2025 International Lineman’s Rodeo: A Week of Safety, Innovation, and Competition

Back in 1984, a dozen teams competed to be the best of the best at the Lineman’s Rodeo. More than four decades later, 5,000 people joined forces in Kansas City for a week of connecting, competing and showcasing the skills of the line trade. 

What began as a hands-on competition has expanded into a week of events including a safety and training conference, multi-day trade show, Trade Night and day of competition. The event brings lineworkers from all over the world together to learn about safety practices, discover new products out on the market for the line trade and compete on the international stage at the International Lineman’s Rodeo. 

Bringing Lineworkers Home Safely

For the last 22 years, the week has kicked off with a safety and training conference. For 2025, more than 300 students, apprentices, journeymen lineworkers, field and safety supervisors and instructors filled the conference room.

“Safety is evolving, and our industry is evolving, and that is what this conference is all about,” said Chad Schimpf of Ameren Illinois and the International Lineman’s Rodeo Association (ILRA) safety committee. “We take a lot of pride and time in handpicking the speakers, so they bring something different every year.” 

 As in past years, the event featured a variety of speakers and presentations, but this year’s conference had one central theme — self-preservation in the line trade. The message was clear: work safely so you can come home to your loved ones every night. 

To drive this point home, the conference kicked off with a personal message from Dale Warman, the co-chairman of the ILRA, who talked about having to tell six line wives that their husbands weren’t coming home following an incident.

“There’s nothing you can say,” he said. “All you can do is sit, pray and cry together. I remember it like it was yesterday, and it rips your heart out. We need to keep working on safety. If we work safely, the guys around us will work safely.”

Next, Michael Starner, the director of outside line safety for the National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA), one of the sponsors for the conference, 

“If you're at the safety conference, that means you're committed to the industry,” Starner said to the attendees. “We're going to teach you some things that you can take back to your teams. While you’re here, engage, participate, listen, watch and learn. Ordinary people don’t want to do what we do every day, so just the fact that you come ready to work every day to keep the lights on makes you exceptional.” 

For the keynote session, Lito Wilkins of Leading Safe Lineworkers shared his personal injury presentation. After surviving a life-changing conductive contact in 2015 on a barehand crew, he dedicated his life to challenging assumptions and fighting complacency and high-risk work. Today, the U.S. Marines veteran and certified utility safety professional said he was grateful to be able to be at the conference and share his story.

“Four days from now, it will be 10 years that that tower right there would have been my last work location — not because I was going home or had a safety error and got let go, but because I made a mistake and almost kicked back over,” he said. “I didn’t hear the electricity in my head, and somehow, I had the wherewithal to not let go. I was 125 ft in the air with no fall protection.  Because of the induction, it locked me up, and as soon as it went away, it came back.”

Following Wilkins’ presentation, Jennifer Lavin of Utility Care Solutions explored the topic of mental health in the line trade with her talk, “Protection Under the Hard Hat: Mental Health and Safety in the Utility Industry.” She educated the audience on how to recognize signs that they or their coworkers may need help with their mental health. 

“This is a really tough industry, and there are a lot of wonderful, capable people who are in it,” Lavin said. “They keep going, and you see the effects on families and the things they bring home. It’s time for address some of these other things in an honorable and respectful way so that people can get the help that they need.” 

To remind the audience that help is just a phone call away, Lavin passed out special yellow coins with the number, “988,” so that lineworkers would know how to reach the national suicide and crisis hotline. By calling this number, it can help them or their loved ones by listening to their struggles, developing a safety plan and connecting them with local mental health resources in their community. 

After her talk, the first day concluded with presentations about the opportunities for military veterans in the line trade by Edward Finnegan of Sturgeon Electric; brotherhood, safety and resilience in the line trade by Kevin Rindal of Vimocity and Ryan Lucas of Quanta Services; the ABCs of Fall Protection by Justin Tate of FallTech and Stored Energy Tree Removal by Dustin Brighton of Great Lakes Training Solutions.  The next morning’s conference included talks on evolving trends in head protection and ergonomics from Mike Dumoit and Matthew Vegh of Milwaukee Tool; the importance of a pre-job briefing by Elif Erkal of the Construction Safety Research Alliance; and AED programs from Chip Georges of Marelly AED and Safety. 

