Explore the Agenda

8:00 am Check-In & Networking

9:00 am Chair’s Opening Remarks

Developing Quality Leaders

9:10 am Building a Robust Talent Pipeline to Future Proof Your Organization & Strengthen Quality Leadership

Associate Director - Quality, Cannon Design
Vice President, Cannon Design
  • Defining the specific experience, requirements and mindset needed to deliver quality
  • Strengthening mid-level leadership and workforce motivation by creating a supportive culture
  • Exploring innovative tools that optimize staffing, streamline workflows and reduce pressure on overstretched teams

9:50 am Panel: Bridging Generational Gaps & Applying Knowledge Transfer to Sustain Long Term Design Excellence

Principal & Director - Technical Services, Niles Bolton Associates Inc.
Principal, Director - Quality, Croft & Associates
Technical Principal, Little Diversified Architectural Consulting
  • Establishing frameworks to accelerate how new hires adapt to your firm’s quality standards
  • Empowering senior leaders to share experience-based insights to younger professionals
  • Recommunicating core design principles and processes in ways that resonate with an evolving workforce

10:50 am Speed Networking

11:20 am Morning Refreshments

Maximizing Client Satisfaction

11:50 am Balancing Speed & Quality to Maintain Standards Under Accelerated Project Timelines

Associate Project Architect Quality Control & Quality Assurance Manager, Merriman Anderson Architects
  • Identifying strategies to uphold quality when fast-tracked schedules compress traditional design milestones
  • Aligning stakeholders at each milestone of a project to avoid costly rework
  • Leveraging experience, collaboration and early design phase integration with construction teams

12:20 pm Facilitated Discussion: Collaborating Early with Clients to Maintain Quality Amid Changing Requirements

Director - Technical & Architectural Associate, Gensler
  • Establishing clear, visual communication tools early in the design phase to help clients understand the impact of change requests on schedule, cost and quality
  • Integrating clients, architects, engineers and contractors from day one to align expectations
  • Defining quality checkpoints that accommodate client driven adjustments while maintaining project momentum

1:00 pm Networking Lunch

Delivering Smarter Designs

2:00 pm Evolving Constructability Reviews Beyond Checklists to Catch Issues Before They Reach the Field & Preserve the Bottom Line

Director - Technical Quality Architect, Little Diversified Architectural Consulting
  • Redefining constructability reviews from box-ticking exercises to proactive deep dives
  • Incorporating independent reviewers unfamiliar with the project to uncover blind spots that internal teams overlook
  • Developing scalable, firmwide review processes to ensure constructability checks keep pace with growing project demands

2:30 pm Panel: Integrating Quality Requirements into Design & Construction Workflows to Minimize Rework & Risk

Director - Architecture, Technical Design & Design Quality, Ryan Co. US, Inc.
Quality Manager, Hoffman Construction Company
Technical Principal, Little Diversified Architectural Consulting
  • Involving construction early in the design process to align on constructability, sequence and budget
  • Standardizing how quality requirements are written into technical specifications
  • Defining procedures within specifications to strengthen compliance throughout construction delivery

3:30 pm Afternoon Refreshments & Networking

Driving Firmwide Consistency

4:00 pm Scaling Large Firm Quality Frameworks to Build Cost Effective, Repeatable Systems for Smaller Firms

Project Manager, Powers Brown Architecture
  • Translating complex quality programs from large firms into frameworks smaller firms can realistically implement
  • Leveraging low cost, accessible tools to create repeatable QA processes that drive consistency across projects
  • Adopting scalable data and training approaches that maintain performance structures, without requiring dedicated quality teams

4:30 pm Displaying Information Easily to Engage & Educate the Next Generation of Designers

Principal, Director - Quality, Croft & Associates
  • Transforming written resources into short, visually engaging content to relay information easily
  • Developing learning libraries that make education accessible and scalable across teams
  • Embedding a culture of continuous learning to help emerging designers upskill faster and align with expectations of your firm

5:00 pm Chair’s Closing Remarks

5:10 pm End of Day One