FORUM 2024 Know Before You Go

Sponsored by AIA.

The LTCP is a tool for advancing dialogue and fostering student and faculty cooperation around what a respectful learning environment looks like at your school. Join representatives from the Student Health and Wellbeing Task Force for some advice on how your school can hear students’ voices loud and clear!

Speakers: Student Health and Wellbeing Task Force

In an effort to amplify the diverse voices of architecture students, the JEDI Task Force will be hosting a zine workshop and exchange. Attendees will have the opportunity to tell their story through architecture (academic, professional and/or social) in the form of a zine! Materials for zine making will be supplied but feel free to bring your own pencils, markers, or any other art supplies you wish.

Speakers: JEDI Task Force

In our increasingly complex world, technology, globalization, urbanization, and the competition for talent and resources collide every day at the level of the built environment, driving change and affecting cities, organizations, and people. Do you look around and think “Design thinking can address these issues?” Do you desire a challenging career that will utilize the full scope of your skillsets and talents? Are you eager to develop to your full professional potential in a dynamic global environment? If so, join us for Gensler’s Design Strategist session and take the crucial first step toward becoming a professional design strategist!

Speakers: Gensler

An introduction to historic preservation in the unique city of New Orleans and the vital role that architecture and collaboration plays in the field.

Speakers: Preservation Resource Center of New Orleans

Speakers:
Danielle Del Sol
Tifferny White
Richard Franko
Allison Stouse

Keynote Session sponsored by BEHR. Refreshments sponsored by Architectural Record

Hey, future designers! This session is tailor-made for students and emerging professionals like you. We’re diving deep into the art of creating a standout portfolio, crafting an attention-grabbing resume, and mastering cover letters that leave a mark. But here’s the kicker – we’re spilling the
beans on what hiring managers are really looking for in your portfolio and in the interview. Get ready to discover the secrets that will set you apart from the crowd and propel you towards success. It’s not just a session; it’s your backstage pass to professional greatness. The spotlight is waiting – are you ready to grab it?

Speakers: Kimberly Tuttle and Kimberly Tigner, Gensler

Sure, you have the skills and the experience, but how do you get your foot in the door and make the firms or companies take notice? Learn how to create the most effective resume to reflect your talent and make a valuable first impression.

Speaker: Beth Lundell Garver

Politics is too important to be left to politicians. Architects have important expertise and perspective to contribute to public policy, but too often remain on the outside as critics. Yet key skills for good public policy include creativity, problem solving, and implementation–all things architects are good at. And much public policy directly affects the built environment and key social and environmental outcomes that we care about as architects.

Casius Pealer was trained as an architect and a lawyer, and has been involved in local and national policy discussions in both housing and green building.

Join this discussion to learn how your design skills can have an impact at the scale of public policy.

Speaker: Casius Pealer

What have you heard about obstacles to becoming an architect? Where do you go for the facts when you aren’t sure what is true and what isn’t? Fact versus urban legend? Come hear straight from the source – the facts and truths are here! Representatives from NCARB will expose myths about the path to architectural licensure and options available. Chart your path forward and avoid future tripwires.

Speaker: Harry M. Falconer, Jr., FAIA, NCARB, HonD, Hon. FCARM

In design, particularly in public-interest design, there are a lot of people with a lot of different thoughts and opinions, which leaves designers caught in the middle, left to make sense of it all. And that can be intense. In this session, we’ll look at community-focused projects and explore
community engagement not only as a tool but as a fundamental component of the design process. We’ll talk about how we can best get to understanding the core values of stakeholders and how to elevate community voices when things get loudest.

Speaker: Natalie Goodin

Hey, future designers! This session is tailor-made for students and emerging professionals like you. We’re diving deep into the art of creating a standout portfolio, crafting an attention-grabbing resume, and mastering cover letters that leave a mark. But here’s the kicker – we’re spilling the
beans on what hiring managers are really looking for in your portfolio and in the interview. Get ready to discover the secrets that will set you apart from the crowd and propel you towards success. It’s not just a session; it’s your backstage pass to professional greatness. The spotlight is waiting – are you ready to grab it?

