"We set the convention up in two days, so the first day will be for our contractors and suppliers, with keynote presentations and educational opportunities. This is what we are calling Big Picture Day," said Geoff Wilkinson, ORBA executive director.

"And then the second day we are doing a lot of transportation infrastructure as opposed to just MTO (Ministry of Transportation) projects. So, we now have partnerships with Infrastructure Ontario (IO) and Metrolinx."

The ORBA convention is taking place at the Fairmont Royal York on Feb. 9 and 10, which begins with an official opening by incoming President Blair McArthur.

The first morning will be full of educational sessions beginning with a presentation called Forever Open Road by Thierry Goger, the secretary general of the Forum of European National Highway Research Laboratories.

Goger will talk about a how roads would be built and maintained in the 21st century. His vision includes the production of a fifth generation road, which is adaptable, automated and changes. It can be applied to all motorways regardless of region or country.

Next, there will be a presentation on construction technology trends for 2015 by Lauren Hasegawa, cofounder of BRIDGIT. Hasegawa will discuss key technology trends as they apply to the Canadian road building industry.

In the afternoon, there will be a presentation by Kevin Flynn, minister of labour (MOL).

"Mr. Flynn has a very strong message with regard to health and safety and his vision not only for the construction industry, but for employees right across Ontario," said Wilkinson.

"So, I think it's a great opportunity for him to provide his own story and direction in terms of the way he would like to see the MOL headed."

Wilkinson said Flynn will probably discuss a number of new initiatives coming out through Ontario's chief prevention officer.

The discussion of occupational health and safety will continue with a presentation by Carissa Tanzola with SherrardKuzz LLP. She will also talk about the construction industry and what some of the challenges and opportunities will be for contractors over the next few years.

Transportation Infrastructure Day on Feb. 10 will begin with presentations from IO, MTO and Metrolinx.

"We want to provide our members with opportunities not only to hear what's happening within those organizations and capital projects that are upcoming, but also have the opportunity to network with staff from all those organizations," said Wilkinson.

"And, this year we also added the municipalities and cities for the first time."

In these sessions, each provincial body will outline its strategic direction and discuss opportunities. There will be concurrent sessions throughout the morning, with presentations from MTO East, West and Central regions.

Following each region, the cities of Toronto, Hamilton, London, Windsor, Kingston and Ottawa.

During the transportation infrastructure luncheon there will be a video presentation by Minister of Transportation Steven Del Duca.

"We are hoping he will talk to us about the exclusion clause, which is an issue ORBA has been working on with the MTO since they put it in place in 2007," said Wilkinson.

"ORBA has been working with the MTO to try to have this litigation provision removed from the exclusion clause. We feel it is the contractors right to have unfettered access to the courts."

The MTO contracts have a provision which state if a contractor goes to binding arbitration or litigation, the MTO can exclude the contractor from doing work with the MTO.

In Ontario, a lot of municipalities take the MTOs lead in terms of procurement policies, which means some of them have the same type of exclusion clause.

The afternoon delivers presentations from the Northeastern and Northwestern MTO regions along with the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines on the Ring of Fire project.

Running concurrently will be presentations from the regional municipalities of Waterloo, Peel, Durham, Niagara, York and Halton.

Follow Richard Gilbert on Twitter @buildingcanada.