Favorite Five Takeaways from the SMPS Northeast Regional Conference (NERC)

Posted on Apr. 30, 2024  /  Favorite Five, Events  /  Subscribe 0

AUTHOR: Jenn Robertson  Contact

Last week, I attended my very first SMPS Northeast Regional Conference right here in Boston. This was my first time attending a conference aimed specifically at AEC marketers, and I walked away with so much energy and inspiration. There are so many things I want to implement into my work! It would be impossible - or at the very least, take much more than five points - to highlight everything I took away from the experience, but I have summarized some of the key themes and takeaways below: 

1. Put yourself in your teammate’s shoes. Something that came up in many of the sessions I attended was the importance of taking the time to think about other perspectives when working in a team. Multiple presenters highlighted the different working styles between generations, which is especially important to be aware of now that we have four different generations in the workforce  - for the first time in history. Each generation has their own strengths and weaknesses, and capitalizing on these different abilities, rather than being frustrated by them, can dramatically enhance a team. In other sessions, we discussed the sometimes differing priorities between the various roles on a pursuit team, and how to ensure that everyone’s needs are met. In “Sailing the Seven C’s and Surviving Proposal Island” (a very on theme presentation led by VHB’s Jen Clark, Kate Thompson, Mary Hamilton, and Samantha Hanson), attendees were actually presented with an activity in which we were assigned a role and tasked with acting as a pursuit team trying to solve a proposal-related problem together. Considering the different perspectives and priorities of all members of the team, instead of just the marketer’s perspective, was a valuable reminder that while we may sometimes disagree on how to get there, everyone on the team has the same end goal. Sometimes it just takes a little compromise!

2. Don’t get complacent. Nobody intentionally lets their marketing content grow stale, but when you’re busy chasing pursuit after pursuit, sometimes p-sheet updates or a brand messaging refresh can fall by the wayside. Hearing a number of presenters discuss innovative ways to think about marketing collateral and proposal content inspired me to make updating some of those “good enough” materials a priority, instead of a task on my never-ending long term to-do list. Dave Demerjian from 43,000 Feet shared some of the exercises his firm uses to develop distinct and engaging brand messaging for their clients, and I’m excited to share these activities with my team and workshop our existing content.

3. Avoid making your firm the star of the show. The client should always be front of mind when you’re putting a proposal together. This sounds obvious, but it’s easy to fall into the trap of making your firm the center of attention. Of course, highlighting all of the reasons your firm is the best fit is important, but the most critical thing to consider is how you can impact your clients and help them reach their desired outcomes. Rather than listing out all of your strengths, try to show your clients how those strengths have benefited their peers in the past. Keynote speaker Jay Acunzo gave a particularly engaging presentation about focusing on resonating with clients (rather than trying to show off all of your firm’s accolades) that will definitely be front of mind when I’m considering pursuit strategy.

4. Find a process that works for your team. My two co-managers and I spend a lot of time brainstorming how we can improve processes to optimize our team’s workflow and make things run smoothly. Getting the chance to peek behind the curtain at how other marketing teams run their pursuit process was a great way to shake up my fixed idea of how this process needs to function. Eric Larson from CRS Engineering gave attendees the run down of how his team makes their way through a pursuit, from the go/no go decision to the post-submittal debrief. His presentation was packed with helpful takeaways that will impact how I think about my own firm’s pursuit process, but the point that stuck with me most actually wasn’t an optimization tip. Throughout the presentation and accompanying discussion, it became clear that the best process isn’t always the one that looks flawless on paper, but the one that works for your team. Some of the things that work really well for Eric’s team wouldn’t work for mine (and vice versa), and there is power in being able to flex until you find the right fit for your firm’s working style.

5. When you are given the opportunity to attend a networking event with your peers and penguins, don’t pass it up. I didn’t know that sipping a glass of wine while watching penguins cruise around in the water was something that I needed in my life until I was doing it, but that was the realization I had at the post-session networking event at the New England Aquarium. On a more serious note, getting to spend time swapping stories and catching up with my fellow AEC marketers was one of the best parts of the whole conference. In this post-pandemic hybrid era, there are still so many people that I have only interacted with virtually, so this was the first time I met quite a few people face to face. There’s truly nothing like meeting someone for the first time and realizing that you had frantically emailed them with a last minute teaming request just a few days earlier (true story). There is such a strong sense of community within SMPS, and it is never felt more acutely than at a gathering like this one - made all the better, I have to admit, by the presence of penguins.

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