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What do the states of Argos, Athens, Corinth, and Sparta have to do with the AIA’s Advocacy agenda? A great deal, it turns out. Those are the names of the fictitious states that the 176 attendees represented at the very successful inaugural AIA SpeakUp that took place in Washington DC from July 13-15. SpeakUp is the name for the AIA’s new advocacy and action event.
Rather than follow a standard (aka boring) agenda of large group presentations and break-outs, the AIA leaders took a risk and created a competition where attendees were divided into four teams to apply lessons in creating an advocacy campaign. And the risk paid off big time! We heard from great speakers on topics like “Elements of a strong legislative plan”, “Effective communications”, “Legislative campaign targeting and power mapping”, and “Earned media in a digital age” and then rolled up our sleeves in our separate teams to directly apply those lessons in our campaign. The campaign’s goal was to get the local AIA Board to support the passage of a bill in the state House committee to adopt a Green Education Energy Code (GEEC). The code would substantially reduce energy use in public schools while saving taxpayer dollars--something that should be near and dear to all COTE members.
The event was incredibly well organized with a good deal of humor, which made it so much more fun and effective to learn by doing. In addition to the Greek-inspired states, there was a wandering Zeus and Athena as well as other muses. Teams were wonderfully diverse by age, gender, and location. This was especially helped by the 45 scholarships recipients many who were emerging professionals who made up half of the attendees. The energy of the room in the team break-outs was infectious and created fast friendships. The materials for the event were beautifully designed and written, something that matters to architects of course. Each team received a 50+ page briefing book which described it’s City State in great detail down to the population breakdown, key industries, important media contacts, and details on each key legislator down to their children, and memberships. This contributed to the ability to put together a very targeted campaign.
I participated in Team Corinth, which, using the clear communications guidelines, came up with the campaign slogan: “invest in Student Energy, Not Wasted Energy.” Following the well-known architectural strategy of deadline driven results, we put together a fantastic presentation and were delighted that the jury selected us as the winning team. Go Corinth!
I participated in Team Corinth, which, using the clear communications guidelines, came up with the campaign slogan: “invest in Student Energy, Not Wasted Energy.” Following the well-known architectural strategy of deadline driven results, we put together a fantastic presentation and were delighted that the jury selected us as the winning team. Go Corinth!
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