The 66th annual conference, scheduled for Charlottetown this year was held online due to the COVID pandemic and was again a successful exchange of technical information.
The conference was held over 4 days, Nov 15-18, and attended by over 200 delegates. The technical content was presented online and questions were submitted during and immediately following the presentation and answered live by the presenting author. The Q&A functionality of the conference app proved to be quite popular and almost all papers ran out of time to answer all the questions.
The pre-conference course was entitled ‘Placement & Compaction of Asphalt Pavements’ and was presented by Todd Mansell. The course itself had 155 registrants and was well received. A huge shout-out to Todd for volunteering his time to prepare and present this course. It is the 2nd time Todd has presented the preconference course for the association.
Following the course, the opening CUPGA workshop focused on green technologies, with regional presentations from each of the regional directors, and presentations that delved into Warm Mix Asphalt and Longitudinal Joint Compaction.
The contractor’s workshop focused on the utilization of recycled asphalt included presentations that examined availability of RAP, and contractors’ perspectives on best practices for handling and use of RAP.
Social activities were daily meetings amongst attendees and introduced the use of new software tools, Wonder.me which allowed participants to have conversations in small break-out groups. This gave participants the opportunity to catch up with old colleagues and introduce themselves to new ones. Although complicated by the 4½ hour time difference across the country they proved popular and well-received. Miss the conference? You can register for access to the recorded presentations including all Q&A portions. The post-conference registration is open to members and is $150 for the conference and $50 for the course when registered together, or members can register for just the course for $85.
Attendees can now access the recorded portions of the conference they wish in the Members area work groups. The menus will be visible to those who were registered for the conference/Course. The course is accessible both via the 2021 Conference directory or the ‘Courses’ both of which will only be visible if you were registered for the course.