In December 2019, VRMCA – in partnership with NRMCA – created a three-year plan for marketing and promotions. The plan offered a snapshot of the abundant opportunities that exist in Virginia and outlines the basis for a coordinated cooperative effort to raise awareness and increase the market share of concrete throughout the state.

When this year started, I was prepared. Promotion goals and plans were in place and I hit the ground running. Unfortunately, the only thing that was missing in our plans was that we didn’t know about COVID-19. Despite the challenges faced, I was able to quickly pivot and make the necessary adjustments. The pandemic changed the methodology of my approach to promotional activities from face-to-face meetings, meet & greets, lunch presentations, site tours, and site visits to online meetings, virtual lunchtime presentations, phone calls, and emails. While much of my time is still spent interfacing virtually, I’m happy to share that I have been able to resume the site visits, inviting design and construction professionals to the job sites on several occasions in the past few months.

Overall, I have been very consistent in my promotional activities. Below you’ll find a quick snapshot of promotional highlights for 2020 so far:

• 40 in-person and virtual meetings with specifiers and owners
• conducted 13 educational presentations for specifiers both in-person and virtual
• organized seven site tours and 23 site visits
• held 14 industry meetings and presentations

I also exhibited at the Concrete Conference in Richmond and at an event at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. I partner with NRMCA promoters in various promotional activities and routinely attend scheduled partner and industry Webinars, meetings and training. I attended NRMCA’s Annual Convention in Las Vegas in March and the more recent ConcreteWorks conference in October.

I am actively looking for new project leads through search engines, industry partners and membership referrals. In fact, I welcome the opportunity to talk to those partners you work with regularly and am happy to set up a virtual call anytime to do so. Simply contact me directly. I routinely make calls and send emails on the new leads, newly established leads and existing leads. There is also ongoing follow-up and follow through on existing Design Assistance Program and other potential projects with a combined estimated value of $40,000,000,000.

If you’re interested, the VRMCA Promotions Tracker has been up and running since the beginning of the year. It can be found on the VRMCA Web site. All of my promotional activities including calls, follow-ups, projects, meetings, presentations, training sessions, and yardage are being recorded in the tracker. So far this year, I have submitted 10 projects to the Design Assistance Program through the NRMCA Concrete Design Center and Pave Ahead, and am expecting to submit two more building projects shortly.

As this summary exhibits, the VRMCA promotional activities are moving forward strongly, using available tools during the pandemic. I am looking forward to my promotional activities resuming to in-person activities, even much stronger after the pandemic.

Submitted by

Hessam Nabavi
VRMCA Promotions Director