After two years in quarantine, going Banff to present a workshop at the Alberta Association of Architects’ annual conference, was truly the best way to ‘rejoin the world’, and I couldn’t have chosen a more spectacular place to do it.

We always tailor our programs for each specific event and location. To understand market conditions in Alberta, we polled AAA members and interviewed leaders at several firms. What we found was both distressing - and very encouranging. The 2015 drop in oil prices greatly affected the Alberta economy, particularly the commercial real estate sector in Calgary, where a flight of oil companies left the downtown core with more than 14 million sqare feet of empty office space, and many towers up to 90% empty.

To stay afloat, Alberta architects have become extremely effective at identifying the best opportunties and markets for work, and at finding prospects and pursuing work. They prove that strategic, focused and linked marketing and business development drive results.

We showed how to build on the marketinb and business development foundation they have established with strategies for differentiating their firm and positionoing against competitors.