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By Mark Zweig | AEC firms that want better marketing need to sound more human, move faster, and stop hiding behind safe, forgettable messaging.

By Sarah Kinard | Economic shifts, regulatory change, technology, and evolving client expectations rarely arrive as disruption – they appear first as signals.

By Melanie Carrido | Three decades in AEC show that while technology reshapes our work, strong communication and partnership still determine success.

By Mark Zweig | Long-term firm owners stay motivated by evolving the business, mentoring emerging leaders, and staying close to the action.

By Kraig Kern | AEC's next competitive advantage isn't expertise; it's how fast you unlock it.

By Nam Douglass | Operational lessons and compliance priorities for AEC firms in 2026.

By Thomas Mitchell | AI is transforming dispute resolution by predicting outcomes, reducing conflicts, and enhancing decision-making – while raising vital data privacy concerns.

By Nam Douglass | Firms that critically consider how best to leverage this tool today are better positioned to win the projects of tomorrow.

By Josh Crawford | Our industry currently faces unique hurdles; success hinges on adopting tailored solutions combined with tried-and-true principles.

By Stuart McLendon | In uncertain waters, let strong financial leadership be your north star.

By Mark Zweig | 2025 offers opportunities for AEC firms to thrive through responsiveness, strategic metrics, strong banking ties, and workplace honesty.

By Travis White | The rise of nearshoring can reduce costs, address talent shortages, and enhance growth opportunities for AEC firms.

By Stuart McLendon | The professional labor gap is an opportunity to rethink, reshape, and revitalize how we work.

By Mark Zweig | The benefits of getting everyone together in the office each week are simply too great to ignore.

By Mark Zweig | We all need new challenges, variety in our daily routines, and to see tangible results from our efforts to be fulfilled.

By Stuart McLendon | Facing a talent shortage exacerbated by baby boomers’ exodus from the workforce, AEC firms must innovate to succeed.

By Jeremy Clarke | The past few years have had a lot to teach us about winning the war for talent.

Elevate AEC Keynote - Empowering AEC Professionals: Trends and Strategies for Success with Chad Clinehens and Bill McConnell "People want to work for firms that have a great vision and a mission. How are we...

By Jared Maxwell & Cady Sinks | AEC firms are navigating more complex risks and an evolving market for professional liability insurance.

By Jim Bushong | What happens when decades of consistency and cost expectations in the building trades are suddenly changing in real time, based on market forces that are completely out of control?

By Kevin Johns | In order to remain competitive, AEC firms need to understand and embrace new technology.

By Liisa Andreassen | President of Living Stone (Black Mountain, NC), a design-build firm that has been crafting luxury, award-winning custom homes for more than 25 years.

By Keyan Zandy | The disruptions we’re facing today are forcing us to get creative and evolve the ways we think and work. New opportunities are in reach if we stretch for them together.

By Liisa Andreassen | Co-founder of Juniper Design+Build, where award-winning design and advanced construction ensures beautiful and environmentally responsible projects.

By Mark Zweig | Try to keep calm, be positive, and don’t listen to pundits’ predictions about the economy.

By Pete Hinojosa | Professional employer organizations provide a comprehensive range of HR solutions and technology to help businesses gain a competitive advantage.

By Sol Sim | It is in the interest of both the project owner and contractor to critically review risks and allocate them to the party most capable of controlling them.

By RLG Consulting Engineers | Principal at RLG Consulting Engineers (Dallas, TX), a firm that specializes in civil, structural, survey, and forensic engineering.

By Keyan Zandy | Disruption drives innovation, and these challenges will help us to be leaner in our business and develop more creative and collaborative ways to build.

By Mark Zweig | If your business requires so much attention from you that you don’t have the overall quality of life you want, it’s time to do something different.

By Christina Zweig Niehues | We’re about to be short on leaders in AEC industry firms. It’s time to act now before it’s too late.

