Building Arizona

American Council for Construction Education (ACCE) is a leading global advocate of quality construction education programs, promoting, supporting, and accrediting quality construction education programs. February 22, 2012, ACCE will be having a series of round table discussions on the “State-of-the-Union” for the education of future young construction managers and the value of marketing and business development will be one of the focuses. Ron Worth, CEO of SMPS, will be speaking at this event. More information can be found at : http://acce-hq.org/documents/Generalinformation.pdf.

By Jodi Weisberg for the Arizona Builder’s Exchange

Can you make a difference?  Yes, you can.  Literally—one can at a time.

Canstruction, an international community service project of the design and construction industries to benefit food banks, is kicking off its 2012 competition.  The event is run through the local chapter of the Society for Marketing Professionals (SMPS).

Founded in 1992 in New York City, the event is now celebrating its 20^th Anniversary.  In the last decade, canstruction has spread to almost 200 cities and several foreign countries.  It incorporated as a 501(c)(3) in 1998, and became trademarked in 2000.

Jerry Brown, Director of Public Relations for St. Mary’s Food Bank Alliance, said this is an important event for them and among their top 10 largest food drives.  “Everyone thinks of us in November and December, but in the Spring, we don’t receive as much food.  So this is stuff we can really use!”

Jennifer Schaefer of Henderson Engineering and Maureen Carpenter of Pulice Construction are the co-chairs of this year’s event.  They expect 15 teams, up from 10 last year, which means even more food will be donated. “The more food we can raise the better,” said Schaefer.  “More teams equals more cans which equals more food.  It’s a win-win for everyone.”

Some interesting facts about how Phoenix fared in the 2011 contest:

• Ranked #7 nationally in the amount of cans donated
• More than 56,100 pounds of food donated to St. Mary’s Food Bank Alliance
• Enough food for 47,547 meals

The rules are simple: Five person teams must plan, shop, construct and then tear down their can structures. Teams are comprised of architects, engineers, designers, contractors, and professionals mentoring students, associations or businesses.

St Mary’s Food Bank Alliance helps each team by weighing, wrapping and delivering the cans to the event site each year. “We want the teams to focus on building their structures and not worrying about hauling cans to the site,” said Brown. “We deliver everything on wooden pallets to make things easier for them.”

Among the new teams this year are a group of ASU graduate students in architecture and engineering.  With no company backing, the team is looking to use student food cards to purchase their cans.

The event will be held at the Phoenix Convention Center and is open to the public free of charge.  The public is invited to watch the teams as they build their structures on March 31, and to view them during the week they remain up, from April 1-7.

If you want to join in on the fun, or just have a desire to give back to the community, contact either Jennifer Schaefer at 602-336-5235, Jennifer.Schaefer@hei-eng.com or Maureen Carpenter at 602-889-1448, Maureen@pulice.com.

“I just want to encourage everyone to come out to this event,” said Brown. “It is unbelievable to see what these teams do and to see the planning, structures, and colors.  They are like works of art.”

Sponsorships are still available – see the benefits and levels of sponsorship available here.

In the coming weeks look for a complete list of teams and their theme build. Learn more about it here http://www.phoenixcanstruction.org.

Topic: Storytelling in Business Presentations

Date – Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Time – 11:30 am – 1:00 pm
Place – Viscount Suite Hotel   4855 E. Broadway Blvd. Tucson, Arizona

RSVP – barivera@terracon.com (Simply e-mail Bianca Rivera at Terracon with your RSVP by 11/11/11).

Cost – $20.00 SAAEMA Members / $30.00 Guests

Professional speaker, marketer, photographer, writer and storyteller James Patrick of Stantec Consulting Services Inc., will share with us the importance of storytelling in our business presentations to both clients and colleagues.
You know immediately when you are stuck in the middle of a really bad presentation. We’ve all been there; trapped watching a speaker hide behind a lectern while reading off countless facts from countless bullet points on countless PowerPoint slides.

It’s ironic that while our entertainment industry goes to great lengths and spends copious sums of money in efforts to entice and engage audiences; our business presentations have gone in the complete opposite direction.

However the good news is that great presentations do exist! Great presentations allow topics to get traction. Great presentations permit an idea to thrive. Great presentations can cultivate change.

