If you are coming to the AIA Conference on Architecture & Design (AIA24) this year (June 5-8 in Washington, DC), there is an official PMKC event plus many more great sessions to consider!
PMKC events
Thursday: Practice, Present & Future: PM Luncheon
EV213 | 11:30am-1pm | $95
Carol Ross Barney, FAIA, winner of the AIA Gold Medal, will set the tone at this luncheon exploring practice and career in the 21st century. The founder of Chicago-based Ross Barney architects has won 220+ awards over more than four decades of practice, continuing the Windy City's storied heritage of trailblazing architects. Like Ross Barney, today's practice leaders face a different work environment in this new millennium. You'll learn what they are doing to set their firms apart, engage new talent, foster emerging professionals, exceed client demands, and continue to grow their firm and themselves.
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Other sessions of interest
Wednesday
TAP Symposium at AIA24: Practice in the age of AI
TAP100 | 9am-4pm | 4.75 LUs | $99
There's no denying the growing presence of artificial intelligence in our industry. This event will examine how technology is reshaping the industry and illuminate ways these advancements can enhance your practice. Keynote presentations from leading experts will delve into topics such as the integration of AI in the design process, the impact of digital tools on project management, and the ethical considerations surrounding the use of this technology in architectural projects. Join us for the chance to network with industry leaders, share best practices, and explore collaborative opportunities that leverage AI to drive innovation in architectural design and construction.
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Workshop: Architects in Work Boots
WE104 | 9:30am-12pm | 2.5 LUs
Do you know how to lead a project through construction contract administration? To have a successful project, you need an understanding of how this phase is managed. This workshop will provide strategic management insights and will present case studies to empower you to chart your career path.
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Outside the Scope
WE 114 | 9:30-10:30am | 1 LU/HSW
Do you want to learn to integrate community engagement, marketing services, facility analysis, or conceptual design (bond) deferral into your projects successfully? This session will share vital information on how to transform your concept of architectural services and go beyond the basics to include additional scope and services. You'll gain the skills to better align yourself and your firm as a long-term partner.
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Taking Care of Business: Entrepreneurship or Intrapreneurship?
WE101 | 9:30am-12pm | 1 LU/HSW
Calling all architects licensed 10 years or less: Are you wondering whether you should be advancing to the next level or instead starting your own business? Join the Young Architects Forum to learn from CEOs of the Large Firm Roundtable and the Small Firm Exchange about the difference between entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship pathways. Plus, explore the risk and reward factors, whether you're a boss or a leader, and project management techniques that can help you find your pathway. You'll leave this session with AIA resources that will help you define the next step in your career.
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How a Design Firm Grows Up: Evolution and Structure
WE205 | 11am-12pm | 1 LU
Firms generally place the majority of their energy on client projects, but this session takes a deep dive into the firm as a design challenge. The presenters have a wealth of knowledge to share as longtime firm principals, AIA leaders, and experienced advisors to some of today's most respected design practices. They'll address specific audience interests and explore valuable case studies about evolving organization, leadership, and governance practices in successful architecture firms. In this session, you'll learn how to prepare your own firm for future growth and success.
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Copyright for Architects: Protect What's Yours!
WE314 | 1:30-3pm | 1.5 LUs
A successful architecture practice depends on your ability to negotiate terms to protect your work. Without taking steps to ensure no one uses your ideas without permission, you leave it vulnerable to theft, interference, and misappropriation. In this seminar, you'll explore your rights and how to protect them with a copyright attorney, two FAIA fellows, and an experienced mediator. Compelling examples from their practices will demonstrate the basics of copyright law and reveal how to use agreement language to your benefit.
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Preparing for Successful Leadership Transition and Expansion
WE310 | 1:30-3pm | 1.5 LU
What are the secrets behind a successful ownership transition? True success involves aligning emerging leaders' expectations and changing roles with those of current owners. This session will bridge the generation gap between retiring firm owners and emerging leaders. Designed to give an equal voice to each party in the leadership transition process, you'll learn to avoid the pitfalls of retiring partners focusing exclusively on their own retirement goals. By factoring in the mentorship and time required to train the next generation, this session will help ensure that existing and future firm leaders carry equal responsibility for a successful ownership transition.
