Utility Expo to host US equipment operator championships with NUCA in 2025

The competition, scheduled from 8–9 October 2025, will bring together equipment operators from across the US to compete in a bracket-style tournament designed to showcase control, precision, and safety in a range of tasks. Events will include utility-focused challenges like a pipe placement course, and equipment-based versions of classic games like hole-in-one putting, football (soccer), and cornhole (bean-bag-toss). 

Operators will be judged on cumulative points and time, with a sudden-death round in the event of a tie. Prizes will be awarded to the top three finishers.

The Utility Expo is organised by the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) and takes place every two years at the Kentucky Exposition Center. NUCA, which represents more than 2,000 utility and excavation contractors and suppliers across the country, will oversee competition logistics and safety protocols in collaboration with AEM.

The Utility Expo will follow KHL Group’s Power Progress Networking Forum (formerly the Power Progress Summit), which also takes place in Louisville from 5–6 October with focuses on off-highway machinery used in construction, agriculture, mining, forestry, and marine, as well as on-highway commercial vehicles.

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