KA Connect 2026 Speakers

This session offers a vision for transforming your AEC firm into a Modern Learning Organization—one that continuously captures, shares, and scales expertise even as projects grow more complex, experienced professionals retire, and AI reshapes the field. 

At its core, this session explores a fundamental shift: from learning that happens organically and unevenly across projects, to learning that is intentionally designed, scaled, and continuously improved.

Drawing on a practical maturity model, we’ll look at how firms evolve from learning through experience and shared conversations into more structured, scalable approaches—including codified knowledge, on-demand learning, hybrid learning models, and AI-powered systems that deliver knowledge in the flow of work. Rather than replacing traditional approaches, these capabilities build on them by strengthening apprenticeship, making expertise more accessible, and enabling firms to learn faster and more consistently.

You’ll see real-world examples of how leading AEC firms are designing learning ecosystems by combining curated learning paths, modular on-demand content, expert-led instruction, hybrid learning experiences, and AI-powered knowledge delivery into a cohesive whole that connects people to the right knowledge at the right time.

We’ll close by helping leaders reflect on what this means for their own firms, identifying where they are today, where it matters most to invest, and how to take the next step, one domain of knowledge at a time.

Whether you're facing a wave of retirements, struggling with siloed expertise, trying to meet the learning expectations of a new generation of AEC professionals, or wondering how AI will change your firm, this session will help you take concrete next steps toward building a Modern Learning Organization.

As Founder and CEO of Knowledge Architecture, Christopher is responsible for product design, marketing strategy, and organizational health. He is the host of the Smarter by Design podcast and the author of Smarter by Design, a bi-weekly newsletter exploring how leading AEC firms manage information, share knowledge, and build learning organizations. He is also the executive producer of KA Connect, Knowledge Architecture’s annual knowledge and learning management conference for the AEC industry.

What's the smartest format for upskilling your AEC firm's talent? Architecture, engineering, and interiors firm Lionakis has spent years refining how it helps people learn new tools, workflows, and ways of thinking. What began as hands-on, instructor-led training has steadily expanded into a more balanced learning ecosystem, one that blends in-person instruction, peer-supported learning, on-demand resources, and hybrid formats designed around how adults actually learn.

Kristina will share how Lionakis is evolving this ecosystem to keep pace with a changing practice, with a new emphasis on on-demand content, simplification and clarity of materials, and the development of structured learning paths that help employees understand what comes next.

She also shares the firm’s early experiments with AI—tools with the potential to guide employees through software questions, reinforce concepts outside the classroom, and provide real-time support during project work. Finally, she reveals how lessons emerging from Design Technology’s learning efforts are beginning to influence the broader firm, contributing to a cohesive, intentional, and modern approach to knowledge and learning management.

You’ll learn practical ideas for designing flexible, scalable learning experiences tailored for AEC talent that meets people where they are—especially during periods of rapid change.

Kristina Williams is the Director of Design Technology at Lionakis, where she focuses on integrating design technology and knowledge management to better connect people, ideas, and information. She began her career at Lionakis as a Revit Specialist and brings 17 years of experience in design technology. Over that time, she has continuously refined how she teaches and supports teams, shaping her approach to how knowledge is shared, adopted, and applied across the firm. She has carried this perspective into her current role leading knowledge management efforts, where she works to improve how information flows and how teams learn from one another.

What does it take to consistently develop emerging professionals into great architects and designers? At Diamond Schmitt, that question has led to a deeper challenge: how to scale the judgment and expertise of principals across a growing, distributed team. Traditional approaches—redlines, one-on-one mentoring, in-the-moment feedback—are valuable, but are limited in reach and hard to scale. The firm began exploring a different model: one where knowledge could be captured, shared, and reused to support both learning and design excellence.

