Hartford Business Journal

www.HartfordBusiness.com • September 4, 2017 • Hartford Business Journal 9 FOCUS PDS has been meeting the needs of the construction industry since 1965. Our dedicated team of design and construction professionals welcomes the challenge of serving its past and future customers on their most demanding projects. Liberty Bank | Hamden, Connecticut PDS Engineering & Construction served as Design Build General Contractor for this Liberty Bank facility. The project also included a second floor of apartment units and two other tenant spaces on the first floor. The bank itself entails a teller area, offices, lobby, restrooms, break room, conference rooms, equipment rooms and an elevator. KEY FACTS Project Size: 7,300 Square Feet Date of Completion: 2014 107 Old Windsor Road, Bloomfield, CT 06002 (860) 242-8586 | Fax (860) 242-8587 www.pdsec.com DESIGN BUILDERS • GENERAL CONTRACTORS • CONSTRUCTION MANAGERS SPOTLIGHT ON: Banking PDS ENGINEERING & CONSTRUCTION, INC. THINK • PLAN • BUILD The Goodwin One Haynes Street Hartford, CT 06103 T 860.246.1881 F 860.246.1882 www.goodwinhartford.com Distinctive from a Distance. Unforgettable Once Experienced. The Newly Redesigned Goodwin Hartford's Iconic Boutique Hotel NOW OPEN senior vice president and head of service operations for the past 10 years. In 2016, Cigna employees bought 4,300 tickets to Nashville, Denver, Philadelphia, Chicago and Phoenix. Another 4,800 employees traveled via Bradley to the U.K., Belgium, Asia and Spain, he said. Browchuk said he's an enthusi- astic supporter of Bradley and eagerly touts its benefits, though he said Cigna would like to see more global flights added — namely to London and Europe, and even Asia and the Pacific Rim. "International flights are just really important for Bradley," Browchuk said. "Then it can really be known as an international airport." The airport also would benefit from hav- ing more than one daily flight to key domes- tic destinations like Pittsburgh or Houston, so that if a flight were cancelled, or delayed, there'd be another option, he said. Renee Welsh, a senior director of facili- ties and services administration at Pratt & Whitney, which spent $17 million in 2016 on 32,000 trips through Bradley, agreed. "What makes it really convenient — its relative size — also means we don't get the nonstop flights or convenient flight times we desire," Walsh said. "This ends up extending the travel day, and some- times that added time can be mitigated by driving to Boston Logan or New York." On the flip side, Welsh said, "Bradley airport is convenient from a commuting perspective, and the services are above average — from parking to security and concessions." The different attributes that make Brad- ley more attractive to the business traveler also include more charging stations for electronic devices and the Transportation Security Administration's precheck option allowing travelers to get through security more readily, Browchuk said. "You don't have to go to Boston or New York for this now," he said. Corporate liaison Spencer said she's not averse to making the occasional "cold call" to gauge the needs and concerns of corporate travelers. It's her job, she said, to ensure business people in the Hartford and Springfield, Mass., areas are aware of Bradley's assets, but that they're also comfortable shar- ing concerns about what could make the airport an even better option. Spencer, of Norwich, came to Bradley about seven months ago, armed not only with her marketing experience at Mystic Seaport but her work years earlier as an industrial liaison officer at MIT. Spencer is quick to say that her role at Bradley is not in marketing, per se, but rather "a combination of sales and com- munity relations with a corporate focus." That cold-call she occasionally makes is "a conversation, not a pitch," Spencer said. "I'm trying to educate them but I'm also wanting to know from them what their needs are. That might include their travel budgets. That helps us tailor what we offer or what new routes we might target, because the route isn't going to succeed unless there's demand." She's learned, for instance, that while trav- elers can fly via Aer Lingus into Dublin, and then reach five major cities in Germany from there, some business travelers are interested in direct flights to Munich or Berlin. Besides meeting corporate needs, Spen- cer always reminds firms of the "ease and comfort" of flying with Bradley. "If a company tends to go to Boston or New York partly out of habit or familiarity to fly, give us a try," she'll tell them. of life, traveling to a new city each year for our biggest annual event is a reminder that excellence in manufacturing exists every- where. We're excited to host our event at the Connecticut Convention Center this year in the heart of Hartford and to explore and enjoy everything the city has to offer. Q. One aspect of your summit is optional plant tours. Your website says the Pratt & Whitney tour is sold out. Why do you have plant tours? How does this help advance your mission? A. Yes, the plant tours are an attendee favorite and they do tend to sell out quickly. Our audience appreciates the opportunity to view innovation in action and witness how top-tier manufacturers perform their processes. Our mission is to "support, promote and inspire" women who are pursuing or have chosen a career in the manufacturing indus- try, and we believe that it's important to swap best practices, learn from one another, and ultimately share and celebrate each other's accomplishments. In addition, it's just fun. Q. Why do women still need gender-spe- cific professional summits like these? A. Manufacturing is still a male- dominated industry — currently, women comprise only 29 percent of the industry's workforce, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. We believe that it is critical to provide a venue where women in manufacturing can come together to connect, learn and grow. Many of our attendees are so accustomed to being one of the only women at manu- facturing-based events that the summit is a completely new and refreshing experi- ence for them. We do focus on a variety of important industry topics, as our audience is quite broad, and some of these specifically relate to challenges women can be con- fronted with (i.e. work-life balance). Bradley Airport Passenger Traffic Year Passenger Traffic % Change 2016 6,060,943 2.14% 2015 5,933,808 0.99% 2014 5,875,801 8.39% 2013 5,420,853 NA Source: Bradley International Airport Sarah Spencer, Business Relations Specialist, CT Airport Authority

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