Last May, we attended KA Connect in San Francisco and felt it was one of the best events we’d attended in recent memory.
The event, hosted by KA Architecture (creators of the A/E social intranet platform Synthesis) was entertaining, participatory and highly informative mix of ideas, strategies, tactics, and discourse.
KA Connect offered wisdom from a range of thought leaders and integrated audience participation and group sharing on a variety of subjects. We were inspired and highly recommend placing KA Connect 2015 near the top of your conference planning this year.
Highlights from KA Connect 2014
Our friend Jason Mlicki, principal of the marketing agency Rattleback, gave a superb talk called The A/E Firm Website of 2015 and wrote up a terrific review of the conference called 7 Macro Insights from KA Connect 2014.
The apex of the event for us was Bob Buday’s talk on thought leadership marketing in the consulting industry. He shared the story of the meteoric rise and rapid demise of CSC Index based on its investment in thought leadership. Buday’s talk brought great insight about the critical role that thought leadership can play in the marketing and operations of an A/E firm.
I’ve said, and written on this blog for years, that commoditization is a very real and very large problem for professional service firms of all stripes. After KA Connect, there was no doubt in my mind that commoditization continues to be a major problem from many firms in the AEC industry. “Fees have not recovered to 2006-2007 levels … It’s a 10 year race to bankruptcy,” said Dan Noble, HKS.
Quotables from KA Connect 2014
Check out the speaker lineup for KA Connect 2015 and get your tickets now!