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Thursday
Get Connected: Small Firm Meetup
EV201 | 10-11am | $5
Don't miss this chance to mix and mingle with Small Firm Exchange leadership and fellow AIA members from small firms at the AIA Booth. You'll make new connections as you learn about small firm practice resources available through our organization.
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How You're Doing: Free Firm Performance Audit (also on Friday - EV313)
EV212 | 11am-1pm
How is your architecture firm really performing? Do you know how you compare to others in the game? This one-on-one audit with a professional architecture business consultant will help you evaluate your performance in areas of finance, leadership, management, operations, sustainability, business development, marketing, and firm culture. You'll leave with actionable tips about how to improve your business practices—as well as customized insights on leveraging your firm's particular strengths.
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How To Start Your Own Firm: Seizing the Opportunity
TH117 | 2-3:30pm | 1.5 LUs/HSW
This session aims to empower architects who are considering starting their own firm with practical knowledge and insights. Join us to explore common challenges and barriers you may face when embarking on this entrepreneurial journey, such as securing funding, building a client base, and managing a business. Through detailed discussions on topics like identifying a niche, generating leads, establishing a brand, and obtaining financing, you'll gain the necessary tools and confidence to make informed decisions and acquire the skills needed to navigate the complexities of starting and running your own financially successful firm.
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Charting Your Course for Leadership: A Conversation with Firm Leaders
TH104 | 2-3:30pm | 1.5 LUs
Four accomplished female CEOs from diverse architecture firms across the nation will share their personal journeys to the top, while showcasing the unique career paths that led them to their CEO positions. This session will uncover valuable insights on building and leveraging networks for career
growth, mastering leadership skills, and achieving a harmonious work-life balance. You'll gain strategies for fostering diversity within your organization and cultivating a new generation of empowered architects. Leave with skills, tips, and tools from visionary CEOs to chart your own path to success.
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Bridging the Gap: How to Make an Ownership Transition Affordable
TH111 | 2-3:30pm | 1 LU
Does this sound familiar to you? Owners are looking for an exit strategy and the next generation of professionals is wondering how they can afford to realize their own ownership dreams. This conundrum is confronting practices everywhere. The solution requires a strategic approach that balances the goals of all parties—and avoids common pitfalls that keep the process from
being transparent and the acquisition affordable. Through a series of case studies and exercises, this seminar will teach you how to implement an ownership expansion and transition framework embraced by all.
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Architecture and the Law
TH214 | 4-5pm | 1 LU
An architect is held legally liable for not uncovering an error in a surveyor's drawings. Another litigates—and loses—a dispute involving an owner's use of their drawings. This program will offer a deep look into laws that regulate and impact the practice of architecture—and help keep you from running afoul of them. Through an examination of court cases, laws, and contracts, the discussion will demystify legal issues that you may confront in your practice. You'll hear about seminal court cases and laws that have affected the practice of architecture and walk away with tips and guidance for how to best mitigate legal risk.
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Building Talent: Strategies for Effective Early Professional Development in Firms
TH206 | 4-5pm | 1 LU
What makes a great office environment for early professionals? Join this session to hear findings from the past two years of submissions for the Early Professional Friendly Firm (EPFF) program—data-driven insights that will help answer this essential question. The discussion will highlight best practices gathered from EPFF-certified firms, reveal key factors that contribute to a healthy working environment for all employees, and encourage critical dialogue among firms across the nation.
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Open Studio Night (7 options in different neighborhoods)
EV501-EV507 | 6-8:30pm | $65
Want to get an exclusive inside look at some of the leading architecture and design firms in Washington, D.C.? Open Studio Night is your chance. Firms in the Georgetown, West End, Dupont West, Dupont South, Shaw, Penn Quarter neighborhoods will welcome AIA members for this special one-night-only event. Each grouping features a diverse range of practice types, firm sizes, and disciplines. Many firms are located in architecturally significant buildings and/or have unique city views. Join us to learn about each firm's latest work, chat with staff, and enjoy drinks and snacks. All firms in each grouping are within a 20-minute walk of each other. Visit the firms of your choice in any order you like—and stay as long as you wish.