In this session, Principal Michael Leckman and Learning & Development Consultant Sam Horton share how Diamond Schmitt is evolving Diamond Schmitt University (DSU) and their Synthesis-powered platform (DSX) into what they describe as a knowledge amplification system. From a firmwide needs analysis that refocused learning on core competencies, to a dual-track model balancing foundational knowledge and creative exploration, to shorter, more targeted content designed for real-world application. Today, leaders can point teams to shared standards of excellence—videos, resources, and guides—and use their time for deeper design conversations, while AI-powered search and knowledge agents make that knowledge easier to access in the flow of work.

The result is a learning system that does more than inform—it extends the reach of expertise across the firm. By continuously evolving how knowledge is captured, delivered, and applied, Diamond Schmitt is building a model for scaling design excellence in an increasingly complex and fast-moving environment.

Michael Leckman is Principal with Diamond Schmitt Architects, Co-Chair of the City of Toronto Design Review Panel, past Chair of the Toronto Urban Design Awards, and a Fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada. Since 2017, he has been championing the KA platform as the core of the studio’s digital connective tissue, the heart of continuing education, and an instrument for positive organizational change.

Sam Horton is a Learning and Development Consultant who helped shape Diamond Schmitt University as a firmwide platform for developing technical skill, design acumen, and leadership capacity. Her work has focused on capturing and scaling expertise through DSX, mentorship, and targeted learning experiences. She holds a Certificate in Adult Learning and Development.

For more than 16 years, Turner Fleischer’s Academy has provided structured learning to support professional growth across the studio. What began as an in-person program has expanded into a broader learning ecosystem, shaped by changes in practice, technology, and how adults learn. Today, that evolution is more important than ever, as firms navigate an increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) environment.

CEO Ellen Bensky shares how Turner Fleischer approaches learning as an ongoing practice rather than a finished product. Central to this work is a Learning + Development team of three professionals with formal backgrounds in adult education, grounding programs in adult learning principles and a deep understanding of how professionals engage with learning over time.

The session will explore how learning programs are continually assessed through feedback, retrospectives, and ongoing dialogue with studio members. Rather than assuming programs remain effective, learning at Turner Fleischer is treated as a living system—regularly reviewed, refined, and adapted as needs shift.

Ellen will also reflect on how the learning ecosystem continues to grow. In 2025, two new learning programs were launched alongside the Academy. Looking ahead to 2026, the focus is on defining an overarching learning framework and exploring the introduction of an LMS and video-based training to support clarity, accessibility, and scale—while maintaining the human and social dimensions of learning.

Ellen Bensky is a transformative leader at Turner Fleischer, guiding the Toronto-based firm’s growth into a dynamic Studio specializing in Architecture, Interior Design, and Experiential Graphic Design. Her unique 35-year journey as a non-architect to becoming Principal, CEO, and CFO is a testament to her exceptional leadership and vision. Her innovative approach has redefined the traditional business model of the industry, emphasizing that operational teams are the foundation of a successful AEC practice rather than an overhead burden, allowing designers to focus on design. She has strengthened the Studio’s technological capabilities by developing a Digital Practice team with deep expertise, integrating advanced tools and systems to digitize both the practice and their projects.

Modern learning organizations are not built on platforms alone. They are built through intention, trust, and design. In this talk, Brandon Norton, Senior Multi-Media Manager at Fuscoe Engineering, shares a creative, behind-the-scenes perspective on building ARC (Fuscoe’s integrated intranet and LMS) as a branded learning experience rather than a traditional training system.

Drawing from years of design leadership and hands-on implementation, Brandon brings these ideas to life by showcasing a range of modern learning experiences he and his team have created within ARC. Along the way, he explores the unseen barriers that often undermine learning initiatives: clarity of ownership, aligning expectations, cultural buy-in, and developing trust in the system itself.

He makes the case that branding is not merely decoration, but essential infrastructure which helps learners understand what matters, where to go, and why they should engage. When learning feels intentional, cohesive, and well-crafted, it earns credibility, and credibility is what drives adoption.

