker 1:We're pretty accessible. We're not. We're not quite as buried as as KP is on LinkedIn or other places. So reach out to us, connect with us, let us know what your questions are, what your comments are, what your interest is, and we'll do our best to get you involved where it's most appropriate. All right, I am joined today by Ted Kinney. He is a senior research analyst at KP ReadyCo that's where we're all from and he is part of our research team that has embarked on this new round of research specifically focused on the Integrated Owners Forum. So, ted, thank you very much for joining me today. I appreciate it. It's been a fun conversation and I'm looking forward to getting back together on a future episode where we find out what you're learning through this process.
Speaker 2:Pleasure speaking with you, Jeff.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely looking forward to it, absolutely. Thank you, and thank you to all of those, all of you out there that are listening. Thanks for coming back week after week for these episodes, back week after week for these episodes, whether it's me and KP, or me and Frank Lazzaro talking about AI, or me, and now every member of the research team. Before we wrap up this version of the podcast, I also bring to you some of our mastermind members and guest speakers that we have in our mastermind program, et cetera. So thank you for listening, thanks for participating, have in our mastermind program, et cetera. So thank you for listening, thanks for for participating and, and, as always, thanks for all of your questions, your comments, et cetera.
Speaker 1:So this is KP Unpacked. Again. This is where this podcast is the. It's where we unpack the biggest ideas in AEC and AI and innovation. We're focused on all of those things and this is where they all collide. It's powered by KP ReadyCo and we break down the trends, the technology, the discussions and the strategies that are shaping the places where you work, where you play, where you live and where you worship. So thank you for joining us and we'll be back again next week. Thanks, everybody.