BUILDING BONDS ON ICE

Professional Estimating Group (PEG) kicks off 2023 with curling funspiel

By Shayna Wiwierski

Local Edmonton estimators traded in their hardhats for curling stones earlier this year.

The ECA and the Professional Estimating Group (PEG) held their curling funspiel on February 23, 2023 at the Shamrock Curling Club in Edmonton. The event was the 2023 kickoff event for PEG and sold out at 60 people.

Presented by Kerr Interior System Ltd. and O’Hanlon Paving, the networking event featured 14 teams of four people each, where they played three games of curling followed by drinks and networking. The event was also catered by the Drift Food Truck. The funspiel was held from 10:15 a.m. to 4 p.m. and featured a Heroes or Villains theme with a prize for the best-dressed team.

“For something funny and quirky, we had a theme and it was left up to everyone’s interpretation of what they thought it was,” says Taylor Lewis, events and engagement coordinator for the

ECA. “We had lots of people dressed as Edmonton Oilers versus the Calgary Flames, as well as people dressed as Avengers characters. We also had some local Edmonton heroes, such as [Bert Gibbs, the man] who tackled the arsonist on Whyte Ave [in 2019]. It helped to set the tone and bring everyone together.”

This was the first time in five years that the ECA has held a curling-related event and was also the first time that the PEG has done a curling event. The idea came from the PEG Leadership Team, some of which members curl recreationally.

This was the first time in five years that the ECA has held a curling-related event.

“Curling is a very social sport,” says Eric Hanssen, member of the PEG Leadership Team and estimating manager at O’Hanlon Paving Ltd. “It’s a nice sport that not a lot of people have tried. There were a few of us on the leadership group who were avid curlers so we decided to open one up and see if we could get some interest.”

Hanssen, who has been a member of the PEG Leadership Team for a year and a half, says that the feedback was very positive. He says that people had a great time and that the tournament was a lot of fun. It also brought in a lot of new curlers. The funspiel started with a lesson from other members on how to curl and he says that everyone had a great time.

The PEG was formed in late 2017 and is focused on bringing together and supporting estimators, spec writers, quantity surveyors, and project managers who work hard to keep the project pipeline full.

“Estimators typically don’t get recognized in any other mentor groups, so PEG gives us an outlet for that,” says Hanssen. “Typically, we don’t meet in person a lot so it gives us an avenue to do that. You can share ideas, meet other estimators face to face, and learn more about the industry.”

The PEG group is a pretty tight-knit group as they get to meet other people in the sector within the Edmonton area. Hanssen says that there are no other events that cater directly to estimators, and PEG provides a much-needed outlet for those working in this particular industry.

The PEG group typically holds three to four events a year in addition to the annual PEG Golf Tournament, which takes place this year on August 23, 2023 at the Petroleum Golf and Country Club. The golf tournament is currently sold out with 144 golfers. Lewis says that these events are always a huge success and the events are unique as well.

“Their events are really cool. They always have some sort of estimating activity. One last year was a mystery challenge, so the team members of the PEG came up and, I don’t know how they did it, but they calculated how many pints of beer would fill the volume of the upstairs of the [MKT Fresh Food Beer Market]. By answering that question, you got extra questions to build a structure that could hold a can of beans without crumbling,” says Lewis. “They had paper, tape, certain materials and we put them into groups of six or so. They had to build this structure which would hold this can of beans without breaking or crumbling.”

She adds that it was nice to see industry leaders, who at the time were strangers, work together and make new friends, as well as foster connections and network while doing a fun activity. She says that typically the PEG events bring in around 60 to 70 people.

For the PEG group, a large part of being a member, like with all ECA groups, is the ability to network with other like-minded individuals. Lewis says that PEG members are very close and they often come to events together and meet up on their own outside of official gatherings.

Although it’s still early, and there are a few PEG events left for 2023, Lewis says that the feedback from the curling funspiel was positive and they are already getting requests to do it again in the future.

“People are like ‘we have to grow this next year, it was great, it needs to be bigger’… it was a super fun event,” says Lewis. “I have only gotten super positive feedback and [people asking] when will it happen again. It’s more of a winter activity, but even the sponsors are looking to be a part of it next year, so that means we have to do it again.” u