Tracks
Fresh Ideas, Bold Brands, and Creative Thinking
For marketers and creative professionals looking to sharpen their skills and bring fresh ideas to their work. Explore visual storytelling, proposal design, brand differentiation, and creative strategies that go beyond the AEC industry. Discover new ways to communicate your firm's value, stand out from the competition, and create work that makes an impression.
Seeing Like a Marketer: Directing Visual Stories for Stronger Brands
Lecture
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11 | 9:30 AM - 10:30 AM
Great project photography doesn't happen by accident—it happens when marketers, principals, and photographers share a creative vision. This session explores how marketers can art direct photography that supports proposals, websites, social media, recruiting, interviews, and long-term brand strategy. Learn how to plan shoots, collaborate effectively, and capture images that communicate your firm's story long after the camera is packed away.
Key Takeaways
- Define the distinct roles of the marketer, principal, and photographer during a successful project photoshoot.
- Plan photography with future marketing applications in mind, including proposals, websites, recruiting, and social media.
- Direct composition, storytelling, and shot selection to better communicate a firm's brand.
- Evaluate photography based on how effectively it communicates a firm's story—not aesthetics alone.
About Sandra
Sandra Barker is the co-founder of Sky is Wide, a creative marketing consultancy serving architecture, engineering, and design firms. With more than two decades of experience in branding, proposals, websites, visual storytelling, and business development, she helps firms communicate their work through strategic marketing and compelling imagery. Sandra has art directed project photography, developed visual standards, and led creative initiatives that strengthen brand identity across proposals, websites, social media, and client presentations.
About John
John Barker is the co-founder of Sky is Wide, a photographer, videographer, and visual artist with decades of experience documenting architecture, landscape architecture, and the built environment. His background includes serving as an Art Director and Music Director, creating public art installations, and collaborating with design professionals to capture projects through thoughtful composition and storytelling. He regularly works with clients to understand project goals, communicate creative direction, and translate design intent into compelling imagery that supports business development, marketing, and brand strategy.
Borrowed Brilliance: Looking Beyond the AEC Industry to Steer Your Brand Forward
Lecture
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11 | 9:45 PM - 10:45 AM
AEC firms often look to the same competitors for inspiration, resulting in marketing that feels increasingly familiar. Borrowed Brilliance challenges marketers to look beyond the industry and uncover proven ideas from
hospitality, retail, entertainment, technology, sports, and nonprofits. Attendees will learn how to translate those ideas for AEC and build a focused 30-day experiment that moves their brand in a more distinctive, relevant, and client-centered direction.
Key Takeaways
- Identify marketing practices from outside the AEC industry that could address common AEC brand, client experience, and communication challenges.
- Distinguish the underlying strategy behind a successful idea from its industry-specific execution.
- Evaluate outside ideas based on client relevance, brand alignment, feasibility, and business value.
- Translate outside-industry inspiration into an original marketing concept appropriate for their firm and its audiences.
- Design a focused, low-risk 30-day experiment to test an idea and measure its effectiveness.
About GinaRenee
GinaRenee Autrey is a nationally recognized marketing strategist, speaker, and AI advocate helping organizations turn expertise into influence. A sought-after presenter, she has spoken at SMPS Amplify, SMPS SERC, and SMPS SRC, and has been featured on numerous industry podcasts and webinars, where she shares insights on marketing innovation, strategic storytelling, thought leadership, and the responsible use of AI. As Director of Strategic Impact at Kleinschmidt Associates, she leads marketing, communications, proposal excellence, and AI adoption for a nationally recognized environmental engineering firm. With more than two decades of experience, GinaRenee is known for translating complex ideas into actionable strategies that inspire audiences to think differently, lead boldly, and embrace change. She also serves as Chair of the National Hydropower Association's Public Affairs Committee, helping shape communications and advocacy for one of the nation's most critical renewable energy sectors.
From Dense to Distinctive: An RFQ Design Lab
Workshop
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11 | 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
AEC proposals rarely suffer from too little information. The challenge is making dense, technical content easy for evaluators to navigate, understand, and remember. In this hands-on InDesign lab, participants will transform real-world RFQ pages using practical principles of hierarchy, spacing, structure, visual storytelling, and information design, all within the page limits and formatting constraints proposal teams face every day.
Key Takeaways
- Diagnose common layout problems that make technical proposal pages difficult to scan and understand.
- Use hierarchy, spacing, alignment, typography, and page structure to guide evaluator attention.
- Transform dense narrative into visual content without sacrificing technical substance.
