FORUM 2025: AUSTIN
Crossroads
—
January 8-11, 2025
Austin, TX
FORUM is the AIAS’ annual design and career development conference where all of our members from around the world gather in a new city under and spend a few days together to grow together and develop their voices, ideas, and actions for the future. This year the theme is Crossroads: a point at which a crucial decision must be made that will have far-reaching consequences. Austin, Texas, the United States, and the World are at the crossroads of the housing crisis, the climate crisis, and dealing with the dynamics of rapid growth. Join us in exploring how design justice and architecture can make a difference!
Through innovative speakers, seminars, activities, and tours, we will learn about design, service, and leadership advancements in the field, as well as meet, collaborate, and communicate with our fellow members from diverse schools and share perspectives face-to-face. We will also get to know an incredible city for its architecture, firm culture, and history; feature the work of our fellow students; and represent our chapters by electing the 2025-2026 Board of Directors.
Don’t miss our keynote speakers, career development opportunities, our Career and College Expo, a Portfolio Review, workshops, tours, and of course, our Beaux Arts Ball! Get ready to start the year with a bang, and we’ll see you in Austin soon!
Registration
Early Bird (thru Dec 1) – save $30!
- Member – $295
- Non-Member – $360
- Group (5+) – $275 Member / $340 Non-Member
Regular (thru Dec 15)
- Member – $325
- Non-Member – $390
- Group (5+) – $305 Member / $370 Non-Member
Late (Dec 15 – Jan 3)
- Member – $355
- Non-Member – $420
- Group (5+) – $335 Member / $410 Non-Member
High School
- High School Member – $75
Interested in Bulk Registration? Submit your request here.
Hotel
Hyatt Place Austin Downtown
211 East 3rd Street
Austin, Texas 78701
512.476.4440
$169.00 per night (Quad Rate), most rooms are double queens with a pull out sofa!
Book Your Room Today – Deadline is Monday, December 16
Use the Code G-AS25 if it doesn’t automatically populate the Group Rate
Schedule
Please check out our conference app for the most up to date schedule!
- Download the app to ensure you know where you’re headed and at what time. Each session has a location and address.
- On your smartphone, visit https://my.yapp.us/AIAS
- Follow the instructions on screen (it’s a quick, two step process)
- If prompted for the Yapp ID, enter: AIAS
Chapter Fundraising Resources
Not sure where to start when it comes to fundraising? Take a look at our draft budget and sponsorship letter templates here. Please make a copy of the documents before editing!
What do you get for your FORUM registration?
- Connect with architecture and design students and alumni from all over the world
- Hear from our keynote speakers on different aspects of leadership, design, and service in the profession.
- Career development opportunities, with educational and hands-on sessions , such as our Portfolio Review.
- Participate in the Career & College Expo, where you can learn about potential internship or job opportunities, and meet with representatives from architecture firms, companies, associations, and university programs
- Explore the unique architecture, landmarks, and culture of Austin, our host city.
- Meet all of the candidates running for the 2024-2025 AIAS Board of Directors, and if you are a chapter president, vote for the Association’s future leaders
- Enjoy the Beaux Arts Ball and other evening social events.
- Meet the presidents and other Board leaders representing the six association members of the Architectural Alliance (ACSA, AIA, AIAS, NAAB, NCARB, and NOMA)
- Buy AIAS merchandise, sell your chapter’s merchandise and purchase merchandise from other chapters at the “Storum”
- And much, much more!!
Meet the Keynote Speakers
Wednesday, January 8
Dan Stine
Dan is the Director of Design Technology and leads the internal research program, Investigations, at the top-ranked architecture firm Lake|Flato, in San Antonio, Texas. He is a registered architect (WI), educator, author, blogger, and international speaker. In addition to teaching graduate architecture students at NDSU, he has written 19 textbooks, including the #1 Revit book in North America, which is used extensively in the academic market.Committed to climate action, Dan was on a six-person team commissioned by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) to write the AIA Climate Action Business Playbook. He also serves on the national AIA Committee on the Environment (COTE) Leadership Group and subcommittee, Climate Action|Climate Justice. He is the chair of a national Illuminating Engineering Society (IES) committee.