Speakers: Gensler

Whether your path is directly into graduate school, working in the profession, or finding a way to pivot to a new discipline, we will discuss a wide range of topics that will help you prepare for life on the outside. Come ready to ask questions and explore what your life outside of school will look like!

Speaker: Michelle Rinehart

Speakers: Hannah H. Hubbell, Assoc. AIA, Ashley Fetzer LeJeune, RA, and Kelli Cunningham, AIA, ASLA, PLA

For over 60 years, the Society for Design Administration (SDA) has promoted education and best practices in management and professional standards of design firm administrative personnel. This session will help you get a better understanding of some core project management concepts: proposals, contracts, and project initiation, as well as construction administration.

Speaker: Stephanie Kirschner

Whether your path is directly into graduate school, working in the profession, or finding a way to pivot to a new discipline, we will discuss a wide range of topics that will help you prepare for life on the outside. Come ready to ask questions and explore what your life outside of school will look like!

Speaker: Michelle Rinehart

Speaker:
Jason Pugh

Keynote Session and speaker sponsored by Gensler.

Sponsored by AIA.

Sponsored by NCARB and Gensler.

Speakers: Tylan Bear, Grady O’Neill, and Aliyah Immeker

How can we design for uncertainty? How can we move from catastrophe to productive change?

The design of fixed infrastructures fosters a precarious stability and a false sense of safety which will become impossible in future climate scenarios. The alternative is to develop design solutions that prepare for uncertainty and multiple scenarios, challenging us to reframe our approach to site, scale and risk.

This session will explore the role of designers in navigating landscapes of risk by presenting research and built projects addressing flood-prone landscapes at three distinct scales. This presentation will be followed with a panel discussion and audience questions.

Speakers: Megan Spoor, Sean Fowler, and Margarita Jover

The LTCP is a tool for advancing dialogue and fostering student and faculty cooperation around what a respectful learning environment looks like at your school. Join representatives from the Student Health and Wellbeing Task Force for some advice on how your school can hear students’ voices loud and clear!

Speakers: Student Health and Wellbeing Task Force

Speakers: Julie Kim, Mackenzie Stagg, Atianna Cordova, and Bryan Bradshaw

Twenty-four queer architects and designers came together in 2023 to create a collection of essays aptly titled Out in Architecture, sharing their own experiences of what being queer in architecture and design means. Change through Storytelling: Conversations with Queer Designers connects students and future architects with authors as well as local queer architects and designers in an open dialogue where students can ask the questions they’ve always wanted to but didn’t know where to begin asking. This discussion will also provide an opportunity to have a larger conversation about student experiences, as well as how those architects can support students as they continue to push firms towards a more equitable and inclusive future. We welcome and invite everyone into this conversation to share space and stories together!

Speakers: Out In Architecture Authors/Pride By Design/TX LGBTQIA+ Alliance Members

Prepare for an enriching session aimed at harnessing the potential of design to contribute positively to our world. Through a design hackathon, we will delve into a thematic exploration of cities, communities, and the future. Following an insightful dialogue, participants will engage in our
hackathon within small groups, fostering collaborative design thinking. This platform offers an opportunity to articulate and share innovative ideas and sketches. Come equipped for ideation, sketching, and thoughtful discussion, as we collectively explore the impactful role of design in
shaping our future.

Speakers: Gensler

This session will walk you through a future scenario consisting of the challenges that cities and architects will face as climate change affects the way we live in the future. Using techniques developed by futurist and game designer Jane McGonigal, you will be placed on the front lines to make decisions that affect future citizens in how we will adapt to our rapidly changing environment. Come and experience a glimpse into the future!

Speakers: Laura Ward and Jeanne Homer, AIA

This session explores how architecture and the built environment are embedded within equity, diversity, and inclusion issues. Based on the premise that architecture can never be neutral, innocent, and inert, the session unpacks ways by which processes of inequities and oppression are both intentional and unintentional. The session will also discuss resources and tools on how to make architecture and the built environment more equitable, diverse, and inclusive.

