Building Bridges at the Pacific Regional Conference 2024 in Portland, Oregon

This past week, 60+ SMPS Seattle Chapter members (including myself) headed down to shockingly sunny Portland, Oregon to attend the 2024 SMPS Pacific Regional Conference. The conference's theme "Building Bridges" was apparent not only in the metaphorical sense, but also physically right outside my hotel window.

I came to this conference with a relatively fresh perspective, having been involved in the AEC industry for a little over six months now. I knew there would be a lot of knowledge to soak up, and I was ready to be a sponge.

View from the train coming into "Bridge City"

After looking at the conference schedule, it was obvious that AI has turned the marketing world upside-down. It has many applications across marketing functions, but it wasn’t presented in the often-heard “AI will steal your job” way, but with a more optimistic tone, wherein AI can drastically streamline marketing activities, giving us some much-needed time back.

One of the most talked about elements of AI education is the ethical concerns with manipulating and publishing AI content. Julie Shaffer dove into this topic in her session, "Selling Truth: How AEC Marketers Can Responsibly Leverage Generative AI". The biggest takeaway from Julie’s session is to look at the content you create with AI and ask yourself, "Am I manipulating this content such that the subject is no longer authentic?" By asking this question, you are refocusing on what the purpose of the content is and ensuring that the changes you direct AI to make are not significantly altering the main subject. When it comes to the actual usage of AI, like Chat GPT, there were a few takeaways from Frank Lazaro's session on "Utilization of Artificial Intelligence" that really stuck with me:

• "Prompt Engineering" is the idea of crafting a prompt for AI that gives it enough context to effectively provide an accurate response. Prompts should always include a role, task/result, goal, context, and constraint. An easy way to get started is with a “You are…I am” prompt.
• "Prompt Priming" is the concept of training your AI to gather and retain information about you to provide more accurate output. By simply prompting your AI to ask you questions about your role, business, and other key traits, it will then use that as context to craft more personalized content, as if it were a member of your firm.
• The most important thing to remember is AI is NEVER perfect, so if you’re copying content directly from the AI output, without adding your own edits, you’re doing it wrong.

“When optimized, AI has the power to reduce workload by over 30%, and I think that might even be underestimating it.”

- Julie Shaffer

Speaking with other SMPS members at the conference, the unofficial theme of the conference seemed to be "introspection." The overarching message in many of these sessions, whether it be on AI, photography, or proposals, was to focus on the things you can control, and let go of the things you can’t.

As marketers in the AEC industry, we have to recognize that we bring a vastly different perspective than our technical staff. In the Fellows Forum session with Kenda Salisbury, FSMPS, CPSM, Dana Galvin Lancour, FSMPS, CPSM, and Paula Stamp, PhD, MBA, FSMPS, CPSM, we discussed how more often than not, the marketers are naturally the most emotionally intelligent team members at a firm, which is often overlooked but should be leveraged to point out the blind spots that the technical staff have.

"Getting a seat at the table" was a phrase uttered more than a few times throughout the conference. Too often, especially in the AEC industry, firms undervalue marketing. However, by reflecting internally about the strengths and unique traits we bring as marketers, we are able to more confidently insert our voice, ask the right questions, and provide valuable insights. By being persistent and strategic, we will hopefully start to see more marketers occupying leadership positions and being part of those important conversations.

SMPS Seattle chapter members meet up at Prost! in the midst of a busy PRC schedule.

As a solo marketer at my firm, PRC was both overwhelming and empowering. I left feeling like I had learned so much (more than could be covered in this article) and yet there is still so much left to learn. However, I think the greater value of attending PRC is coming together to share about common roadblocks we encounter and hear advice from many incredibly talented marketers on how to overcome those challenges that we collectively face. I left the conference feeling like I had a few more tools in my marketing toolbox to use at my firm.

Amongst the hours of learning, the trip to "Bridge City" was complete with an SMPS Seattle meetup at "Prost!", a visit to the Oregon Historical Society, some delicious Voodoo Doughnuts, and a surprise visit from a local celebrity, The Unipiper.

Thank you to the SMPS Oregon Chapter for being such a welcoming host for this year's Pacific Regional Conference! I look forward to seeing everyone at the next one.

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Zoë Tucker is a Marketing Coordinator at Schuchart, a general contractor in Seattle. When she’s not busy with proposals, Zoë can be found running on her favorite urban trails, reading in a café, or in the summer, on her paddleboard in Lake Union.