This session will challenge KM and L&D leaders to think like designers. How do you balance brand and information without losing clarity? How do you identify the right experts, respect their voices, and help them share knowledge in a way that feels authentic and scalable? And how do you design learning systems that improve workflow, strengthen culture, and become part of how people work, not something they step away to complete?

Brandon Norton is a Senior Multi‑Media Manager at Fuscoe Engineering, where he leads creative direction for brand, storytelling, and internal learning experiences. With a design background and nearly two decades at the firm, he plays a central role in shaping ARC, Fuscoe’s internal knowledge platform (Synthesis), and its evolving LMS. Brandon approaches learning as a designed experience, with a strong focus on culture, trust, and clarity. His work centers on aligning brand and information, elevating internal expertise, and building learning systems that feel intentional, credible, and genuinely valued by the people who use them.

In this session, Nicole Chavas, Chief Operating Officer at Greenprint Partners, shares how her team is taking a clean-sheet approach to designing work in the AI era. At a 35-person firm without dedicated knowledge management or L&D teams, AI is becoming a core teammate embedded directly into how work gets done.

Rather than layering AI into existing processes, Nicole is rethinking those processes entirely, starting from a challenge most growing firms share: the people who hold the knowledge the firm needs are often not the same people doing the work that needs it. Institutional memory, market awareness, process expertise and client relationships live in different heads, and getting them into the right conversation at the right time is harder than it sounds.

Three principles are guiding Greenprint's approach: redesign the work instead of retrofitting what already exists, foster human connection where it matters most, and use AI to elevate implicit knowledge into repeatable processes.

Nicole will walk through two parallel efforts. The first reimagines the pursuit process — from how the firm surfaces and evaluates opportunities to how it develops the content that wins them — using AI to draw on institutional knowledge rather than reinvent it each time. The second builds a learning and development pipeline from scratch, capturing expertise through structured interviews with subject matter experts, then using AI to transform those conversations into scalable learning content.

She'll also explore what it takes to shift mindsets across a firm, and why the emerging KM function may sit at the intersection of strategy and operations, bridging the "why we do things" with the "how we do things" and making sure the organization's collective knowledge is greater than what any one person carries.

Nicole is President & COO of Greenprint Partners, a Chicago-based urban planning, civil engineering and landscape architecture firm. In leading all aspects of firm operations, she brings a passion for rallying resources, talent and partnerships to scale sustainable infrastructure—a passion that has informed her approach to team leadership and company growth since 2014. Nicole's love of learning is inherent in every initiative she leads. Whether it’s spearheading a proposal, accelerating adoption of a new knowledge management system or recruiting and onboarding employees, she is committed to transparency, collaboration and continuous learning every step of the way.

Most of us assume more human involvement in learning is better. A human voice. A live trainer. A community. Todd Henderson spent the past year testing that assumption … and kept getting answers he didn't expect. 

He tried distilling live training recordings into short, polished on-demand content, then asked people to weigh in. He joined a 90-minute live session he found nearly unbearable, then discovered it was among the highest-rated content in his onboarding program. Along the way, he's also been facilitating a video series where the most interesting question turned out to be who the real beneficiary is. Finally, he’s cultivating a community of practice with minimal technology – just people talking. Taken together, these efforts span a surprising range: from purely synthetic content to purely human interaction, with a lot of complicated middle ground in between.

Each experiment nudged the same question: when does the human actually make a difference? And a few of them landed as a reminder that UX practitioners figured out a long time ago: you are not the user. Our intuitions about what learners value are worth testing.

Todd Henderson is a principal at Boulder Associates Architects, where he serves as Director of Practice Improvement. After two decades designing healthcare environments, Todd shifted his focus to the operational backbone of practice—leading initiatives in knowledge management, onboarding, quality assurance, and firmwide change management. He rebuilt the firm’s corporate university and led the revamp of its intranet to support better learning and collaboration. A longtime process nerd, Todd applies systems thinking with lean and agile methods to untangle complex problems and drive lasting change.

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