- Apply practical layout strategies within real-world page limits, margin requirements, and minimum font sizes.
- Build and refine an RFQ page in InDesign using repeatable design principles rather than relying on instinct alone.
About Audra
Audra Allen is President and Co-Founder of Emerald Fox Marketing & Consulting, an AEC-focused firm she launched in 2016. An Adobe Certified Professional with more than a decade of experience in AEC marketing, Audra specializes in proposal design, InDesign workflows, and practical creative systems that help marketing teams work smarter and produce stronger pursuit materials. She regularly leads hands-on trainings and workshops for AEC firms and industry organizations nationwide. Audra is a longtime SMPS member and former President of SMPS San Antonio, and is known for translating complex tools and design principles into approachable, immediately useful techniques.
Survey Says! From Client Feedback to Competitive Advantage
Lecture
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 12 | 8:30 AM - 9:30 AM
Join veteran marketers Melanie Meeks, CPSM, and Allie Horne, CPSM for this game-show themed presentation to learn how to create and execute an effective client surveying campaign. In this entertaining presentation, attendees will learn how to collect meaningful data to discover what truly drives client relationships, repeat business, and successful pursuits. Additionally, attendees will learn how to align client surveying with existing strategic planning efforts, craft questions that generate honest, actionable feedback, and leverage results to improve the overall client experience. But, don’t worry we’ll have some fun along the way. Audience members will have the opportunity to face off, Family-Feud-style, to answer client-survey-related questions and win prizes. Survey Says you don’t want to miss it!
Key Takeaways
- Learn how to execute an effective client surveying campaign.
- Learn how to connect client surveying efforts to existing strategic planning.
- Learn how client surveying can be used as effective business development.
- Learn how to collect and repurpose meaningful client surveying data.
- Learn how to leverage results to improve the overall client experience.
About Melanie
Melanie Meeks, CPSM is a Partner at Meeks Marketing and has 22 years of experience in the A/E/C industry, specializing in the development of marketing strategy, client development, project pursuits, and public relations. She graduated from Texas A&M University, is a Certified Professional Services Marketer, and served as President of SMPS Houston. She was previously the Director of Client Development at Kirksey Architecture in Houston, and launched Meeks Marketing in 2013. Melanie enjoys working side by side with clients, helping them win work and achieve their marketing goals. A wife and mom of three, she can often be found running carpool to baseball practices, chasing her youngest around, or relaxing with a good book.
About Allie
Allie Horne, CPSM, is a Partner at Meeks Marketing, Inc. and has 18 years of experience writing both firm-published and third-party published articles and marketing pieces. Prior to joining Meeks Marketing, Allie was the Communications Manager at Kirksey Architecture where she developed both electronic and print media and more than tripled the firm’s press mentions during her tenure. Additionally, Allie has written over 75 published articles for Bisnow Commercial Real Estate News in markets nationally, been published in The Marketer magazine, and served as the technical editor for a Fortune 300 company. A proud University of Texas graduate, Allie resides in Austin and can often be found hiking, playing tennis, and convincing her children she has superpowers.
Don't Run With the Herd: A No-Bull Approach to Differentiation
Lecture
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 12 | 9:45 AM - 10:45 AM
Every AEC firm has something special. But it's often not what they think it is. This session explores the key building blocks of differentiation: identifying what genuinely sets your firm apart, thinking critically about which differences matter, and putting them to work across marketing, business development, and client relationships. Attendees will leave with a trained eye for differentiation and strategies for building brand distinction that endures - no matter how crowded the range gets.
Key Takeaways
- Understand the limitations of common technical and relational differentiators in the AEC industry.
- Define the concept of Brand Truth and Brand Positioning and their role in creating differentiation and building brand consistency.
- Explore how clearly stated differentiation builds pre-engagement trust and credibility.
- Develop actionable strategies for avoiding differentiation tropes and building authentic differentiation that can be applied across an entire firm.
About Alex
Alex Ray is the AEC Practice Lead and a Strategy Director at TOKY. He leads research, strategy, and brand language initiatives, with a primary focus on the built environment. As a writer and a strategist, Alex has spent his career seamlessly moving between the worlds of creative, research, and strategy. He has helped shape the creative and strategic direction of some of the biggest players in AEC, healthcare, life sciences, and consumer technology.
Alex's AEC experience includes leading engagements with firms across the country, including AKRF, Champlin Studios, Timmons Group, SME, Pei Cobb Freed, STUDIOS, Little Diversified Architecture Consultants, SLAM Collaborative, HDLA, The BR Companies, and Akridge.
