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Structural Steel Industry Celebrates 5th Annual SteelDay with Nationwide Events on 4 October

08/07/2013 - The fifth annual SteelDay will be held on 4 October 2013. Hosted by the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) and its partners, SteelDay is your opportunity to see first-hand how the structural steel industry contributes to building America.

Where will you be on SteelDay this year? Whether you visit a structural steel facility, tour a job site or attend a seminar, join the structural steel industry’s largest educational and networking event as it returns for a fifth successive year on 4 October 2013. Hosted by the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC), its members and partners, SteelDay is your opportunity to see first-hand how the structural steel industry contributes to building America. To learn more and sign up for this year’s events, visit www.SteelDay.org.
SteelDay is a great opportunity for architects, engineers, contractors, owners, university faculty and students, government officials and others to see the structural steel industry’s latest technologies and construction processes in action, learn directly from the industry experts and build new relationships.
“There is no other single day in the nation where so much valuable information is exchanged across all disciplines of the structural steel industry,” said Ross Allbritton, AISC industry mobilization manager.
New to SteelDay this year is a free “Innovations in Steel” webinar that will be shown at select SteelDay events. The presentation will demonstrate how recent steel industry innovations allow engineers and architects to easily express their design concepts and overcome client serviceability concerns. Attendees will gain knowledge on how steel can provide cost-effective and time-saving project solutions and can also receive continuing education credit (1.0 Contact Hour/1.0 PDH/0.1 CEU/1.0 AIA CES LU) for viewing the presentation and taking a quiz. The presentation will be delivered by Tabitha Stine, S.E., P.E., LEED AP, AISC’s director of technical marketing, who will be available to answer your questions on SteelDay via Twitter (@TabySu1). Those who join the conversation by using hashtag #Steelovation or “tweet” AISC (@AISC) using hashtag #SteelDay will be entered into a drawing to win a Google Nexus 7 tablet.
Year after year, SteelDay proves to be an invaluable experience for AEC professionals as well as students who are considering careers in the industry, including Rose Milavitz, a civil engineering student at Northwestern University. Last year on SteelDay, she toured Chicago’s first Girder-Slab project, an eight-story apartment building in Evanston, Ill., and said “I’ve never been in a building that was in the process of being built, so that was really cool to see. I think opportunities like SteelDay are important for students so that we’re able to see things that we learn about in the classroom. We don’t get a lot of chances to see things for real.”
Even if you’ve attended a SteelDay event in the past, you haven’t seen it all. Here’s a glimpse of what you can expect to see at some of this year’s events:
  • Structural steel fabricators: Learn how structural steel is prepared for a building or bridge using off-site, controlled conditions, which ensure a consistently high-quality product while reducing errors and costly fixes at the job site. Also learn why most steel fabricators use 3D models/BIM to streamline production and increase efficiency.
  • Steel mills/producers: Steel is the most recycled material on earth, and today’s modern mills produce steel containing an average of 90% recycled material. Witness steel recycling capabilities and procedures at scrap metal recycling and steel production facilities, and develop an understanding of rolling schedules and steel availability.
  • Steel service centers: See what thousands of tons of steel looks like! And learn about the crucial role these facilities play in the industry.
  • HSS producers: Watch the fascinating process of manufacturing top-quality hollow structural sections (HSS) and learn about shape availability.
  • Bender-rollers: Curved steel doesn’t just happen; precision instruments and experts are responsible for these increasingly popular architectural and structural elements. Observe the very specialized and skilled process of bending and rolling steel shapes.
  • Galvanizers: See the Hot-Dip Galvanizing (HDG) process, from staging the material through to its receiving a full protective coating against corrosion.

In addition to connecting with local structural steel representatives at various facilities across the U.S., this year’s SteelDay will feature live webinars and special events in major metropolitan areas including New York City, Chicago, Washington, D.C., and others.
In NYC, celebrate SteelDay in conjunction with the Architectural Record Innovation Conference on SteelDay Eve, 3 October. The Innovation Conference explores new trends in design, fabrication and construction for the architectural community, and AISC invites you to be the guest of the structural steel industry at this conference. The first 10 registrations for this event on the SteelDay website at www.SteelDay.org/innovationconf will receive a complimentary registration for the conference. Subsequent registrants will receive a US$200 discount off of the US$545 conference fee.
In Chicago, AISC invites you to a full day of free events on SteelDay which includes breakfast and a morning shop drawing seminar (from 7:30 a.m. to noon) titled “Shop Model Review and Approval,” as well as an afternoon tour (from noon to 3 p.m.) of the city’s new Northwestern Outpatient Care Pavilion project. You’ll learn how BIM was used for clash detection and explore other unique aspects of the project including the 90-ft span steel pedestrian bridge currently under construction and the challenging canopy which uses AESS. You’ll also receive a free lunch and a brief presentation by members of the project team. You can choose to attend either event or both, however, space is limited. For details on each session and to register, go to www.SteelDay.org/BIMChicago.
To find and register for SteelDay events by state and event type, visit www.SteelDay.org/events (updates will continuously be posted to the map as new events and details are added). You can also keep up with SteelDay updates and discussions via AISC’s social media channels at www.facebook.com/AISCdotORG, www.twitter.com/aisc, and www.youtube.com/AISCsteelTV. 

For questions about attending or hosting SteelDay events, please contact AISC’s Jenny McDonald at 312.670.5433, ormcdonald@aisc.org.