Progress in AI and ML, A Year Later: Confluence Lexington 2024 Program

Confluence is a series of professional development events that bring design technology and product management leaders from across the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry together in collaborative discourse. The signature Lexington event is invite-only, and its 50-person guest list includes the AEC industry’s most influential leaders. Explore the program below for Confluence Lexington 2024 taking place in September.  

Confluence Lexington 2024: Progress in AI and ML, A Year Later

We are thrilled to announce Confluence Lexington 2024’s theme: Progress in AI and ML, A Year Later. 

At the three-day event held in Lexington, Kentucky September 12, 13, and 14, 2024, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) thought leaders will continue the conversation that began at Confluence Lexington 2023: The Realities of AI and ML. 

Read more about 2023’s event and what host Randall Stevens is excited about for 2024 in Confluence’s recent Q&A.

This year’s sessions—listed below—will explore the progress AEC firms and technology companies have made in implementing these new AI and ML technologies thus far, as well as the impact they could have on the industry in the next 12 to 18 months.

Additionally, we are excited to announce that—for the first time since Confluence began in 2019—all tickets to our signature Lexington event have been claimed. We can't wait to host AEC's finest in Lexington in a few short weeks to respond to and discuss the following sessions.

Confluence Lexington Practitioner Sessions:

Engineering the Future: Practical AI Applications in Civil Engineering

Rob Sinclair, Corporate Technology Lead at Wade Trim

Learn how Wade Trim, a leading Civil Engineering firm, has integrated artificial intelligence (AI) into its operations, significantly enhancing efficiency and innovation across various projects. The firm established an AI Task Force, a specialized team dedicated to exploring and implementing AI solutions. This task force collaborates with different departments to identify practical AI applications. By leveraging AI, the company has streamlined workflows, improved project accuracy, and delivered superior outcomes, demonstrating its commitment to adopting cutting-edge technology to stay ahead in the industry.

The AI Revolution in Structural Engineering and Beyond

Robert K. Otani, PE LEED AP, CTO and Managing Principal at Thornton Tomasetti 

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a rapidly evolving technology that has the potential to transform the engineering and construction industry. AI can help improve efficiency, quality, safety, and innovation in various aspects of the industry, such as design, planning, execution, and maintenance. This session presents CORE studio at Thornton Tomasetti’s AI R&D journey, experiments as well as current and emerging applications of AI in engineering and beyond, and discusses the challenges and opportunities for future research and development.

Building Intelligence

Charles Portelli, Associate | Digital Innovation Strategist at Perkins&Will

As architects, we invest our careers working on projects, continuously building our professional expertise. Each design challenge we encounter enhances our knowledge base, while every obstacle and solution further refines our skills. A lot of these valuable insights of the iterative learning process and problem-solving is captured in documents, emails, models, and more. Can we unlock this accumulated wisdom to educate and guide future designers? Can we extract and leverage data from 3D models and documents to create an informational gateway for designers?

Synthesizing Design, Execution & Operations

John Cerone, Principal at SHoP Architects

SHoP Architects has established itself as a cutting-edge practice with projects of note across five continents. At SHoP, considerable attention and resources in developing and integrating emergent technologies have been folded directly into the process of architectural design and delivery. The presentation will explore how these innovations were developed simultaneously to create efficiencies within the process of design and delivery as well as optimizing the pace and clarity of communication and decision making with clients—with the ultimate goal of removing any distance between design and execution in the rapid and exact assembly of buildings of every type.

Demystifying AI and How Olson Kundig Integrates Technology

Kenton Grant, Director of Technology at Olson Kundig

Kenton Grant, Director of Technology at Olson Kundig, leads both IT and the firm’s new Design Technology department. The DT department is at the forefront of integrating AI, XR, drones, and advancing project-focused BIM strategies. In his session, Kenton will explore how AI is shaping the firm’s design processes, share tools and strategies, and discuss the firm’s unique top-down + bottom-up approach to innovation.

Audacity, Antiquity, and AI: The Vesuvius Challenge

Christy Chapman | Research and Partnership Manager, Asst. Project Manager at EduceLab

Perseverance. Resilience. Tenacity — safe, staid attributes that we call upon when facing a significant challenge, and characteristics that we praise others for possessing. But many times the challenges that offer the greatest payoff require something much more bold and risky.


This session will discuss the Vesuvius Challenge, an open-source software development competition in which the best and brightest minds in artificial intelligence took part in the audacious quest to virtually unwrap the Herculaneum scrolls. While the Challenge ended in success, the untold story of the 20-plus years of research that proceeded it is full of obstacles, setbacks — and a lot of audacity. Christy will provide a behind-the-scenes look that will compel us to step out of risk-free zones and be audacious in the pursuit of our own goals and dreams.

CONFLUENCE Lexington Technology Partner Sessions:

ML, AI and The Future of Search

Which may be no search at all!

Randall Stevens, CEO and Founder at AVAIL 

This past year we’ve made significant progress using AI and ML technologies to help structure data, improve search and set the stage for entirely new ways of interacting with information. We’ll explore our journey from organizing technical content to validating information in context, sharing our insights and offering a glimpse of what lies ahead.

Employing AI - From Vision to Production

Phillip Miller, Vice President of Product Management at Chaos 

3D visualization technology company Chaos will share their views and results from their AI initiatives over the past 12 months. Learn about AI approaches, possibilities, realities, and what will be within your reach this winter to use with your own projects.

AI's Role in Securing AEC Data: Paving the Path Forward

Aaron Vorwerk, AEC Practice Leader, Architects + Owners at Egnyte -

AEC firms are facing increasing data control and security challenges due to the rapid growth of data generated and utilized on their projects.  AI offers practical solutions to data governance by helping firms manage permissions, prevent leaks, and surface project analytics.  AI can also ensure ethical and compliant use of data.  This doesn't mean AI is a "hands-off" approach; rather, AI complements human decision-making, helping firms manage risks and improving their resilience.  It's time for the AEC industry to embrace AI to achieve a smart, secure, and responsible data landscape.

A Great Kentucky Time

Confluence Lexington 2024 events will take place in beautiful Lexington, Kentucky. Legendary Thoroughbred horse auction site Fasig-Tipton and New Haven, Kentucky’s Log Still Distillery will be the backdrops for Confluence Lexington sessions Thursday, September 12, 2024 and Friday, September 13. 

Additionally, Confluence Lexington 2024 guests will be among the first to tour the newly remodeled University of Kentucky College of Design, and Saturday programming includes tours of bourbon distilleries Woodford Reserve and Castle & Key, both known for their impressive campuses.   

Explore Confluence Lexington 2024 itinerary and more.

About Confluence

Hosted by software company AVAIL, Confluence is a series of architectural, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry professional development events that bring design technology and product management leaders together in collaborative discourse. Its signature conference, Confluence Lexington, is a three-day, invite-only event themed around a pressing industry technology issue and held in the fall every year. In the last few years, regional, one-day events have also been added, as well as a podcast hosted by AVAIL CEO and Founder Randall Stevens and TRXL Media Director Evan Troxel.

About AVAIL

Founded in 2016 as a solution for architectural and engineering firms to find the information they need faster, AVAIL creates software for the global architectural, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry. AVAIL’s content management system (CMS) platform and Revit application tools help designers and engineers take control of their intricate network of files in one visual, streamlined solution. Spun out of ArchVision, a provider of Rich Photorealistic Content (RPC), AVAIL’s customers include industry leaders like Gensler, Perkins&Will, IMEG, LEO A DALY, and Populous.