Last week Society for Marketing Professional Services (SMPS) kicked off the Southeast Regional Conference (SERC) where ProjectMark was a proud exhibitor. This post summarizes some key points from a few of the great sessions at the conference. It was a great experience to connect and learn with so many great AEC marketers face-to-face!
How to Automate Your Marketing Strategy with Julie Shaffer (Shaffer Creative)
It’s always amazing to sit in a session with Julie and watch the magic she can do with InDesign! In this session, she went beyond the basics and helped attendees understand how the Data Merge panel could make their InDesign lives easier. This is definitely a session that needs to be done again.
SERC 2022 kicked off with a great breakfast, much-needed coffee, and some inspirational guidance thanks to Steve Tatham during his session “The Voice and the Vision.”
The Great Resignation with Karl Feldman (Hinge Marketing) Karl Feldman’s session featured detailed reporting from 350 AEC professionals. Key findings included the career wants and desires for those at three distinct stages in their career progression.
Those professionals within years one to five are looking for growth and are willing to take careers moves. At mid-level, professionals are looking for stability, work-life balance, and a company culture that aligns with who they are as professionals. In stage three, those in senior leadership positions are looking for the ability to work remotely and desire a voice within the organization. Their network is already strong due to LinkedIn and personal network referrals. A key takeaway from Karl’s session: in all of AEC’s recruiting efforts, a focus on an attractive culture will be king.
Proposal Writing: Mastering the Art of Training Your Technical Staff
with Allison Tivon (Middle of Six)
Driving Growth of Digital Marketing with Lindsay Diven (Full Sail Partners)
Finding Meaning in Your Data with Amanda Welch (Walter P Moore)
A highly interactive session with five great questions central to finding data that will prove to be useful to your firm, clients, and key stakeholders. Amanda’s handout was concise and excellent! I loved the Project Metric Collection Summary which had key data organized by project milestones and completion levels: kick-off (0%), 100% Design Development (35%), 100% Construction Documents (75%), Substantial Completion of Construction Administration (95%), and Final Close-out (100%). If you weren’t able to attend her session, another great handout to grab from the conference app.
So You Want To Start a Podcast with Katherine Hill and Lauren Dean (SSR)
How to use Neuroscience, Client Personas, and Empathy Mapping to Stand Out with Sarah Kinard (The Flamingo Project)Diving into how the brain works and impacts our clients’ decision-making process are always fascinating topics to explore and Sarah Kinard’s session did not let audience members down! Sarah’s session was the perfect balance of content and interaction. First, we dove into three key areas of the brain and learned a little more about what each was responsible for:
• Reptilian Brain is the decision part of the brain and is key for survival.
• Limbic brain “feels” and is responsible for feelings and value judgments.
• Neocortex “thinks” and gives us logic, reason, and science (among other things).
After we discussed the parts of the brain, we learned a little more about how understanding the brain can be used to develop detailed client personas and solidified these concepts with a sample-persona development exercise. If you want to check it out, click here for a link to her conference handout.
Say ‘NO MORE’ to Proposal Burnout with Rachelle Ray (RMR Consulting) and Jeff Visnic (Reclamation Collaborative) After two days of intense content, this session was refreshing for every attendee’s well-being by discussing an issue that has plagued many AEC marketers during the last few years and in some cases, even prior to the pandemic: burnout. Rachelle and Jeff’s session focused on three key practices: compassion, honesty, and personal responsibility to address not only proposal burnout but burnout in general. A phrase from the session “stop should-ing on yourself,” seemed to resonate and draw laughs from just about everyone in the audience. Setting proper intentions and what those types of intentions sound like was extremely helpful as well as giving time to acknowledge all of the good things one does in his or her daily life. I think everyone walked away from Rachelle and Jeff’s session feeling a little lighter and having some great takeaways to apply when going back to the office.
SMPS SERC was an engaging three-day event with excellent content, engaging speakers, great connections, and incredible evening socials. We’re looking forward to connecting with everyone again in 2023 (or sooner)!