Congratulations Mike Totsch! 2010 SMPS Chapter President of the Year - Columbus Chapter. This award is a tremendous honor, being recognized by his peers in the industry. The Columbus Chapter completed so much under Mike’s leadership the past year.
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The Society for College and University Planning (SCUP) held its annual International Conference and Idea Marketplace in Minneapolis July 10-14. More than 1000 attendees from more than a dozen countries attended the conference entitled Integrated Leadership for a New Reality. Nearly all of the sessions within the conference sought to identify “the new normal” following the devastating financial disaster of the last year. Institutions, design professionals, and vendors alike came together to learn, network, commiserate, and seek to make sense of world events that are impacting campuses small and large. I was fortunate to be one of the attendees.
Beginning with the Opening Plenary Speaker, Jerome Ringo, the first African-American to lead a major conservation group (The National Wildlife Federation) and continuing with Plenary Speaker Mark Milliron, the deputy director for post-secondary improvement for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, a study in how various parties can collaborate to improve educational opportunities for students was a recurring theme. Understanding how dramatically facilities can impact student performance, balancing expenditures with revenue is a growing challenge. Concurrent sessions all shared a “green” theme, but also challenged attendees to find new and creative ways to collaborate with stakeholder – both on and off campus to find innovative new ways to stretch budget dollars and increase opportunities for students and staff.
Ever-expanding technology provides both challenges and solutions for colleges and universities. Many faculty members reportedly are hesitant to embrace new methods of connecting with students, yet incoming students want to learn rather than to be taught. Technology allows them seemingly endless opportunities for learning, regardless of location or time of day. Faculty are being challenged to find new ways to embrace technology, but them facilities staff must find ways (with a limited budget) to support these technology needs through infrastructure. The conclusion reached in many sessions was that institutions who figure out this challenge will thrive while those who continue to resist will fade away or become irrelevant.
Last Wednesday, I had the afternoon free while I was in Boston. I used that free time as an opportunity to sight see around town. The easiest way to do that was to hop on the Boston Duck Tour (www.BostonDuckTours.com). The ConDUCKtor was Frim “DucKarma” Jolly, Boston’s good time guru. Frim drove us all through town, dodging traffic along the way. He pointed out the significant points at interest in Boston’s great history. He also pointed out a few insignificant facts, but that made things fun. Eventually, we got to the Charles river where our duck splashed down. Riding on the river provides a nice panoramic view of the city. The tour finished up back at the station in front of my hotel. If you are ever in Boston, I highly recommend taking a Duck Tour.
Last week I traveled to Boston for the SMPS (Society for Marketing Professional Services) Build Business national conference. The tagline was “Reinvent Retool Rebound” and the conference was energizing. I attended several educational sessions that were very interesting. My personal favorite was Harnessing Social Media to Enhance Competitive Advantage. Using social media tools in the AEC industry has been a challenge for most of us. This session focused on firms in our industry effectively using social media to connect with clients.
The Keynote presentations were excellent. Erik Wahl spoke about sharpening your creative skills to rethink your vision and purpose. While he spoke he created three paintings - Bono, Michael Jordan, Albert Einstein. It was a very inspiring presentation - I plan to get my paint supplies out this week. The other keynote speaker was Chris Brogan. Chris spoke on the use of social media as a marketing platform. His presentation was fun and entertaining, but was difficult to translate to a professional services environment.
It’s always nice to catch up with friends from other parts of the country. This conference was attended by people from as far away as Alaska and Hawaii and also included some attendees from our neighbors to the north in Canada.
Probably the highlight for me was my good friend and co-worker, Mike Totsch receiving the Chapter President of the Year Award. Congratulations Mike! You’ve done a phenomenal job in the Columbus Chapter. I’d also like to thank the Columbus Chapter for “adopting” me at the conference. There were only three of us from the Northeast Ohio Chapter, and Columbus had more than a dozen people. They were gracious to include us in there plans.
If you were not able to attend the conference, but would like to ask some questions and learn about some things the attendees took away, please check out the Build Business TweetChat on July 27th. Information can be found here: http://www.buildbusiness.org/tweetchat_ad.pdf
I am just finishing up my third week as Tec Inc.’s lighting design intern and I have already learned so much in such little time. I knew coming into this internship that I was going to be absorbing an abundant amount of information but I never would have guessed that in just three weeks I would have already had some site visits and meetings with lighting representatives under my belt, and on top of that, already helping out with lighting calculations and layouts for some real, actual projects!
On my third day down in Columbus, I had the opportunity to go with Mike to the Edge Group, a landscaping design firm, to meet them, have lunch, and listen to Mike give a talk about business relations and marketing. It was very exciting for me to finally start meeting professionals in different types of design professions. I also learned some helpful hints from Mike’s talk that I’m sure will stick with me as I go into my professional career.
About a week ago, I went on a trip to Defiance College with Mike and Ardra to meet with the maintenance department to discuss possible changes to their interior and exterior lighting plans and fixtures. I didn’t say much during the meeting but I sure was listening. After hearing Ardra discuss lamp and fixture types with the department, I sure did learn a lot. I feel so lucky to be interning under such a knowledgeable lighting designer!
So as you can all see, I am keeping busy and my brain is GROWING!!!! I can’t wait to see what Tec has in store for me in the upcoming weeks… I’ll keep you posted
-Natalie