Speaker: Edson G. Cabalfin, PhD

Join representatives from the Student Health and Wellbeing Task Force in a restorative crafting time where you can take a break from the commotion of FORUM! Some lofi beats will be on, no talking necessary. Additionally, learn how to recreate events like this at your own school.

Speakers: Student Health and Wellbeing Task Force

New Orleans’ French Quarter is world-famous for food, music, architecture and design. Often erased and obscured are the ways people who are Indigenous, of African descent, women and queer/LGBTQIA+ have created and changed this place. This tour situates the French Quarter’s architecture and design within past and present political movements like Reconstruction, labor organizing, feminism and queer liberation. Participants will learn and share strategies for surfacing similar histories in any place, through principles of design justice, antiracist and queer city-making.

In the age of authenticity and connection, the core of every organization relies on a strong foundation of company culture to maintain brand strength while encouraging growth in competitive markets. Building brand identity and maintaining it is equally as tough as it is important. In this engaging session, David Shove-Brown marries his vibrant personality with his plentiful leadership experience to give a run-down of the journey from establishing a genuine company culture. From there, he guides participants through tools to leverage culture to stay competitive, from internal interests of employee recruitment and retention to external publicity and marketing. David believes that strong, sustainable company culture is built not from the top down, but from engaging each team member in the process –– allowing them to express what they look for in an organization and providing opportunities to
have a say in building a workplace that represents who they are.

Speaker: David Shove-Brown, studio //3877

Sponsored by BEHR.

Understand the four basic components of paint and their impact on paint quality and performance, the improvements in Latex vs. (alkyd) Oil-base resin technologies, understand the impact of paint air pollutionregulations and limits of VOC – Volatile Organic Compounds –in modern coatings, and understand thecharacteristics of quality paints and coatings.

Speaker: Peter Gaeta from BEHR

In 2022, 60.9 million people were newly displaced within countries by conflicts and disasters and needed shelter. International humanitarian shelter response needs to recognize that the primary shelter providers are crisis-affected people themselves. It is normally the people who are displaced by conflicts and disasters who build their shelters, maintain them, and upgrade them over time. To be effective assistance must support this process. This session will explore what role architects, engineers, and other built environment professionals can have in humanitarian contexts.

Speakers: Joseph Ashmore, International Organization for Migration and Juli King, InterAction

For over 60 years, the Society for Design Administration (SDA) has promoted education and best practices in management and professional standards of design firm administrative personnel. This session will help you get a better understanding of some core project management concepts:
proposals, contracts, and project initiation, as well as construction administration.

Speaker: Stephanie Kirschner

• Midwest Quad: Galerie 3
• Northeast Quad: Galerie 2
• South Quad/International Regions: Galerie 1
• West Quad: Galeries 4-5

Speakers:
Edson Cabalfin
Emilie Taylor Welty
Bryan C. Lee Jr.

Keynote Session sponsored by Arcat and Tau Sigma Delta.

Sponsored by AIA and NTMA.

Sponsored by AIA.

This workshop will examine the competencies needed to practice  architecture. First, we’ll dive into the
broader experience areas, then break them down into smaller competencies. Once we understand what we’re expected to know as architects, we’ll also discuss how we can advocate to get practice in those
areas at current positions and future jobs. Finally, we’ll take a look at the myriad of sectors and job roles available in a career as an architect.

Speakers: Emily Anderson, AIA, NOMA, NCARB and Martin Smith, AIA, NCARB, CAE

Production designer and Tulane M.Arch graduate, Mara LePere-Schloop, discusses available design careers in film and television as well as the actualization process of creating worlds on screen.

Speakers: Mara LePere-Schloop

Speakers:
Chandra D. Robinson

Keynote Session and speaker sponsored by Think Wood.

Sponsored by AIA.