To learn more, change "View All" filter to "Program Type", then select "Open Studios"
Friday
How You're Doing: Free Firm Performance Audit (also on Thursday - EV212)
EV313 | 11am-1pm
How is your architecture firm really performing? Do you know how you compare to others in the game? This one-on-one audit with a professional architecture business consultant will help you evaluate your performance in areas of finance, leadership, management, operations, sustainability, business development, marketing, and firm culture. You'll leave with actionable tips about how to improve your business practices—as well as customized insights on leveraging your firm's particular strengths.
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Beyond Networking: Women's Leadership Luncheon
EV314 | 11:30am-1:30pm | $115
A staple event at AIA24, the Women's Leadership Luncheon (WLL) brings together women from across the building industry to network, celebrate, and grow. You'll find a unique space where women can gather for productive exchanges that could lead to potential mentorship or career opportunities. In addition, you'll benefit from networking amongst peers and be inspired by women's work in the profession. WLL 2024 will take place at the Marriott Marquis, steps away from the convention center. 2024 AIA President Kimberly Dowdell will deliver opening remarks and Alyson Steele, FAIA, CEO of Quinn Evans, will lead a conversation with you over lunch and dessert.
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Hidden Treasures in the Tax Code
EX211 | 1:30-2:30pm | 1 LU
No one gets excited about taxes. But finding 10s or 100s of thousands of dollars in tax savings? That's something we can all get excited about. Join us to learn about those hidden treasures that apply to architects—including the projects you are working on now or have worked on in the past.
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Technology Enablers for the New Age of Productivity
EX210 | 1:30-2:30pm | 1 LU
Are you feeling overwhelmed by your workload or looking for ways to increase productivity? Turning to technology may be the answer. Architects can unburden themselves from tedious yet necessary tasks by harnessing technological innovations such as cloud licensing, AI-powered compliance checking, digital twin technology, and streamlined sustainability assessments. These innovations are already here and many more are on the way. Join us for this session to explore existing processes that will minimize the mundane and inspire you to invest in future innovations.
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Figuring Out Fees: Consideration of Services Offered & Project Complexity
FR218 | 2-3:30pm | 1.5 LUs
Negotiating design is one of the most complicated and critical factors determining the success of a firm. As the package of architectural services evolves, insights into what design services to offer and their potential value become increasingly relevant. This session will review the conditions that impact compensation considerations, provide an analysis of the multiyear historical Zweig Group database of design fees, and offer insights into emerging trends and technologies affecting firm service offerings. Panelists will provide context for factors to consider in aligning project fees to effort levels, covering intangibles such as project risk, economic risk, and unique project characteristics.
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The Power of Storytelling: Films and Architecture
FR203 | 2-3:30pm | 1.5 LUs/HSW
This panel will demystify the process of making films about architecture, explaining how to create a video and covering styles of videos, techniques, methods, and general costs. The panelists consist of one architect, a filmmaker, and an architect with experience and education in filmmaking. Through case studies and engaging discussion, panelists will share their expertise in creating architecture films and describe their process—speaking in the language of designers. You'll hear keen insights into the importance and value of creating visual content for your firm, the discourse of architecture, and creative development.
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Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast
FR208 | 2-3:30pm | 1.5 LUs/HSW
A firm's culture can make or break any attempt to change, grow, and evolve. This can be especially true as firms strive for integrated, sustainable, and high-performing design outcomes that span their entire portfolios, not simply a few high-flying projects. This session will take you through some of the common challenges inherent in breaking out of "business as usual" design processes. You'll also explore examples of strategies that leading firms have used successfully in their quests to meaningfully infuse sustainability throughout their firms and projects.
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Modern Leadership in Architecture
FR221 | 3:30-4pm | .5 LU
What does modern leadership in architecture look like? Who leads—and how they choose to lead—makes all the difference. Shaking off the long-idolized image of the lone (white male) genius will require the creation of a diverse, inclusive, and strong profession. The presenters will use lived examples from leadership roles, including, studio founder, board director, and national president of The Australian Institute of Architects. With these stories as a backdrop, you'll consider how embracing individual life experiences not only creates better architects but also drives stronger leadership for the future of the profession.
