Christopher Parsons, Founder + CEO, Knowledge Architecture

Talk Description
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.

Speaker Bio
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.