Kellie Ford has been in the AEC industry for 14 years and is currently working in Marketing and Business Development for S&ME in Raleigh. Originally from Syracuse, New York Kellie entered the AEC industry immediately upon graduation from college. She has served as Secretary on the Board of SMPS Research Triangle, worked on the Programs Committee and is currently serving on the Membership Committee. In addition to her work with SMPS Research Triangle, Kellie is involved with IMFA, NCHEA, ISPE, WIA, ACEC, and the Brooks Elementary School PTA.

When Kellie gets free time she enjoys spending it with her husband and two children (ages 8 and 5), going to concerts, traveling, visiting the beach, baking, riding bikes, reading, and running. Kellie ran her first Half Marathon last year. Go Kellie!

Something people may not know about Kellie is that she worked at a Wegmans grocery store in the bakery as a cake decorator, customer service provider, and baker for 7 years during high school and college. There she learned to decorate all kinds of cakes and desserts and became a “Certified Bagel Baker!” She still loves decorating cakes to this day for her children and friends.

Kellie also has family in Alaska.and her Grandmother’s husband and his father and brothers’ were settlers of a town called Palmer, Alaska in the early 1960′s.

Thank you, Kellie, for all that you do for SMPS Research Triangle!

When: Saturday, June 2
Where: The Streets at Southpoint Mall

During the Kids Feeding Kids walk, in downstairs Center Court (in front of Nordstrom), there will be an event to build structures out of cans and other food items.  Teams will build fantastic structures out of cans/food products.  These structures will stay in place until June 9th.  On the afternoon of June 2nd, celebrity judges will select a winner.

The commitment from an architecture firm partner would include:

• Help 3-5 corporate teams plan and build structures out of cans/items in the middle of Southpoint Mall on June 2^nd
• To prepare for this, they would use their design program for the structure and designate what cans and what colors are needed.  This will be simple for ABC-11 and possibly Food Lion as they want to do their logos.
• Food Lion has agreed to provide the first 500 items (cans/boxes/water bottles etc.) for free to each team. Then each team could get the remaining cans needed at bulk prices from Food Lion if they desired this.  The corporate team will pay for all items needed, no out of pocket for architecture firm.
• Be on-site the day of the event for the build. Designate a representative to be available for any television and possibly radio interviews

Benefits to the architecture firm partner would include:

• Logo Exposure through heavy media campaign in tv commercials that will promote this campaign
• Signage/logo  at each building site (remain at Southpoint for a week with thousands of people seeing it)
• Booth with marketing information in Southpoint if desired on June 2nd
• Interview on live tv or radio if we get any coverage (can’t promise this)
• Presence on FB website, mention in press release, social media outreach, website ads on ABC-11 and WRAL

If interested or for additional information, please email Bridget McMinn at bmcminn@foodbankcenc.org.

Have you heard that North Carolina is the premier location for economic development in the nation? Well, it’s true and there are a lot of resources on many levels that have been deployed to capture and retain this accolade. But, can a robust economic development environment translate to more business opportunities for your company? Better not miss this informative discussion by a distinguished panel of state, regional, county and city economic development professionals. Join us for an extended lunch at Raleigh’s Cardinal Club on April 24th.

Learn more, and register for the event here.

Vanessa Manners has been working in the A/E/C industry for 6 years and is currently the Marketing Coordinator for Kimley-Horn and Associates in their Raleigh office. Originally from Corpus Christi, Texas a friend of Vanessa’s worked for Kimley-Horn and thought it would be a good fit.  Six years and a relocation later, here she is!  Vanessa feels, “Transferring to Raleigh was the best decision I could have ever made—I met my husband here.  He also works for Kimley-Horn.”

In addition to her hard work on the Programs Committee for our Chapter, Vanessa is very involved with the Junior League of Raleigh and the Downtown Raleigh Alliance. When she’s not hard at work volunteering, she enjoys hanging out with her husband and their schnauzer Rico, traveling, cooking, baking, and reading. The last book Vanessa read was The Hunger Games – she felt the books and movie were incredible.

What you may not know about Vanessa is that she grew up in a small town near the US/Mexico border. Her family made frequent weekend trips to Mexico and she was fluent in Spanish. Vanessa and her siblings were active in 4-H, raising animals, and growing their own vegetables.

Patty Briguglio brings hands-on consulting experience with architectural/engineering/construction firms to develop and support their public relations initiatives. She will offer tips and strategies to we who are not experts – how to craft your message, formatting/content which gets positive attention and makes an impact, building relationships with reporters/media influencers, and guidelines on what and how to pitch a story to broadcast, print, trade and social media outlets. And finally, if resources and corporate support are in place – when and why do you call in a Pro.  

Where:

PNC Arena (formerly RBC Center)

When:

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

11:30am-1:30pm 

Learn more and Register!

Member Spotlight

Heather Justus, CPSM, has been working in the A/E/C industry for 11 years and is currently the Marketing Manager for Skanska USA Building Inc. in Durham. Before joining our industry Heather was a college student, landing her first job out of school with an A/E/C firm. The job was a perfect fit and all these years later she still loves what she does for a living. We are fortunate Heather has been a long-time member of our SMPS Research Triangle Chapter, presently serving as webmaster liaison for the Communications Committee.

Heather was born in Boston, MA, but was raised in Chapel Hill, NC and is a big fan of the Carolina Tar Heels.

When Heather is not hard at work for Skanska or SMPS you can find her watching UNC basketball and spending time with her husband, Brad, and their 2 year old son Benjamin.  She loves to travel and hike and see new places. She also has an addiction to trashy reality television, above all – the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.

Some  fun facts no one may know about Heather are that growing up she was in a youth tap dance company, The North Carolina Youth Tap Ensemble, where she got to travel across the country to learn and perform with tap dance legends. She also did a six week cross-country road trip with her best friend right after college and has visited 27 US national parks!

Learn more and Register!

Learn more and Register!

Clients Talk Back

We all work hard to build successful relationships with clients, submit the best proposals and conduct interview presentations that have us high-fiving at the end.  But are our Prospects/Clients really seeing us in the crowd? Join us for our Clients Talk Back event to find out what traits, processes, team composition, experience and more that clients look for when selecting service partners. The panelists’ experience in the selection process, as well as in the delivery of design and construction projects, will provide insights helpful to any firm interested in better serving their clients and positioning themselves for new work!

The SMPS Triangle Chapter is honored to have three distinguished Client/Owner Representatives in a panel forum discussion.

Panelists

• Pierre Gingue, President, PEG Contracting
• David Parker, Preconstruction Manager, Duke Realty
• Fred Patrick, AIA, PE, LEED AP, Director of Facilities Design & Construction, UNC Greensboro

Our panelists will be led in discussion by Theresa Leahey, Director of Business Development, Affiliated Engineers.

Register here