Thursday, January 9
Shaun Donovan
Shaun Donovan is the CEO and President of Enterprise Community Partners. One of the nation’s foremost leaders in housing and community development, Donovan’s 30-year career in public service has focused on building opportunity and fighting for people and communities too often left behind.
He served in President Barack Obama’s cabinet for his full eight years in office, as secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) from 2009 to 2014 and as director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget from 2014 to 2017. He was commissioner of the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development from 2004 to 2009.
As HUD secretary, Donovan led the fight against the nation’s unprecedented foreclosure crisis and served as chair of the president’s Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force. He also advanced landmark fair housing protections and led the strategy that dramatically reduced homelessness around the country, including cutting in half the number of veterans sleeping on our streets and in shelters.
Friday, January 10
Miguel Rivera
Miguel Rivera, FAIA, LEED AP was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico and obtained his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Puerto Rico School of Architecture. He earned his Master of Architecture from Columbia University, in New York.
Miguel was elevated to the AIA College of Fellows in 2014, and in 2005 he received the AIA National Young Architect Award. Miguel is an active member of the American Institute of Architects and the Texas Society of Architects. He has served as chair for the AIA New York City design awards committee, a juror for AIA design awards in Colorado, Chicago and Alabama and as a juror for the Bi-Annual design awards for the Colegio de Arquitectos of Puerto Rico. Miguel is licensed in Texas, New York, Massachusetts, and Puerto Rico.
Miguel has lectured at The Universities of Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico, Veracruz, Tennessee, Buffalo, Louisiana, Munich and UNAM in Mexico. His work has been published in several books and numerous publications including Architectural Record and the New York Times and has been exhibited in Berlin, Venice Architectural Biennale and at the Hostos Art Gallery in New York City.
Before forming Miró Rivera Architects with Juan Miró in 2000, Miguel was an associate at Mitchell/Giurgola Architects in New York City (1991-2000), where he was involved in several award-winning large-scale, institutional projects.
Saturday, January 11
Michael Bennet
Michael Bennett is a spatial designer, artist, and cultural thinker whose work explores the intersections of identity, history, and the built environment. Moving fluidly between architecture, sculpture, and furniture design, Bennett draws deeply from the traditions, forms, and languages of the African diaspora, creating works that resonate with collective memory and cultural lineage. His practice transforms abstraction into tangible spaces and objects, inviting contemplation and communion while challenging dominant narratives of space and design.At the heart of Bennett’s work is a commitment to storytelling and ancestral reverence. His creations serve as monuments to resilience, sites of reflection, and vessels for cultural exchange. Through an iterative process that reinterprets historical and contemporary materials, Bennett crafts spaces that honor memory and provoke dialogue—spaces that live, breathe, and hold the spirit of community. His work pushes beyond disciplines, presenting design as both a physical and spiritual act, capable of evoking intimacy, resistance, and transformation.In addition to his design practice, Michael Bennett is an activist, bestselling author (Things That Make White People Uncomfortable), and philanthropist. He has established endowments for students from low-income backgrounds pursuing creative arts degrees at the Rhode Island School of Design and provides grants to organizations such as the Rebuild Foundation, MASS Design Group, Humble Design, Freedmen’s Town Conservancy, Black Folks in Design, and One Love Community Fridge. Through these efforts, Bennett amplifies voices, preserves cultural integrity, and fosters opportunities for future generations.
Partners
Planning Team
Colt Brock, Co-Chair, AIAS Past President
Julia Andor, Co-Chair, AIAS Past Vice President
Noah Palmer, Vice Chair, University of Oklahoma
Jaimi Ingram, Events Director, Prairie View A&M University
Dominic Ricco, Events Director, University of South Florida
Alejandra Mateus De La Torre, Programming Director, University of South Florida
STORUM Chapter Fundraising
If your chapter is interested in doing some fundraising at FORUM, you can sell merch that your chapter may have from the semester at STORUM! If you’re interested in participating, send an email to forum@aias.org!
FORUM Sponsorship Opportunities
Interested in FORUM sponsorship opportunities? Check out our sponsorship packet by clicking here or reading the document below! Feel free to email forum@aias.org with any questions or thoughts!