Discovering Tools and Technologies

By attending the safety conference, the attendees could earn a yellow dot on their badges, which gave them a “fast pass” into the exhibit hall for the opening of the 2025 International Lineman’s Expo. This year’s sold-out trade show was bigger than ever before with 205 exhibiting companies representing 600 booth personnel, said Sam Posa, exhibit and sponsorship sales manager for Endeavor Business Media. 

“I have noticed that the exhibitors are upping their level of participation with more displays as opposed to just showing off equipment,” he said. “I think we’re seeing a little bit of one-upmanship on the exhibit floor, which may be a little different than what we’ve seen. We’ve also got a huge number of exhibitors who like to hand out T-shirts and trinkets to kids because it really is kind of a family event.” 

The attendees also line up to watch the PLP Armor Rod Install Challenge on the show floor. The first winner scored six million views on Facebook in 2017, and previous competitors racked up more than 40 million views across social media. This year, Keaton Augustine (who is featured in our December Faces of the Future) swept the competition with a time of 33.50 seconds, earning not only a trophy, but also a Blackstone Products griddle with a custom lineman cover, Omaha Steaks gift card, a Carhartt winner’s jacket and more. 

By walking around the show floor, the attendees could also compete in raffles for other prizes. For example, at the T&D World booth, which was situated in the breezeway between the large hall and smaller ballroom, lineworkers and their families could spin the wheel to win everything from a hat to a cooling towel and enter a drawing for a tool package worth more than $1,000 from Milwaukee Tool. Tom Jeffers, training director for IBEW Local 17 in Detroit, Michigan, won the tool package and will be featured in the January 2025 Lineworker Focus department. At the T&D World booth, lineworkers could also participate in podcast recordings for the Line Life Podcast, and these interview-style episodes will soon be available at linelife.podbean.com. 

At this year’s Lineman’s Expo, attendees could also test out tools, try on the latest flame-retardant garments and PPE and discover new technology to boost their productivity and safety in the field. They could even see a superhero flying up and down in his cape on the Ronin powered ascender device and pose with the Kansas City Chiefs’ very-own KC Wolf mascot by the Evergy booth. 

Swapping Shirts

After a day of exploring the trade show floor, lineworkers and their families returned to the Overland Park Convention Center for one of their favorite annual traditions — Trade Night. With thousands in attendance, the International Lineman’s Rodeo Association opened up a new room for trading for the 2025 event. 

“I've had more people starting to ask about what takes place at the Trade Night, and I just tell them it’s organized chaos,” Posa said. “It’s elbow to elbow, and there’s no room to move. They are exchanging hats and shirts with one another, and if someone has a hot shirt for the year, they want to make a trade. It’s a fun night.” 

At this event, lineworkers pack duffle bags and backpacks with their team shirts, which are splashed with designs celebrating the line trade. Oftentimes, the T-shirts honor the communities they serve and show pride in their home service territories. 

“We decided to go with the classic American flag and the state of Virginia to show people where we’re from,” said Austin Lambert from Rappahannock Electric Cooperative in Virginia. “It’s got a couple of linemen on a pole, but the main point of the shirt is just the International Lineman’s Rodeo and the American flag.”

Many of the designs paid tribute to the line trade with silhouettes of lineworkers climbing up poles and towers or working in bucket trucks. One even included Elvis playing the guitar in a Mississippi state outline. Another illustration depicted  a lineworker standing by Superman and his Super Dog following a storm with the message, “We’ll take it from here.” James Respeto, lead supervisor, power delivery for overhead and underground for Avangrid, worked with a designer on the illustration, which he also had made into a laminated print to swap at the Trade Night. 

“This is a concept I came up with after the Superman movie,” Respeto said. “I saw they had a dog in the movie, so I said, ‘everyone loves dogs. Let me put him in there.”

After the lineworkers traded their shirts for caps, stickers and more shirts from all over the world, they headed up the escalators for a BBQ buffet feast provided by Jack Stack BBQ. 

After celebrating with their teams and relaxing with their loved ones, they then got ready for the big event of the 2025 International Lineman’s Rodeo Week — the competition. At the “Super Bowl” of Lineman’s Rodeos, the lineworkers compete to be the best of the best and showcase their skills in front of their families and friends. To learn more about the 41st International Lineman’s Rodeo and week of activities, check out photo galleries, videos, stories and more at tdworld.com/electric-utility-operations and stay tuned to the Line Life Podcast.