SAN ANTONIO, TX — RSM US LLP hosted its 17th annual Construction Industry Conference at The JW Marriott Resort in San Antonio. This year’s event gathered nearly 120 construction professionals from around the country to learn more about important industry topics of today from several national and local experts.

The day kicked off with RSM’s Chief Economist Joe Brusuelas. Brusuelas discussed timely economic issues in the United States and global economy and trends within the construction industry, the robust labor market and the potential for an economic downturn.

An overview of robotic process automation (RPA) was presented by RSM’s Chris Wetmore. Wetmore discussed how contractors could use RPA to create efficiencies in the back office by using a bot to perform low-value, repetitive tasks and to decrease the possibility of human errors.

Randy Stutzman with FMI presented on risk management strategies and David Pesce from Hartford Bond gave a surety industry update.

After lunch, attendees heard from CFOs at Texas construction companies, including Paul Hensley from HOLT CAT, Diane DeCou from Berry and Joe McLaughlin from Austin Industries. The CFO panel discussed how their companies are innovating and addressing big issues such as workforce, technology, operational efficiencies and regulatory matters.

To close out the day, RSM presented tax, accounting and HR updates. Tom Wright talked about some of the tax issues affecting contractors after tax reform, including the Section 199A deduction, meals and entertainment deductions and touched on major topics of opportunity zones and Wayfair and multi-state taxes.

RSM’s next conference will take place in November 2020.