Member Spotlight | August 2021
Posted on Aug. 25, 2021 / Member Spotlight / Subscribe 0
Get to know our August 2021 Member Spotlight honoree:
Amy King, Director of Marketing & Business Development, Stages Consultants, LLC
Amy is new to the AEC industry and has been with Stages since April 2020 – they hired her right before the pandemic and surprisingly kept her on throughout, even though theatres and the entertainment world shut down. Although she is doing an amazing job in her new role, and volunteering for SMPS, we secretly think they keep her on for comedic relief!
Note: Our SMPS video-editor moved on to a different industry, so we tasked Amy with ‘making her own video’. After forcing her to cut her original 13-minute video down to 3 minutes (you’re welcome!) and her wanting to make sure her dog had equal ‘air time’, please enjoy this quick tidbit about Amy and her company! (The un-edited part of the video is written below!) Thanks for sharing your information with us Amy! We can’t wait to finally meet you in person!
And, if you’d like to know more about Amy, here’s the unedited 13-minute version:
Where do you work and what is your role?
I work for Stages Consultants, we are a theatre planning consultancy firm. We do theatre planning, acoustics design, audio-visual consulting and stage lighting and equipment design. We work hand in hand with owners, developers, architects, engineers, and a bunch of other consultants to create or renovate performing arts venues -whether it is a new state of the art theatre or a smaller black box theatre within a university. Our work is both national and international.
My role is the company’s first Director of Marketing & Business Development. Since most of our projects are in collaboration with architects and engineers, my main job is to build relationships with these firms, let them know about Stages’ qualifications and experience so that when they come across a project that has a performing arts aspect to it, they call us to be on their team. The 2nd major role that I have is finding the projects – preferably before the RFP comes out – and that’s not an easy task at hand (as I’m sure most of you know!) – that requires a lot of research and a lot of time building relationships with developers and owners and facility managers and really keeping a finger on the pulse of the industry as to what city/community/university/high school/etc. is looking to build or renovate. The 3rd major function of my job is the marketing aspect which I really haven’t had much time to do but once some of our new systems and databases are set up and I’m in the groove, that is my next goal to tackle, email marketing, direct mail, website, more social media, conferences, etc.
How long have you been a member of SMPS and what has been the biggest benefit you have gotten out of your membership?
I’ve been an SMPS member for a little over a year. When I first started at Stages I asked some marketing colleagues in the AEC industry what association I should belong to and they all said SMPS! An association like SMPS is an invaluable tool for all marketing executives between the immense knowledge you gain, the abundance of networking opportunities and the surprise lifelong friends and professional contacts that you could end up making.
For me, personally as a BD and the need to build relationships with AEC professionals – the networking opportunities have been a tremendous help for me. I participate in as many seminars and meetings as possible, and I really encourage others to join us on these calls as well! Especially the happy hours!
The SMPS Directory is in my bookmark tab. I spend an immense amount of time hunting down potential projects and when I find a really good one in an area in which we may or may not have a connection in, I open the directory, search the state and the specialty and reach out to that member. Everyone is so friendly and helpful – it was comforting to me in the beginning when I was just learning about the marketing world in the AEC industry.
I joined the PR & Communications committee and I volunteered to do the BLOG (which I never did before, so it was a cool learning experience). I’d like to enhance the blog with member input and professionals outside of SMPS that could provide information that would benefit us in our careers. It’s great to volunteer within your professional organization. The one thing that people should know about volunteering is everyone understands how busy everyone is so you are not expected to kill yourself to volunteer. You do what you can when you can so I’d advise everyone to join a committee, and participate in seminars and networking events. You’re paying for membership – why not use it to its fullest?
What are some of your non-marketing interests/hobbies?
I’m kind of a work-a-holic so I don’t have many outside hobbies at the moment. I do like to bake and decorate cakes and cupcakes for people. I don’t bake as much as I used to but my daughter and I recently started donating our time making cupcakes for a recovery high school in NJ.
In my last job I worked for a toxicology lab that did drug testing for rehab facilities and I learned that there are ‘designated’ high schools for young adults in recovery that combine education with recovery strategies and support. Those kids are rock stars and deserve alot of support and praise. We just did graduation cupcakes for them in June! And September for the new school year we are planning something special for them as well. These kids need to know that there are people out there who are proud of what they are accomplishing, and that their struggles and successes are not going unnoticed.
What’s your best marketing-related success/memory?
Two specifically come to mind. I like doing “out of the box” marketing whether it is at trade shows, or unique marketing pieces; but working in professions like accounting, financial services and even the AEC industry it’s not that easy to be fun. My first D of M position was at an accounting firm. They did trade shows with no traffic so I came in and came up with theme about pirates and I think it was something about “buried treasures hidden in your financial statements that our firm could dig up.” I had the staff dress up as pirates and we had a treasure chest that people would get a key to if they gave us their business card and talked to us about their main financial concerns. We got an abundance of people at our table and made a crazy amount of new connections and new clients! And we were even featured in an accounting marketing magazine for our creativity! And it was a great start to my career. It got to show people that you can be professional AND fun. It was also a great recruiting tool for hiring staff because we looked like a fun company to work for!
A couple of years later we did a Gilligan’s Island theme and I was pregnant at the time and dressed up as MaryAnn which was quite the hoot when trying to explain if it was Gilligan, the Skipper or Professor who was the father of the child! We had so many people come to the booth that day! I love doing stuff like that! Humor is memorable – you remember the person, the company, the ad, the commercial that made you smile. They do say “Laughter is the best medicine,” right?
What is one word that best describe you?
Ironically as my dog is interviewing me – one word that comes to mind I guess is FUNNY. I try and bring humor into many situations. Some of the things that come out of my mouth are quite humorous -probably because I have a pretty warped sense of humor. I try and lighten things up – especially now – people need to laugh. I find that this helps in my networking tactics because people remember me – not necessarily because of something brilliant I said or something really cool about my company, but also that I made them smile.
Like now – I hope you remember me and Stages! Thanks for watching!
0 Comments