Summary: Get the upside on the downturn. Roll up your sleeves and start planning the future of your firm and your career. Diversity, market trends, career success, and more are all on tap in San Francisco this year. And on the Expo floor, visit five pavilions—Kitchen and Bath, Lighting, Metal, Software and High Tech, and Stone and Tile—and more than 800 companies exhibiting their products and technologies, including 100 presenting green, sustainable offerings.

Weather the recession, plan for the future
Recognizing the challenges you’re facing in today’s uncertain economic climate, the AIA will offer a specially priced workshop, “Business Planning in a Weak Economy: Blueprints for Brighter Tomorrows—The Upside of the Downturn.” This day-long session will feature up-to-the-minute data and information on the recovery act and the economy, along with an interactive, hands-on planning component that will help you develop action plans to implement after the conference.

The discounted session price is $100 for the day. In the morning, GSA Recovery Executive Bill Guerin will provide the latest information about the design opportunities in the GSA’s $5.5 billion share of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for federal facilities. Guerin will share insights about the kinds of projects that are being funded and the requirements for firms interested in the work and the deadlines. Robert G. Packard III, Assoc. AIA; AIA Chief Economist Kermit Baker, PhD, Hon. AIA; and others will also present the latest data, business trends, and forecasts.

To turn this information into action-oriented solutions, Karen Compton, Assoc. AIA, CPSM, and Valicia Dantzler, both of A3K Consulting, will show participants how to develop a business plan that integrates workshop data and information to foster long-term growth. Additionally, Compton will teach participants how to develop an action-oriented marketing plan to capture potential opportunities with various agencies.

This session is part of the AIA Navigating the Economy program, a new comprehensive track of seminars that addresses skills and resources you can use to weather the recession. Take-away strategies from these 15 sessions especially devoted to the economy and its impact on your career, practice, or specialty include:

• Repositioning your firm, large or small
• Business planning, marketing, and firm valuation
• Career management, including job coaching, résumé writing, interviewing, and portfolio development
• Human resources/legal aspects of firm downsizing and dissolution
• Life coaching, including stress and health management techniques.

As part of the program, you can also meet with representatives from U.S. federal agencies at the Federal Agency Connection in Expo booth 501 to explore new market opportunities and learn innovative sustainable design techniques.

Small firms and sole practitioners
Rena M. Klein, FAIA, RM Klein Consulting, presents another Navigating the Economy session: “Best Laid Plans: Business Planning for Small Firms.” This interactive program will give small business owners a framework and process for working through the current unpredictable business environment, understanding trends, and planning for the future in a realistic way, Klein says.

A key feature for this session, and many others, is the opportunity to interact with speakers and the audience. “You have a lot of know-how in the room,” says Klein, who advises participants to use the market downturn as a time to get ready for the recovery: to quantify precisely where your business is now, improve operations, and rethink the strategic orientation of your practice.

Metrics and megatrends
David S. Cohen, Matheson Financial Advisors, can help small and large firms alike, especially as financing gets tighter. His “Firm Valuation in a Turbulent Economy: The Best of Times/The Worst of Times” will focus on the impact of the economic downturn on design firm valuation—above and beyond the effect on revenue, profits, backlog, and staff size. The presentation will be from the perspective of an industry firm appraiser showing attendees how to increase the attractiveness of their firms to the professionals, inside and out, by maximizing value and return on investments.

Outside market factors have a significant impact on the valuation of your company, says Cohen, adding that he hopes attendees at his session will learn to go beyond book value in order to understand the true value of a company.

You can also take some time to look ahead with two future-focused sessions: “The Firm of the Future: Big Picture Trends Shaping the Future of Design Firms” and “Is It Tomorrow Already? Megatrends Impacting Your Firm.”

In “The Firm of the Future,” Raymond F. Kogan, AIA, will present scenarios that you can use to evaluate a host of issues affecting long-term planning including demographic shifts, technology, mergers and acquisitions, hiring practices, globalization, and sustainability. Steven J. Isaacs, Assoc. AIA, PE, of the Advanced Management Institute for Architecture and Engineering, will present future megatrends that AMI has identified in their 2009 report and outline specific actions that firms and firm leaders can take to prepare for and use the changes these megatrends are likely to bring about to their best advantage.

“I feel like I should have a new title of ‘chin lifter,’” says Isaacs. “We spend an enormous amount of time lifting people’s heads up and encouraging them to think about the future.”

Building business—and careers
AIA Convention attendees can visit the Career Center located in the AIA Town Square on the Expo floor. You’ll find industry pros who have seen it all and want to help you get back on track by strengthening your current business model, setting up a plan for new business development strategies—and career planning, to name a few. One-on-one coaching sessions are also available.

Thousands of your peers are attending—this is the place. Choose from a wide variety of events and seminars, including tours, luncheons, and seminars, to learn from others’ experience and tap into their industry contacts. Full and one-day convention registration and updated program information are available at AIAConvention.com.