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SMPS Central Florida Education Event Takeaway!

By Courtney Franklin posted 04-15-2016 11:14

  

This week I attended the SMPS Central Florida Education Event held at The Westin in Lake Mary. The morning started out with a wonderful continental breakfast and 45 juicy minutes of networking with other SEC marketing professionals. After carefully choosing a table, I sat down and began indulging on some of the fruit and pastries provided. As the morning went on, my table filled up with some of the best marketers in the Orlando area and I was ready for a day of learning.

The program had started and we were greeted by the lovely SMPS CFL President, Tara Bleakley, she introduced our first speaker, Tim Asimos, CPSM. from circle S studio. His session, “The Evolution of the Modern Marketer: Critical Skills Needed to Remain Relevant Now and in the Future”, focused on how to better yourself as a marketer which in turn will better your firm. He went over the modern marketing skills: technology, communications, analytics, design, strategy, sales, and customer experience. Going into detail on each skill Tim provided insightful tips on how to better market your firm. Before concluding, Tim shared how we as marketers can stay ahead. Personally, the best advice he gave one staying ahead was “Think outside the A/E/C box.” Doing this can open so many unique doors for you and your firm. Tim was a great way to start off the day and I highly recommend seeing him speak at Build Business this August.  

The next presenter is such an amazing woman and everyone in the Orlando area should get to know her. Cyndi Gundy presented “4 Hot Topics in A/E/C Marketing for 2016” and she really hit all the marks. Cyndi went over intentional marketing, long engagements, content marketing, and social presence, all of which are beneficial to your firm. Cyndi focused on marketing plans, outside resources, managing your office CRM and getting your coworkers involved in the CRM process, the different and various types of content, and how our firms can stay relevant on social media. It’s always a pleasure to watch Cyndi present because she cares so much about what we do. She is willing to help anyone, just mention SMPS to her and you’re in.

During the amazing lunch provided by The Westin, we heard from Roy Reid from Adventist Health System. He shared “Storytelling and Message Development” with us. Not only was this session beneficial personally but professionally it helped me think of ways for my guys to present or ways we can market to certain sectors. Roy shared emotionally appealing stories with us that fit perfectly into his presentation, something I will strive for to do in my firm’s future presentations.

Without a doubt session 3 was my favorite, solely because of Susan Murphy’s passion. Susan’s presentation was a little different than the rest. She didn’t have a PowerPoint or rehearsed speech. She focused on what we wanted to know about presenting. She asked us to ask questions and she would answer them. Watching Susan present was mesmerizing, she was poise, intelligent, and so genuine. She went over what the body should be doing while presenting and focused on the eyes, the brain, the mouth, hands and feet.  If you ever get the chance to see her present, take in all you can because she knows what she’s talking about and can help you win jobs.

Lastly, we heard from Suzanne Bain and Zachary Cheek about “Managing Millennials: Bridging the Gap.” Being a millennial, this was a fun presentation to sit through. My generation has such negative connotations to it and I just don’t agree with them. However, Suzanne and Zachary went over effective ways to work with different generations and we even did an exercise to work out a conflict between a baby boomer manager and a millennial employee.

All in all, this year’s SMPS Education Event was my favorite event so far and I learned so much. Can’t wait to implement everything I learned into my marketing strategies.

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