By Mark Zweig | Here’s what you really need to do to get more job candidates for any opening you have, increase your job offer acceptance rate, and speed up the hiring process.

By Jamie Claire Kiser | It’s time to reevaluate every penny of our cost structures and ensure that our investments are going to our workforce.

By Mark Zweig | You’ll never be able to eliminate uncertainty, but there are some things you can be sure of. Keeping these in mind will help you be ready for what lies ahead.

By Mark Zweig | Stop lamenting the labor shortage and start doing what you should to find and keep the very best people in spite of it.

Evolving these relationships is a critical and too-often-overlooked key to successful project delivery and retaining satisfied clients.

We must apply our human intelligence to identify the real problems and leverage technology as a platform to bridge the gaps between tools, people, and processes.

Lean methodologies can truly move the needle in an industry beleaguered by workforce shortages and increasingly pressed for our most valuable commodity – time.

Many firms still cling to old-school attitudes and business practices that chase away top performing employees looking for a more future-friendly place to grow their careers.

Using both sides of his brain, and with empathy, can-do man is engineering a great career in Seattle.

“We need everyone’s talents. And we especially need those with a tremendous amount of experience, contacts, and proven skills.”

President and founder of Calibre Engineering, a national civil engineering firm based in Highlands Ranch, Colorado.

“It’s a debate that’s been ongoing for years in our industry, thanks in no small part to the popularity of Good to Great, an academic study of huge, publicly-traded corporations and other organizations.”

By Kyle Ahern | When I think about the people our society considers stars, I think of actors and athletes, not architects and engineers. That needs to change.

By Kyle Ahern | This year’s group of Best and Hot Firms provides a treasure trove of information across thousands of data points, from employees up to the C-suite.

Comprehensive Environmental, Inc. (Best Firm #1 Geotechnical, #3 Environmental, and #13 Civil for 2017), a Miami Lakes, FL, based 80-person engineering and contracting firm. By Liisa Andreassen Correspondent “I’ve never termed any event in my...

President and CEO of Universal Engineering Sciences (Hot Firm #85 for 2016), a 715-person multi-discipline firm based in Orlando, Florida. By Liisa Andreassen Correspondent “We make a distinction between marketing and sales,” Israel says. “We...

President of Wakefield Beasley & Associates (Hot Firm #14 for 2016), a 165-person architectural design firm based in Alpharetta, Georgia. By Liisa Andreassen Correspondent “We are a fast-paced, high-performance company, and underperformers are detrimental to...

CEO of BIG RED DOG Engineering & Consulting (Best Firm Multi-discipline #47 and Hot Firm #65 for 2017), a 105-person multi-discipline engineering firm based in Austin, Texas. By Richard Massey Managing Editor “As individuals and...

In the form of growth, profitability, and important projects, multidiscipline firm based in upstate New York is reaping the benefits of a well-executed ownership transition. By Liisa Andreassen Correspondent In 1977, when Wayne Wegman joined...

While there is no doubt a downside to employing too many seasoned veterans in terms of their vacation accrual rates and basic hourly labor cost, I do not understand why some A/E and environmental firms...

We’ve talked about it for decades, but the labor shortage in the A/E/P and environmental industries is finally here. Our clients are telling us that it’s hard to hire just about anyone. Every job takes...

I would be surprised if more than one of our readers hasn’t said to themselves recently, “We really ought to be thinking about what we’ll do if things slow down.” Well get ready folks, it’s...

The A/E/P and environmental consulting business is really pretty simple from a financial management standpoint. It shouldn’t be hard to track the numbers you need to run a firm, yet so many companies seem to...

The long anticipated, talked about, and dreaded shortage of qualified people is here. Ask principals in most firms, and they will tell you that it’s very difficult right now to find staff— particularly engineers, geologists,...

While 1994 was a truly great year for most architecture and engineering firms, and even for some environmental consulting firms, there were still firms in our industry that lost money. And it’s not unusual for...