8:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m.
Education Track Sessions - Session Block 1
Excavator
E1: Excavation & Trenching Hazards: Recognizing Risk Before It Becomes Fatal
Presenter: Cindy Kyle (Pate Construction) | Room: Cottonwood | Capacity: 80 (Theater)
Session Block: 1 | Time: 8:00 am – 9:00 am | Length: 60 minutes
A trench can collapse in seconds — faster than any worker can react. Trenching remains one of the deadliest activities in construction, yet the vast majority of cave-ins are preventable. In this fast-moving, field-focused session, Cindy Kyle shows how failures actually happen and how to spot danger before anyone steps into the hole. You'll see what OSHA expects from employers and crews, understand the pivotal role of the Competent Person, and learn to read the warning signs — soil conditions, spoil placement, water, vibration — that separate a routine dig from a fatal one.
Who should attend: Field excavators, foremen, supervisors, safety managers, and utility contractors responsible for excavation or trench safety.
What you’ll take away:
Recognize high-risk trench conditions and warning signs before entering or continuing work
Identify common excavation hazards and failure modes
Understand the role of the Competent Person and OSHA expectations
Know which protective systems (sloping, shoring, shielding) are required and when
Locator / Utility Owner Member
L1: Safety Commission Best Practices and Standard: What You Need to Know
Presenter: Jacquee Wilson (Colorado Safety Commission), Annemarie Bluff (Authentic Drilling, Inc.), Erick Anderson (City & County of Denver) | Room: Conifer | Capacity: 100 (Theater)
Session Block: 1 | Time: 8:00 am – 9:00 am | Length: 60 minutes
The Underground Damage Prevention Safety Commission has created seven (might be up to eight by October) Best Practices and one Standard to provide guidance to those working in the Colorado excavation industry. Do you use these in your everyday work? Did you know that if you're involved in a complaint hearing, you could be found in violation of the Standard just like you could be found in violation of the law? If this is all news to you, this session will provide you an overview of the Safety Commission's Best Practices and Standard so that you know how they apply to you.
Who should attend: Locators, members, excavators, and anyone who could find themselves in a complaint hearing.
What you’ll take away:
Know the current Best Practices and the enforceable Standard
Understand how each applies to your specific role
Recognize how they are used in complaint hearings
Put them to work in your everyday operations
Locator / Utility Owner Member
L4: The Basics of Locating
Presenter: Mario Mora (Staking U) | Room: Larkspur | Capacity: 80 (Theater)
Session Block: 1 | Time: 8:00 am – 9:00 am | Length: 60 minutes
Every safe dig starts with knowing what's beneath your feet — and knowing how the locate actually gets made. In this ground-level primer, Mario Mora opens up the science behind locating: how a transmitter energizes a utility line and creates a magnetic field, and how a receiver reads that field using peak, null, triangulation, and digital-depth methods to pinpoint the line and its depth.
You'll see how frequency selection, grounding, placement, and connection type — conductive versus inductive — change what a locator can trace, and why current levels (good, OK, or poor) tell you how reliable that trace really is. It all comes back to one core idea: current creates a field, the field's shape reveals the line, and tracing to a logical, visible endpoint confirms the locate. If you've ever wondered what really happens after you call 811, this session connects the dots — and gives newer crews the confidence to both trust and question the marks on the ground.
Who should attend: Excavators and field crews newer to the industry, apprentice locators, and anyone who wants to understand how utility locating actually works.
What you’ll take away:
Understand how transmitters and receivers find and trace buried utilities
Interpret peak, null, triangulation, and depth readings — and what affects their accuracy
See how frequency, grounding, and conductive vs. inductive connections change results
Follow the current–shape–endpoint logic that confirms a reliable locate
Pipeline Operator
P1: Pipeline Safety Program Updates
Presenter: Casey Hensley (Public Utilities Commission) | Room: Bluebell | Capacity: 50 (Theatre)
Session Block: 1 | Time: 8:00 am – 9:00 am | Length: 60 minutes
Colorado's pipeline safety rules keep evolving — and this session is your annual briefing on what's changed and what's coming. Casey Hensley walks pipeline operators through updated rules and their effective dates, questions of jurisdiction and authority, reporting requirements, and the PUC's initiatives to improve and address compliance (including the value of regularly scheduled operator meetings). Expect asset-specific guidance across master meter and LPG systems, municipal and 60106 operators, and gathering lines — from definitions and turnover to enforcement partnerships.
Who should attend: Pipeline operators, utility owners, and compliance staff.
What you’ll take away:
Know the updated rules and their effective dates
Understand reporting requirements, jurisdiction, and authority
See asset-specific guidance for master meter/LPG, municipal/60106, and gathering systems
Learn how the PUC is approaching compliance and operator engagement
Management / Professional Development
M1: Talk Before You Dig: Communication Habits That Prevent Damage
Presenter: Jason Jacobson (J Mikel Solutions LLC) | Room: Primrose | Capacity: 80 (Theater)
Session Block: 1 | Time: 8:00 am – 9:00 am | Length: 60 minutes
Every excavator has a story about a locator who held up the job. Every locator has a story about an excavator who jumped the gun. Both stories are true — and that's exactly the problem.
Damage prevention doesn't fail because people don't care. It fails when schedule pressure, incomplete information, and unchecked assumptions turn two groups working toward the same goal into adversaries. This session uses the lens of perception — how we see a situation shapes how we respond to it — to help field leaders and organizational decision-makers recognize when their read on a situation might be incomplete, and what to do about it.
You'll leave with practical tools for having difficult conversations before pressure peaks, replacing assumptions with verification habits, and shifting the excavator–locator dynamic from "us and them" to a shared mission. Because the most effective damage prevention happens when both sides can see what the other is carrying.
Who should attend: Field leaders, supervisors, and organizational decision-makers on both the excavator and locator side — plus office staff who manage handoffs.
What you’ll take away:
Recognize when your read on a situation is incomplete — and how perception drives conflict
Start difficult conversations before schedule pressure peaks
Replace assumptions with simple verification habits
Shift the excavator–locator relationship from “us and them” to a shared mission
All Audiences
A1: Mock Damage Deposition: What Gets Asked After a Hit
Presenter: Jim Proszek (Halle Still) & Anthony “Tony” Jorgenson (Jorgenson LLC) | Room: Aspen Amphitheatre | Capacity: 102 Classroom
Session Block: 1 | Length: 60 minutes | Time: 8:00 am – 9:00 am
The questions come fast after a damage — and "I didn't know" isn't an answer that holds up. In this unscripted, courtroom-style walkthrough, watch how an excavation is dissected after an incident: the documents that get pulled, the standards that get cited, and the decisions that suddenly matter under oath. Jim Proszek and Tony Jorgenson reveal how "reasonable care" is really evaluated — and how disciplined documentation and process discipline can protect your team long before a hit ever happens.
Who should attend: Excavators, supervisors, safety managers, project managers, and anyone who would lead incident response or documentation after a damage.
What you’ll take away:
Identify the key documents and evidence that matter most after a damage event
Understand how “reasonable care” is assessed and why “not knowing” isn’t a defense
Strengthen everyday documentation habits to reduce exposure in investigations
Know what to expect if you are ever deposed