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AIA Large Firm Roundtable: Intersecting Equity, Advocacy & Industry
FR310 | 4-5pm | 1 LU
Organizations are grappling with questions around diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), and the AIA Large Firm Roundtable (LFRT) elected to confront those questions head-on in 2020. Four years later, the LFRT, which represents approximately 70 of AIA's largest firms, will reflect on the work of its Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) task force. Join Jonathan Moody, CEO of Moody Nolan and JEDI co-chair, and a panel of his fellow task force members as they discuss how a profession can inspire meaningful change within itself.
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Beyond Aspirational: Tools for Centering DEI in Design
FR319 | 4-5pm | 1 LU
Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are popular buzzwords that can ring hollow in practice. This session will introduce a DEI Project Workflow that empowers users to have real impact. With guidance from skilled presenters, you'll learn a process for proactively seeking, engaging, and integrating the perspectives of diverse building users, community members, and project stakeholders—from early project planning through design and construction. The DEI Project Workflow provides concrete examples of the types of questions, activities, and team reflection that promote belonging for historically excluded and underserved communities. You'll learn how this framework has helped transform office cultures and design approaches.
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Saturday
Stay Small… Successfully! Increase Your Architecture Firm Profits, Not Headcount
SA209 | 10-11am | 1 LU
Want to boost your small architecture firm's financial performance without merging with another firm, moving into new markets, or adding staff? This session will showcase proven strategies for staying small by targeting niche markets within your existing comfort zone, anticipating client needs, and leveraging new productivity tools. Join us to discover how to think like a business consultant for your clients by anticipating their needs and how to spot the future leaders in your small firm to turn them into business growth engines. You'll also learn why small firms have a competitive advantage over larger firms and how to articulate those benefits to your potential clients.
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An Architect’s Framework for Leadership Success
SA205 | 10-11am | 1 LU
Effective leadership is crucial for developing strong client relationships and loyal employees—and employee candidates are searching for leaders who will help them launch their careers. Grounded in research and packed with actionable activities, this seminar will provoke you to think beyond the usual understanding of leadership. You'll identify challenges firm leaders face, gain insights and perspectives about the spectrum of leadership experiences, complete a personal assessment of your effectiveness, and define areas where you'll benefit from additional leadership training. Join the discussion and come away with a new framework on which to build broad expertise and transform the future of your firm.
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Pro Series: Blueprint for a More Profitable Firm
PRO | 10-11:15am | 1.25 LUs
Imagine a year of strategic growth and new business development for your firm—and gain the expertise to make it happen! In this powerful and engaging interactive session, you'll learn about the primary drivers of profit among professional services firms. You'll come away with practical tips for improving your time allocation, reducing unnecessary costs, and becoming a more effective negotiator.
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Practice Simulation Lab
SA105 | 10am-12:30pm | 2.5 LUs
Simulate the fun and challenge of being a firm owner in this collaborative workshop. Team up with firm leadership and early professionals alike to navigate real-world scenarios, make strategic decisions, and define the future of architectural practice. Much like The Game of Life®, you and your team will face challenges from the dramatic—the death of an owner or a severe weather event—to expected problems, like filling a vacant role. This hands-on workshop will provide a rare opportunity to design and test a hypothetical firm in an encouraging, low-risk environment.
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Staying Relevant: PR, Branding and Storytelling for Design Firms
SA309 | 11:30am-12:30pm | 1 LU
Does your firm describe itself as collaborative, multidisciplinary, or solution-oriented? If so, you might suffer from generic architecture marketing. In today's world, architects and designers need to think like mainstream consumer brands. That means telling your story in clear, unexpected, and punchy ways that convey distinct value and design savvy in a deeply crowded market. This session will help you escape the cycle of stale design brand communications and succeed in building a memorable brand that moves your audiences—and grows your bottom line. With guidance from an expert in design communications and PR, you'll see how the most prominent designers build their brands.
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Big Impact With the Small Firm Exchange Forum
EV401 | 1-2:30pm | $5
Hear the latest from the AIA Small Firm Exchange (SFx)—a national AIA member group formed to advance the mutual interests of architects practicing in small firms. You'll benefit from shared insights, concerns, and solutions to small firm issues as you contribute to the conversation of the open forum. This event will showcase how the SFx advocates for small firms within AIA and in outside organizations and agencies. You'll appreciate the work of the SFx to promote leadership, facilitate professional development, and support the local chapter roundtables and small firm networks.
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