Track 1: Research & Strategy
RESEARCH + strategy (track 1)
Explore the data, insights, and strategic planning methods that inform A/E/C marketing decisions, helping firms identify opportunities, understand clients and competitors, and chart a path for growth.
B2H Business to Human Marketing in the Age of AI
Date: Tuesday, 12:45 PM - 2:00 PM & Wednesday, 1:45 PM - 3:00 PM
AI has changed how we do marketing. It can create highly personalized and conversational experiences, understand buyer intent and preferences, and automate processes. What it cannot offer is empathy and authenticity – the fundamentally human qualities essential for building brand trust and preference for your firm.
The session will show how, by harnessing the power of AI and combining it with human-only strategies that build trust in today’s digital-first business environment, you can propel your firm forward.
Learning Outcomes
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Learn how A/E/C firms can leverage the power of AI to enhance and personalize experiences for a more human-centric approach that today’s A/E/C buyers want and expect.
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Ida Cheinman
Ida is a brand strategist, designer, marketer, speaker, and educator who uses 20+ years of experience to help business leaders and marketing professionals make sense of trends, tools, and next practices in order to position their companies to win in the 21st century’s fast-changing and extremely competitive marketplace.
Survey Says! From Client Feedback to Competitive Advantage
Date: Tuesday, 2:30 PM - 3:45 PM
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!
Learning Outcomes
- 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.
Allie Horne, CPSM
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.
Melanie Meeks, CPSM
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.
Renewing the Flame: Rebuilding Marketing Plans During Change
Date: Tuesday, 4:00 PM - 5:15 PM
Your firm's executive and strategy are changing at a rapid pace. New VPs, re-orgs, new programs, and new directions are being defined. Amidst this storm, you see an opportunity to build a new marketing plan to better fuel the organization. This is a case study on how to confidently stack the metaphorical wood (marketing research & strategy practices) for a newly fired marketing plan to best serve and keep up with a rapidly changing environment.
This session is for mid- to senior-level professionals who are, or want to be, responsible for strategy development. Complete this session with inspiring and practical tips for building new marketing plans.
Learning Outcomes
- Marketing Leaders will learn what methodology they can use to rebuild their own marketing plan. The results will be a practical guide for them to build on.
- Marketing Leaders will learn about the methodological pitfalls and challenges they may experience along the way so they can be prepared to address them. The result of this will be that the leaders will be better prepared for what to expect.
- Marketing Leaders will learn what to expect on how the team will respond to a new initiative like this. They will be informed of the wins and challenges so they will be equipped to better respond with their own plan.
- Marketing leaders will learn how mindset and confidence play a critical role in this type of work. The result will be that they complete the session with tips on maintaining a leader mindset through a challenging process.
Beth Srinivasan, CPSM
With 15 years of experience in the A/E/C industry, Beth is a seasoned expert at scaling and energizing teams to drive company growth. She is known for working with cross-functional groups and technical professionals, building marketing systems, coaching high-functioning teams, and translating strategy into compelling campaigns and win themes.
Data's Wicked Side: When Best Practices Become Bad Practices
Date: Wednesday, 9:15 AM - 10:30 AM
Growth starts with challenging assumptions. What if some of the "best practices" we've trusted for years are actually holding us back? In this session, Courtney Kearney challenges some of the most common assumptions that lead to poor adoption, incomplete data, frustrated users, and unreliable reporting.
Through real consulting stories from A/E/C firms, attendees will explore how well-intentioned decisions—adding one more field, collecting information "just in case," or designing processes for an ideal future instead of today's reality—can unintentionally create barriers that undermine data quality and user adoption. Participants will leave with practical strategies to recognize these hidden behaviors, simplify their systems, and build data practices that people will actually use. Lead with confidence by making the system work for you—not the other way around.
Learning Outcomes
- Recognize common "best practices" that unintentionally reduce data quality, user adoption, and reporting reliability.
- Evaluate CRM forms, workflows, and data collection processes to identify unnecessary complexity and hidden barriers.
- Apply practical strategies to simplify data collection while improving the quality and usability of information across the organization.
- Build human-centered data processes that encourage adoption, support better business decisions, and make systems work for the people using them.
Courtney Kearney, FSMPS, CPSM
As owner of CKearney Consulting, Courtney Kearney, FSMPS, CPSM leads a team of approachable data nerds dedicated to helping A/E/C firms get the most out of their CRM and data. Courtney is a respected thought leader, author, and public speaker who has served in leadership roles within SMPS at the local, regional, and national levels as well as earning the honored designation of Fellow.
Making Sharper Pursuit Decisions From Data You Already Have
Date: Wednesday, 10:45 AM - 12:00 PM
Every A/E/C firm sits on a goldmine of historical proposal data, past project metrics, and client feedback buried deep in local servers and CRM archives. Yet, almost none of it is utilized to drive an active business strategy. This session demonstrates how to move past generic market surveys and surface the intelligence already sitting in your data. Using a clear framework, we will show how firms can unlock their archives to make sharper pursuit decisions, accurately predict win rates, and identify which clients are genuinely worth the chase. Attendees will see a practical breakdown of how to turn years of static text and spreadsheets into a dynamic decision-making engine. Stop guessing your competitive advantage and learn how to look backward to predict where your next big win is coming from.
Learning Outcomes
- Identify and map repetitive proposal workflows that are prime candidates for AI agent automation.
- Understand the fundamental structural components of a no-code AI agent without technical jargon.
- Establish strict data security and brand guardrails to ensure reliable, accurate AI outputs.
- Deploy a practical blueprint to build and introduce a simple digital assistant to your marketing team.
Rohan Jawali, LEED AP BD+C
With over 18 years of construction and technology experience, Rohan Jawali has committed his professional career to solving the challenges of the built world.
Where Buyer Decisions Get Sparked
Date: Wednesday, 3:30 PM - 4:45 PM
What are the latest emerging trends in marketing and business development? The SMPS Foundation is back with new research into the trends impacting A/E/C firms as well as marketing and business development professionals. Firms that succeed tomorrow will be those that understand the emerging trends today, leveraging them to their advantage. This program will include an overview of the research as well as examples of real-world experiences and applications of these trends.
Learning Outcomes
- Understand the trends impacting their marketing and BD programs – now and in the near future
Sarah Kinard
As the Head Bird of The Flamingo Project, Sarah Kinard leads a consultancy helping A/E/C firms grow with clarity and confidence through research-driven business planning and strategy. Known for simplifying the complex, she works with firm leaders to turn big ideas into clear direction and sustainable growth.