So what do these great presentations have in common? They leverage storytelling to persuade, inform, and influence as many people as possible.

This seminar will explore the power behind storytelling, how we can learn from Hollywood movies, and how to effectively implement stories while you are preparing, or to help your co-workers prepare, for an upcoming presentation that will captivate your audiences.

The SDA Southern Arizona (Tucson) Chapter is collecting business cards; (outdated, misprints, etc) for their 10^th Annual Kidstruction Student Design/Build Contest. Spread the news and please ask friends, family and coworkers if they have any business cards they can donate. Kidstruction is a Design/Build competition among middle school students sponsored by the SACSDA as part of Architecture Week.  SACSDA (Southern Arizona Chapter/Society for Design Administration) provided the leadership for this successful event when AIA Southern Arizona Chapter’s Architecture Week Committee Chairman asked them to design a children’s event. The event takes place at the start of Architecture week every year. This year it will be September 24-October 2 and student’s designs will be displayed at the Park Mall. In order to compete, teams from Tucson’s middle schools have to design and build futuristic structures based on a theme.  The student entries have to be built using only business cards, toothpicks and glue and must fit on a 12″ x 12″ base.

Judges for the event have included representatives from the University of Arizona’s College of Architecture, the City of Tucson, the SDA local chapter and local businesses.  Awards such as cash prizes, trophies and ribbons have been presented to the students by Mayor Bob Walkup, the director of Rio Nuevo and other figureheads.

Please deliver any business card donations to Stuckey Insurance at: 5343 N. 16^th Street, Suite 110 Phoenix, AZ 85016 by September 8^th at 3:00 pm.  If you have any questions, please contact Jennifer Dumphy jdumphy@pharchitecture.com or Mary Lodwick mary@stuckeyinsurance.com.

Thank you for your support!!!

The following is a guest post by Shawna Britt, Morrison-Maierle, Inc., SMPS Programs Committee Coordinator.

“The military trains in leadership from day one.”  Who would have thought that reading the book “Business Leadership the Marine Corps Way” by Carrison & Walsh would have provided the type of research material needed for Thomas Zimmerman, FAIA and Lisa A. Fingar, CPSM for their whitepaper “Ability, Agility and Attitude: A Toolkit for Leadership?” SMPS Arizona invited Tom and Lisa to present their leadership toolkit at the June 16^th monthly meeting in Phoenix.

Located in Rochester, New York, Lisa once worked for Thomas at SWBR and their professional relationship resulted in asking the question “how do marketers add value and how do they explain their value to peers and supervisors?”

Their presentation focused on three common characteristics they found in their research:  Ability, Agility and Attitude. These characteristics are reminders of the value that marketing professionals bring to the A/E/C industry. They are defined simply as:

Ability – What you can do

Agility – What you are willing to do

Attitude – How you do it

As marketers, we provide value to A/E/C firms in our ability to communicate, listen, write, provide public speaking feedback, be organized, network, be creative, and focus on business development & relationship building. Marketing positions in A/E/C firms did not exist 25 years ago, however, they have become a force in those firms that are looking for a set of skills not always found in the traditional A/E/C industry.

Agility is something that, in my opinion, comes easy to marketers. We are constantly being asked to wear multiple hats, to know everything there is to know about our business and adapt to the different work styles of our A/E/C professional counterparts. Most marketers are Type B personalities and we can adapt well to working with Type A personalities (which are most commonly technically-minded). It is a skill that marketers have the ability to move into different situations easily. We are adaptable and we are resilient.

Our attitude as marketers can be difficult to maintain. The day-to-day proposal grind coupled with many different personalities in our jobs can become cumbersome. However, Lisa and Thomas had many recommendations on how to maintain a positive attitude while juggling multiple responsibilities, bosses and deadlines: “Maintain a positive spirit and avoid the nay-sayers,” focus on the things you are doing well, be thankful, read inspiring biographies, build excellent support around you, push yourself to accomplish your short term goals and do something for yourself every week.

During the presentation, Thomas said “managing is moving chess pieces around the board. Leading is getting them to move by themselves.” With the right mix of highly motivated individuals and determination, you can be a leader and demonstrate value in your organization!

Thomas Zimmerman, of Z2 Architecture and Lisa Fingar of SWBR Architects are National Speakers who have presented on this subject numerous times throughout the United States.