Engineering Influence from ACEC

Matt Reiffer joins the program to preview a critical week ahead in Washington.  Congress is facing numerous deadlines and the clock is ticking. Will there be a vote on infrastructure on Monday?  Can an agreement on reconciliation be reached?  What about the debt limit and the CR?  Tune in and find out.

Lindsay Simone with the ACEC Life Health Trust joined the program today to discuss the importance of ergonomics in avoiding long-term health issues.  We discuss simple things you can do to reduce back pain, eye strain and avoid the perils of the modern office and worksite.

Last week, ACEC released our latest Private Industry Brief, which provides practical, detailed information and targeted market insights on key A/E private sectors. This issue focuses on the Energy & Utilities market and provides a lot of data on the current state and future prospects of the sector

To dive a little deeper into the numbers and analysis, Erin McLaughlin, ACEC vice president for private market resources, joined the program.

Click here to download the brief.

Ted Gerber, president of Addison Resources Group in New York City, joins us on the program to talk about team building. With more than 25 years of experience working with firms in a variety of industries to improve leadership effectiveness, Ted offers keen insights into the skills and characteristics that make for good teams within an engineering firm.

Ted recently presented an online class on team building for ACEC. Click here for the On-Demand class.

What began as a conversation about induced demand with urban planner Jeff Speck quickly broadened into a wider discussion about U.S. road engineering standards, their impact, and what responsibility engineers may have to improve them.

Speck is the author of Walkable City, one of the most influential and widely read city planning books in recent years. He subsequently wrote Walkable City Rules: 101 Steps to Making Better Places, which is targeted towards traffic engineers and transportation professionals. If you've read these books, you know he doesn't hold back on his opinions, and that trait comes through on this podcast. So, buckle up.

On this week's Government Affairs Update, Katharine Mottley, our tax and regulatory guru, joined the program to discuss the status of the $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill moving in Congress and how emerging divisions among congressional Democrats may impact the process.  We also discuss several revenue bills moving through Congress, including potential changes to important passthrough deductions for our industry.  

One of the most daunting challenges is business development, the pursuit of strategic opportunities for the firm, whether that be new clients, more business from existing clients, or even new partnerships or business relationships. This can often feel like you're racing on a hamster wheel that is always accelerating.

Wes Guckert came on the program to help us dig into how to succeed at business development. President and CEO of The Traffic Group in White Marsh, MD., Wes is a frequent speaker on the subject and recently presented an online class for ACEC. 

Click here to link to the ACEC On-Demand class, What is BD's Secret Sauce?

On today's Member Organization Spotlight, we feature ACEC Indiana's former and current President Michael Rowe and Cash Canfield to discuss a strategic enrollment process they undertook with their DOT.

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have spent a lot more of our workday in the virtual environment, talking to colleagues, clients, and others over Teams, Zoom, Webex, etc.

Many engineering firms now do online client presentations, and they can be quite a challenge because the skills and systems that make for successful face-to-face presentations don’t necessarily transfer to the virtual world.

To share his insights into how to adapt client presentations to the virtual world, Joey Asher came on the program. Joey is president of Atlanta-based Speechworks, which offers communication and public speaking skills training and coaching to businesses nationwide.

Steve Hall came on the program to recap the month's events related to infrastructure and the PPP FAR credits clause.