Summary: When you’re looking for work, a chief component is who you know. What you know is pretty important, too. And the best place to increase both is the annual AIA National Convention. Also important these days, the best way to save money on registration and guest accommodations is to register early. You can register quickly and easily on-line for the AIA 2009 National Convention and Design Expo, April 30-May 2 in San Francisco. But do it now because early-bird registration ends February 17.

To get a member’s insight into the benefits of early-bird registration, AIArchitect turned to one of the very first architects to register for the convention this year, Kevin Shertz, AIA, of Chestertown, Md.

“The number one reason why I registered so early is that I did not do that last year, and I got hit with more cost. I intended to register early for Boston and it just slipped my mind, and then the deadline passed. So I made a mental note that I was definitely going to get the early-bird registration this time. The other reason I registered as early as I did was because I wanted to make sure that I was able to get the housing choice that I wanted, a reasonably priced but small hotel on Union Square that I like, so I was going to jump on that. For the programs, I want to make sure that I’m taking care of all of my continuing education requirements for the AIA and my licensure. I’m also doing a pre-convention workshop to ensure that over the course of the week I can get my year’s worth of credits and not feel like I’m running from session to session scrambling to make the cut. It’s great to take some time to catch up with former colleagues and friends. It’s amazing that there’s 18,000 to 20,000 people there and you bump into these familiar faces that you haven’t seen in a year or so, and it’s always fun to see who you’re going to run into.”