Description

He's back! On Thursday, October 23, 2025, Dan Oblinger, negotiator and friend of so many professional design, build, and serve companies is back with a brand new edition of "brain games for better selling and marketing skills"! Once again, Dan is sharing his systems, lessons, and hacks from the world of hostage negotiations and consulting with AEC firms. Wear comfortable shoes and bring a friend! This is going to be carefully designed so that anyone who missed last year's meeting can get caught up and still be completely fresh for those who are back for more! Dan will be diving even deeper into the world of active listening, cultural leadership, and relationship-based negotiations. Do you have what it takes to learn in the ultimate interactive environment?

The Workshop: Experience the industry standard for knowledge and skill to be effective negotiators in a system that honors relationship and clarity, not aggression. This is an intermediate curriculum designed to build upon last year's highly reviewed session while also catching new students up to speed as we explore how humans choose to collaborate! We will "play-to-learn" principles and frameworks that will boost scope, fee, and satisfaction efforts in the AEC industry.

Session: Dan will deliver an instructor-led, participant-centered workshop experience whereby the participants are the stars of the show. He will guide the group as they absorb critical communication and negotiation skills in a way designed for maximum retention and adoption of practices.

Topics include:

• A refresher on the foundations established in 2024 so everyone is on the same page!
• Active listening and rapport-building as intermediate-level negotiation skills.
• Introducing the critical activity of master negotiators and consultants: coaching!
• A series of exercises that provide clarity and skills to boost their confidence and competence in having these conversations. This will be a mix of the fundamentals for review and brand new and deeper application of active listening and negotiations practices narrowly tailored for AEC situations.

BONUS:
Dan is providing each participant a copy of his book, Life or Death Listening. He will also send a pre-learning guide and customized video before the session, as well as post-session follow-up communications to encourage adaptation.

Event Timeline:
9:00 - 9:30 am: Registration and Networking
9:30 - 10:25 am: Part I
10:25 - 10:45 am: Break
10:45 - 11:40 am: Part II

Speaker:
Dan Oblinger, Leadercraft
Dan Oblinger is a veteran of law enforcement, hostage and crisis negotiations, and served as a negotiation commander. He has two decades of law enforcement experience with 14 years in crisis negotiations. More importantly, Dan has translated the most relevant lessons from his crisis work for clients in the A/E/C industries. He is the premier consultant on emotional communications and practical negotiations for consulting engineering and construction management firms in the US! Dan coaches executives and manages internal business negotiation teams for A/E/C firms so that they can build stronger connections and agreements inside and outside their culture! He is the author of three books on these topics and frequently keynotes, workshops, and consults.

Tickets
$95 for ACEC Members (using discount code – ACEC2025)
$95 for SMPS Members
$110 for Non-Members

Chapter Registration Links (see links for details):
West Michigan: https://smpswm.org/meetinginfo.php?id=60&ts=1752603739

Southeast Michigan: https://smps-southeastmichigan.org/meetinginfo.php?id=262&ts=1755180607