Each year, we set out goals. We research, plan, and execute strategies to meet those goals. This year, as a Chapter, SMPS Philadelphia made great strides in achieving those goals:

🗓️ We established a three-year Strategic Plan under Past President Laura Frein, CPSM and are executing it around membership engagement, our approach to programming, developing the next generation of Chapter leaders, and enhancing the SMPS Philadelphia brand and new member base.

🤝 We executed cross-collaborative events with other partners in the industry like WTS Philadelphia and WiSE Philadelphia, with more to come in 2026, including an event with AIA Philadelphia in March!

🎟️ We provided (and attended) professional development events on a wide array of topics – proposals, BD, social media, graphic design, project management, and more.

FALL ESPRESSO EXCHANGE

Our second year Espresso Exchanges – a members-only benefit! – kicked off caffeinated with Chapter members across the tri-state area connecting over coffee and friendly conversation. With local meetups in Center City, three PA suburbs, Delaware, and NJ, you're never far from an SMPS friend or a flavored latte. New this brew: a Central NJ delegation enjoyed their morning roasts together off Route 1! See you on February 24th for another cup!

NOVEMBER TECH TUESDAY: EXCEL YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA

In last month’s Tech Tuesday, Christina Tedeschi, CPSM (Marketing Manager, Spiezle Architecture Group) shared great organizational tools to help structure your firm’s social media content calendar; centralize ideas, decisions, and actions; and empower broader engagement and creative ownership of this content throughout organizations. Thanks for helping us level up from endless scrolling to an Excelcutable system, Christina!

VIDEO BASICS FOR MAXIMUM IMPACT

As AEC marketers, we’re often asked, “can you do this?” And when that question approaches, “can you develop, produce, and edit high-quality multimedia videos for”, a lot of us balk. Where to start? What to use? What does good look like? How much does it cost and how much time will it take? All good questions, and Ken Bray (Visual Content Producer, Benchmark Construction) has practical answers to help us structure basic video production to answer the mail and then some! In this in-person session, Ken shared fundamentals of composition and framing, lighting, sound and video settings, and story editing to make the most out of amateur and personal devices – yes, especially our phones. A moving picture is worth a thousand words and we too can make them, with impact!

DECEMBER TECH TUESDAY: TAME YOUR TO-DO LIST

Is “get more organized” about to be one of your News Years Resolutions? Yep, we’re there too – always! Enter Amanda Irwin (Marketing Manager, McCormick Taylor (and SMPS Philadelphia MarCom Director!)) to compare, contrast, and support informed decisions about which task management tools can work best for our work stuff and our life stuff. Amanda gave us a rundown of and demos on the free editions of Trello, Monday, and MS Teams Planner and shared her thoughts, tips, and tricks for testing them to help us discover the tool that best suits our individual organizational style. Hey, that’s now one thing off your list!

DECEMBERFEST 2025: JINGLE & MINGLE

The temps were freezing for Decemberfest but we know how to keep it toasty – deck the draught list and don that fun holiday apparel! Thanks to all who came out to yule the log at Tir Na Nog last week. As always, it’s a wonderful (calendar) year-end celebration that gives us the chance to pause before the holidays and new year to be together and have one good old fashioned, no-frills (well, some – we love this brand of sweater weather) PARTY!

New Members

Joe Dugan

Nick Kovalcik

Anniversaries

November

December

Stacy Barrett, 21
Aubrey Blackman, 6
Sandra Bones, CPSM, 15
Sandra Drain, CPSM, 13
Daniel Fox, 8
Meredith Koons, CPSM, 3
Jason Mills, CPSM, 3

Armando Ramirez, 3
Mikaela Seitz, 1
Darcy Veneziale, CPSM, 13

Jennifer Esposito, 1
Grey Henry, 1
Erin Kane, 1
Charles Mastripolito, 1
Kelly McGuire, 1
Kate Petrovich, 16
Sonali Shah, 4
Olivia Seltzer, 3
Bob Tiedeken, 2
Alysia Weintraub, 1

Dana Westfield, 4