AEC Platforms: Elevating the Dialog (Confluence Lexington 2025 Program)

The Confluence AEC Technology Survey – What Platforms Do Firms Really Use?

Speaking:

Randall Stevens
AVAIL CEO and Founder, Confluence Host

AEC industry firms often rely on sprawling technology ecosystems — in some cases 150 to 200 applications inside a single organization. To bring clarity to this landscape, Confluence has launched the 2025 AEC Technology Stack Survey, the first comprehensive industry effort to document the platforms, applications, and tools firms actually use to get work done.

In this session, AVAIL’s Randall Stevens will present the survey findings, offering a data-driven snapshot of today’s tech stacks across the industry. The results will highlight patterns, redundancies, and emerging trends, setting the stage for broader conversations throughout the conference on integration, interoperability, and how firms can simplify workflows while still enabling innovation.

Beyond the Stack: People, Process, and Technology

Speaking:

Jason Gardner
Populous Associate Principal, Regional Digital Lead – Americas — Kansas City

This session by Populous’ Jason Gardner will provide a candid look at the technology stack through the lens of people, process, and technology. We’ll explore what works, what needs to be optimized, and where complications arise—bridging the gap between tools, workflows, and the people who use them. Firms should prioritize the who and why, which leads to better outcomes than focusing solely on the how.

Single Source of Truth: Still A Dream?

On the Panel:

Adam Ortwein
Corgan Practice Technology Manager – Associate

Corey McClaine
LPA Design Studios Director of Design Technology

Dan Dankert
Mead & Hunt Digital Practice Director

Nora Swanson
JB&B Director of Innovation and Knowledge Management

The idea of a “Single Source of Truth” has long been an aspiration in AEC, but is it achievable? In this panel, technology leaders from a range of firms will share perspectives on digital coordination, cross-disciplinary collaboration, and the cultural as well as technical hurdles firms face. Expect a conversation that blends hard-won lessons with forward-looking insights on what true data unity could look like in the next decade.

Sandboxing Innovation + Firm Integration Stories

Speaking:

Stephen Germano
IMEG Software Engineering Team Lead

Jeffrey Arant
IMEG Corporate Data Manager

How are firms like global engineering design firm IMEG introducing innovative new technologies across the practice? This session will highlight real-world integration stories that reveal both the challenges and breakthroughs of change management.

AI and Interoperability in the AEC Industry 
Sponsored by Dell Technologies and NVIDIA

Leading the Workshop:

Sean Young
NVIDIA Director, AECO, Geospatial, and AI Solutions Industry Marketing

Can AI help connect AEC’s disparate silos of information? With over 25 years in 3D visualization, simulation, and AEC technologies experience from leadership roles at NVIDIA (Omniverse, AI), HP (AEC business development), and Autodesk (3ds Max product management), Sean Young will begin the conversation by outlining how AI is reshaping interoperability across the AEC ecosystem. Then, groups will explore their firm’s current challenges and AI’s potential to solve them.

Emerging Integrations: A First Look at AVAIL Stream for Egnyte & ArchVision FOVEA

Speaking:

Randall Stevens
AVAIL CEO and Founder

Aaron Vorwerk
Egnyte AEC Practice Leader, Architects + Owners

Corey Rubadue
ArchVision CEO

This session offers a first look at how AVAIL, Egnyte, and ArchVision are coming together to tackle some of the biggest pain points in AEC technology workflows. By uniting Egnyte’s trusted storage platform with AVAIL’s smarter access content management and ArchVision FOVEA’s lightweight proxies, firms gain a more seamless way to manage information and models without added complexity. It’s a glimpse into how cross-platform collaboration can elevate the dialog between storage, access, and visualization tools to create truly integrated project ecosystems.

Building AI Search: The Foundation for Knowledge Agents of the Future

Speaking:

Chris Parsons
Knowledge Architecture Founder and CEO

Sean Mahan
Knowledge Architecture Director of Software Engineering

AI is transforming how AEC industry firms manage and share knowledge. This session explores how Knowledge Architecture's Synthesis AI Search is being built as the foundation for future Knowledge Agents—systems that learn, reason, and partner with employees to build smarter learning organizations. Looking ahead, firms will need to design learning and development plans not only for their people, but also for these emerging agents in order to fully realize their potential.

Chris Parsons discussed Synthesis in Season 2 of the Confluence Podcast

Watch episode

From Chaos to Clarity: Crossing the Data Drop Chasm

Speaking:

Bill Allen
Chaos Director of Product Management

In today’s AEC technology workflows, interoperability is no longer optional—it’s essential. Too often, valuable information is lost in the “data drop chasm” as teams move between tools and project phases. This session by Chaos’ Bill Allen explores how new advances in technology enable design data to remain connected, meaningful, and adaptable across the entire project lifecycle. 
 
We’ll explore how programmatic requirements can be transferred seamlessly from spreadsheets into detailed Revit models without rework. We will also look at how design ecosystems are becoming more fluid, with bridges between platforms like AutoCAD, SketchUp, and Revit that allow teams to collaborate without friction. Lastly, we will cover how AI driving annotations can now stay tied directly to model elements, ensuring feedback is never disconnected from the model. Attendees will leave with strategies to preserve data fidelity, eliminate silos, and achieve true interoperability.

Knowledge Lost, Knowledge Found – How Can Platforms Preserve Institutional Knowledge and Improve Handoffs Across Teams and Projects?

On the Panel:

Alexandra Pollock
Thornton Tomasetti Associate Principal, Senior Director of CORE studio

Matthew Anderle
AECOM Associate Vice President

Errol Maynard
Perkins Eastman IT Applications and Services Manager | Associate Principal

Stephen Germano
IMEG Software Engineering Team Lead

The AEC industry risks losing critical know-how at phase transitions, during staff turnover, and across fragmented toolchains. This panel explores how firms can turn platforms into active stewards of institutional knowledge—capturing lessons learned, improving discoverability, and enabling smoother handoffs across teams and projects.

Unscrolling the Past: How AI Revealed the Secrets of Vesuvius

Speaking:

Dr. Brent Seales
University of Kentucky Director of the EduceLab

Join Dr. Brent Seales, Director of the EduceLab at the University of Kentucky, for a remarkable journey into the digital resurrection of ancient texts buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. In this session, Dr. Seales will showcase how cutting-edge imaging and machine learning techniques have made it possible to virtually “unwrap” carbonized scrolls from Herculaneum—texts too fragile to open by hand—and read their contents for the first time in two millennia.

Learn how this breakthrough, amplified by the global Vesuvius Challenge led by former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman, has brought together technologists, researchers, and AI experts in a race to decode lost classical literature. This talk will explore the intersection of computer science, archaeology, and open collaboration—and what it means for the future of cultural preservation.

Study up on Dr. Brent Seales’ work in this episode from Season 2 of the Confluence Podcast

Watch episode