PSMJ Resources, Inc.

AEC THRIVE

October 21-23, 2026

Omni Scottsdale Resort & Spa
Scottsdale, AZ

The Growth, Profit & Success Summit

AEC THRIVE brings together key decisionmakers for connection and collaboration for business strategies that drive lasting success.

ABOUT AEC THRIVE

Transforming Strategy. Elevating Performance.

AEC THRIVE is your unique opportunity to learn what other firms are doing right now to vault to the next level of profit and performance as the business climate continues to evolve.

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Immersive Days

THOUGHT LEADERS. INDUSTRY EXPERTS. TOP-PERFORMING AEC FIRMS.

Learn from the Firms Driving Growth Across AEC

Gain practical strategies and proven business insights from the executives, speakers, sponsors, and exhibitors leading the industry's top architecture, engineering, and construction firms.

3 Reasons AEC THRIVE is a Must-Attend

AEC THRIVE brings together architecture and engineering firm decision-makers and senior leaders ready to spark growth, profitability, and performance. Ideal for CEOs, Presidents and VPs, Managing Principals, CFOs, and any executive driving business strategy and long-term success.

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Fresh Ideas

Fresh case studies, eye-opening 2026 business data, and breakthrough ideas to help you rethink and re-energize your AEC firm’s growth strategy.

2

Peer Networking

Unique networking opportunities connect you with peer AEC firm leaders in a stimulating environment to swap bold new techniques.

3

Explosive Results

Sessions on AEC financial management, business development, project execution, AI applications, and talent engagement to fuel explosive firmwide performance gains.

MEET OUR 2026

Keynote Speakers

Journey to 2040: Leading the Future of Your Industry

Nikki Greenberg,
Leading AEC Business Futurist


World renowned futurist Nikki Greenberg equips AEC leaders to proactively shape their organization’s future by navigating the major forces reshaping every industry, including AI, generational shifts, and workplace evolution. Drawing on her experience leading the digital transformation of a $70 Billion organization, Nikki provides practical tools and a forward thinking framework to embrace change, harness emerging technologies, and accelerate success. Delivered in her light hearted, dynamic, and entertaining style, this keynote blends inspiration, motivation, and practical insight on how to become future ready today.

The AEC Mentorship Imperative: Because Your Next Gen Leaders Won't Develop Themselves

Brian Smalkoski, P.E.
Vice President, Kimley-Horn and Chair-Elect, ACEC Arizona

Great AEC training builds skills that lead to better project outcomes. An intentional commitment to mentorship gives you something even more valuable: a deep bench of potential executive talent that can sustain your firm’s growth trajectory in any business climate. Brian Smalkoski of engineering and design powerhouse Kimley-Horn shares how his firm's mentorship program complements formal training, delivers measurable ROI, builds their leadership pipeline, and how any firm can adapt mentorship tactics that develop stronger, more well-rounded leaders.

AEC Growth Power Play: Winning the Work You’re Not Supposed to Win

Tim Griffin
Former Executive Vice President, RMF Engineering

Great firms aren’t just built on the safe wins. Every leading AEC firm has that inflection point that redefined their trajectory. The moment that they landed the big project that was even bigger than the firm's resume could justify. In today’s hyper-competitive environment, being qualified is no longer enough land the big wins (and even some of the small ones). Selection committees are flooded with capable firms, and too many teams still walk into interviews hoping their experience will speak for itself. It won’t. If you want to win larger, more strategic work, you must rethink how you show up in the project interview. That’s where decisions are made and that's where you need to stand out.

This keynote reveals a disciplined approach to turning the interview into a true competitive advantage. Drawing from Tim’s 37-year career building a 400-person firm with a 50% interview win rate (and insights shared in his latest book – Winning Work), you learn:

  • How to Control the Narrative and give selection committees a clear reason to choose you
  • How Firms Win “Unwinnable” Projects and why others lose work they should have secured
  • How to Deliver a Message That Sticks long after the shortlist presentations end

This isn’t about better presentations. It’s about changing how you compete…and winning the work you actually want.

The alignment advantage: What high-performing aec firms have in common

Mike Matthews
Senior Consultant, PSMJ Resources

The architecture and engineering industry has long celebrated growth as the primary proof of firm success — rising revenue, expanding headcounts, new offices, bigger backlogs. But after decades of advising and leading AEC firms, and completing a doctoral study of consistently high-performing firms, Michael arrived at a counterintuitive finding: the firms best positioned for enduring success are rarely the ones most focused on growth itself.

 In this keynote, Matthews will present the research-based framework from his forthcoming book, Alignment by Design, revealing that sustained performance in professional services firms emerges not from optimizing any single metric, but from the coherence of five interconnected organizational systems — values and mission, governance, structure, leadership, and culture.

When these components reinforce one another, professionals collaborate more effectively, leaders develop more naturally, client relationships deepen, and the firm builds resilience that outlasts market cycles and ownership transitions.

Attendees will leave with a practical diagnostic lens for examining whether their own firm’s internal systems are working together — or quietly working against one another — and a clearer understanding of why alignment, not growth, is the strategy that separates firms that thrive from firms that simply expand.

3 DAYS OF INSIGHTFUL SESSIONS

Get ready to explore the breakthroughs and big ideas shaping AEC THRIVE

CHOOSE YOUR PASS

Choose the registration that fits your goals

Get access to world-class content, exclusive sessions, and valuable networking — all in one place.

Group Savings

$2095

/Add'l Registrant

Save $500 per additional attendee
Bring your team and multiply your firm’s takeaways.

Register

$2595

/Registrant

Registration includes all sessions, breakfasts, lunches, breaks and receptions.

Optional Workshop

+$995

/Registrant

AEC Executive Workshop delivers a wealth of action-oriented ideas to rethink and energize your leadership training and succession strategy.

The Countdown Has Begun!

Don’t Miss the Growth Profit & Success Summit of the Year

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Join your AEC peers in Scottsdale for three powerful days of networking, strategy, and fresh approaches to improving business performance.

Omni Scottsdale Resort & Spa

VENUE & LOCATION

Where AECs brightest minds gather, The Omni Scottsdale Resort & Spa at Montelucia

AEC THRIVE is coming to Omni Scottsdale Resort & Spa at Montelucia — nestled at the base of Camelback Mountain in Scottdale, AZ. It’s the perfect setting to relax, reset, and recharge in a location that’s as inspiring as the conference itself.

The Omni Scottsdale Resort & Spa Room Block is now full. Please contact us at education@psmj.com if you need assistance.

Attendee Testimonials

AEC THRIVE is a registered provider of AIA-approved continuing education. For more information, please contact our education team at (617) 965-0055 or education@psmj.com.