September/October 2018

PE Report
Enthusiastic Participants Turn Up Volume on PE Day

A flurry of photos, videos, articles, and official proclamations marked the success of the third annual Licensed Professional Engineers Day on August 1. Individual engineers and PEs, engineering firms, government agencies, associations, and even loved ones of PEs all took part in the celebration that promotes the achievements and value professional engineers bring to society.

In addition to another year of active participation on social media—Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram—many firms, companies, and government organizations rolled out dedicated #LicensedPEDay campaigns to share stories about their PE employees and why they became licensed.

The Maryland Highway Safety Administration took part by hosting a “Twitter Takeover” by one of their PEs to show a day in her life inspecting a stormwater management site, meeting with her design team, and working with an intern (and future PE). Engineering firms like Affiliated Engineers, Halff Associates, Louis Berger, MBP, and others produced and shared videos featuring their CEOs and PEs discussing the importance of the license, along with public agencies like the Hannibal Board of Public Works in Missouri. And there was no shortage of articles and blog and website posts about the event from companies such as Affinis Corp., Ampirical, Engineering Consulting Services, and KCI.

All in all, it was clear that PE Day has become a recognized and growing event within the profession. The celebration has captured the creativity of PE champions and motivated them to spend time driving home a crucial message: PEs contribute daily to solving society’s technical problems and dedicate their careers to protecting the public health, safety, and welfare.

PEs were again active in securing official proclamations from their state and local governments for the events, working to declare “Professional Engineers Day” in locations such as 10 cities in Texas, as well as Kansas, Missouri, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, South Carolina, Virginia, and Wyoming.

PE Day was launched as a concept in 2016 by Tim Austin, P.E., F.NSPE, 2015–16 NSPE president, to celebrate and recognize licensed PEs apart from events such as Engineers Week. The first Wednesday in August was chosen to coincide with the anniversary of the first professional engineering license being issued to Charles Bellamy in Wyoming in 1907.

Next year’s PE Day will take place on August 7.

• Twitter

  Over 1,600 tweets using #LicensedPEDay

  Close to 700 contributors

  770,000 total audience

  2.6 million impressions

  600 unique images shared (not including the PE Day logo); 15 videos

  Tweets from Australia, Japan, Egypt, Ecuador, and Georgia

  1,800 profile visits and 45 new followers

• Facebook

  17,852 people reached

  662 page views with 160 new page likes

  3,506 likes, comments, and shares of posts

  Hundreds of posts with the hashtag

• Instagram

  154 posts using #LicensedPEDay

  33,159 impressions

  3,069 likes, comments, and shares

  201 likes of NSPE pictures using #LicensedPEDay

  85 profile views and 25 new followers

• LinkedIn

  Hundreds of posts with the hashtag

  224 likes of NSPE posts and 52 shares

  108 new page followers