This year I had the opportunity to attend EDS24 in Colorado Springs. I was honored to be selected as one of the PPC grant recipients and was looking forward to meeting many people in person who I had only met virtually up until this point.

The first morning of EDS24 the energy and excitement in the room was noticeable right away. At breakfast that morning, I was introduced to many new members of SDA, and had the opportunity to shake hands and exchange hugs with members who I had only met via Zoom. Being in a room with other members of SDA sparked my interest in the many possibilities that exist for career paths within our field. The diversity of the group and the firms that we all come from is wide - ranging, but I found that we were all able to still find commonalities and discuss the common challenges we all navigate within our industry together. It is refreshing to feel like you belong in a space where people can relate to the day to day successes and challenges you face. 

I made it a point to attend every educational session that was presented at EDS24, some applied more to my position than others, but I wanted to gain as much knowledge from the conference as I could, and I found “nuggets” of information in every session that made me think of our operations within our firm differently.

Skot Waldron presented a great session on  “Communicate with Clarity: Understanding Your Voice and Its Triggers” . I learned a lot about myself in that session, and found different ways to look at everyone on our team and within our office to discover how we can best interact with each other to use all of our strengths to work together as one team.

I also loved listening to Lynda’s SPARKSDA talk regarding the “Ripple Effect”. I have taken this back to my office and our team as encouragement that we need to all work to maintain our roles and tasks on projects and limit our “ripple effect” on the rest of the team and the firm's success.

The session speakers are just part of the great education provided at EDS, another part of SDA is the amazing resource that our SDA community is in and of itself for everyone within SDA. Each person at the conference has different experiences and knowledge and most are willing to share openly and provide guidance for all of us newer to the industry. The support of SDA is even more evident when you attend an EDS event and I look forward to continuing the conversations that were had in Colorado Springs and continuing to learn as much as I can from other members of SDA.

I can’t thank Stephanie and the Past Presidents Council enough for the opportunity to be a first time attendee at EDS24. I enjoyed every moment of being at the conference and getting to know others within SDA. I left with a renewed excitement for my job and career growth, and lots of new connections. I am already looking forward to seeing everyone again next year!

We took a few minutes to talk with Sarah about her EDSymposium24 experience. Click here to listen.

Sarah Kratzner is Operations Coordinator for

BSPARK Architecture in Great Falls, MT.

She was one of the PPC Grant First Time Attendee Recipients for EDS24.