Rules and Policies

Award Scope

The SMPS Emerging Leader of the Year award recognizes an emerging leader who has demonstrated leadership, and exceptional contributions in the A/E/C industries and who has been an SMPS member for a minimum of three years and no more than five years of A/E/C work experience.

Eligibility Requirements

• Nominee must be a current SMPS member for a minimum of three years
• Must have a maximum of 5 years A/E/C work experience
• Must demonstrate work and accomplishments outside their normal scope of work (professional development and volunteer contributions) that’s worthy of distinction
• Must be employed full-time by a firm or agency that’s A/E/C focused
• Must be nominated by a current SMPS member; self-nominations also accepted

Application Fee

A non-refundable fee of $50 must be submitted with the application.  All payments must be online via credit card, (American Express, MasterCard, Visa). Checks are not accepted as payment.

Deadline and Notification

All Applications and payments must be submitted online by 11:59 pm EST, May 1, 2025.
SMPS HQ is not responsible for correcting or alerting applicants of an issue with their application after the deadline.

All nominees will be notified of the status of their application by June 2, 2025.

The recipient of the Emerging Leader of the Year Award will be announced on stage during the Amplify A|E|C conference in Columbus August 6-8, 2025.

Inquiries regarding the final results should be directed to awards@smps.org. Results and decisions by the jury are final in all matters regarding the Emerging Leader of the Year Award.

No refunds will be issued for any reason.

Rights and Permissions

All applicants entering the Emerging Leader of the Year Award competition, agree to allow SMPS to use your nomination information and images for promotional and educational purposes. 

For SMPS to post the award recipient information, all applicants must warrant that they own the rights to the content and images that SMPS will post on the website and any corresponding media outlets and grant SMPS the authority to post the content and images. 

Code of Ethics

All nominees must adhere to the SMPS Code of Ethics