SMPS Build Business Conference

By Andrea Goulet

Hinge had the pleasure of sponsoring the Society of Marketing Professional Services' annual Build Business Conference held late last week. The event, held at the Grand Hyatt in Washington DC brought together almost 1000 marketers and professional services organizations to focus on marketing strategy, research, branding, and business development.

The conference was kicked-off by an incredible keynote by the world-famous Michael Graves (you know, the Target guy) who has been named as one of the world's Top 100 Designers by Architectural Digest. His dry wit and incredible sense of humor was the perfect vehicle for telling his life's journey. In spite of all of his recent challenges and accomplishments, it was inspiring to hear from a designer who above all is comfortable in his own skin.

The workshops provided thought-provoking information to carry us professional services branders forward for the next year. Carol Doscher of Graceworks presented Public Speaking to Build Your Business to a packed, standing-room-only audience. Her energy was more vibrant than almost any presenter we've ever seen. She was able to instill a new sense of confidence into the members of the audience, most of which could be heard exclaiming, "Wow — she makes it seem so easy!" as they exited the room. Hopefully that confidence will linger through the several speaking engagements we have set up over the next year.

Another workshop of note was Listening to Be a Better Manager presented by Joan Freitag, VP of Hanson Professional Services. In this workshop, we were paired up for role playing and through a series of interesting interactions saw first-hand how important context and connotation are to a conversation. It perfectly demonstrated how an e-mail can be misinterpreted or the danger of thinking of your rebuttal instead of listening to what the other person is saying.

In addition to the workshops, we enjoyed the open time for networking. Too often, conference try to cram in too many activities, but SMPS understands the power of networking and building relationships. All in all it was a great time — entertaining, educational and engaging. We're already looking forward to next year's conference!