ACEC Arkansas is holding its Inaugural Leadership Excellence Symposium in January and February 2025. Leadership Excellence Symposium focuses on the administrative and people side of the business. The trainers will provide personal insights, timely information and useful tools that will enable participants to expand their leadership skills and contributions to further their advancement of their engineering career, their employer, and the engineering industry. Graduates will be well-rounded professional and community leaders who are not only capable technical professionals, but who also effectively and comfortably exhibit the people skills that separate them from the majority.
Elevate your ability to lead and grow your firm with this program designed to inspire and inform existing and emerging AEC firm leaders. Learning and networking at this premiere event challenges traditional seminar formats and integrates participatory idea exchange led by national subject matter experts.
The Leadership Excellence Symposium is like a mini-MBA for design and technical professionals and is an impactful way you can spend learning to build your career and your firm.
Who Should Attend:
- Presidents, CEOs, and C-Suite Executives of AEC firms
- Experienced managers/leaders/principals seeking to enhance their knowledge
- New or upcoming managers/leaders/principals seeking to prepare for the next step in their careers
- Leaders/managers of market sectors, project managers, and senior design and technical staff
Is the Program Right For You?
Leadership Excellence Symposium is open to any ACEC Arkansas member. Emerging Leaders isn’t a requirement for this Symposium. Participants should be interested and willing to participate in class discussions and promoting the image of their profession. Participants should have the support of their employer and supervisor and are expected to attend all sessions. Leadership Excellence Symposium is limited to 18 participants.
After completion 15 PDHs will be issued.
DOWNLOAD FILLABLE PDF APPLICATION HERE.
APPLICATIONS ARE DUE DECEMBER 16, 2024 BY 5PM.
DOWNLOAD INFORMATIONAL BROCHURE HERE.
Session Dates
January 21, 2025 (10am-5:30pm) – January 22, 2025 (8am-3pm) – Northwest Arkansas
February 18, 2025 (10am-5:30pm) – February 19, 2025 (8am-3pm) – Northwest Arkansas
January Sessions
- Strategic and Business Planning
Learn why strategic plans are critical to firm success and learn how to build and execute the plan. Hear how to get staff to embrace a growth culture and to work toward long-term growth. - Managerial Accounting
Selecting the right internal financial information to aid in decision making makes a lasting impact on the financial health of the firm. During this session, you’ll learn what to create, monitor, and utilize as the right financial benchmarks. Using budgets, forecasts, and other data to project future performance indicates a firm’s financial success. - Financial Management
In this session, attendees will learn how to analyze and manage finances to maintain the financial health your firm. You will gain skills in developing accurate and relevant data and reports for stakeholders such as shareholders, financial institutions, and other external parties. Participants will understand how to follow GAAP and other regulatory guidelines to meet client-specific requirements. - Marketing and Business Development
There are differences in marketing, sales, and business development. As a firm leader, you must build a strong brand and a doer-seller culture. Learn how to maximize client relationships and client experiences. - Ownership, Transition, Valuation, and Merger/Acquisition
Participants will learn how to develop and execute an ownership and leadership transition strategy. Common methods, best practices, and attributes for effective internal and external transitions will be discussed along with demystifying the merger and acquisition process. - Recruiting and Retention
In today’s marketplace, recruiting and retention at most firm’s top priority. Hiring and keeping talent in a tight market is difficult. Learn how your firm can encourage mentorship, accountability, and career development. Discover how to become a “Best Firm to Work For” culture and employee experience. Participants will learn how to measure recruitment process effectiveness: key data points to track.
February Sessions
Leadership
- Cultivate the Culture You Want
Culture drives everything in your organization. One must be intentional about cultivating the culture you want and need which starts by gaining a candid look at the culture you have across your organization today. Our proven data-driven approach to assessing culture helps leaders take the steps necessary to cultivate the culture they want. - Challenging Conversations
People are people, and challenging conversations are inevitable. Sometimes people are difficult! When difficult conversations become filled with conflict, it’s an even more significant challenge. Everyone handles conflict differently. The SDI 2.0 assessment helps make us become aware of our conflict sequence. This assessment shows us how we lead when things are going well and how what’s important to us changes when things aren’t going well. This session bridges Emotional Intelligence and the SDI assessment together to provide a practical, personal and effective approach to every conversation that some would call crucial. - Lead and Navigate Change
Healthy cultures are not stagnate. They are fluid and constantly look toward what is next. The future of an organization and the health of its culture rests on preparing people for change and empowering them to lead through it. This session is for leaders ready to make sure their change initiatives are successful and long lasting
Advocacy and Political Activism
- Mechanics of Policymaking
• Political Leadership Principles and Insight
• The intricacies of parliamentary procedure and the policy process - Effective Advocacy
• Questions for advocates to ask, the right things to say to legislators to effectively influence outcomes.
• Identifying and working with community stakeholders and addressing their concerns. - Campaigning 101 – Getting Started
**Pre-requisite – SDI Assessment at $140 per attendee (this fee is in addition to the course fee). If you have previously taken the SDI Assessment in Emerging Leaders and don’t want to re-take it, then you will not be charged for the assessment. Contact us if you DO need to take the assessment. Information about the SDI Assessment can be found here (link to https://insightlg.com/core-strengths-20).
ACEC Arkansas Member Pricing – $1,995
Non-Member Pricing – $2,495
*Lunch provided both days. Breakfast provided the second day.
**No lodging is included in this training. It will be your responsibility to book your lodging, if necessary.