Conference Day One
Explore the Agenda
7:30 am Check-in, Networking & Coffee
8:30 am Chair’s Opening Remarks
Improving Client Relationships to Deliver Smarter, Aligned Life Science Builds
8:40 am Panel Discussion: What Do Biotech & Pharma Clients Need from Their Construction Partners?
Synopsis
- Exploring how leading clients identify partners who can meet critical performance metrics, ensuring alignment on timelines, quality standards, and regulatory expectations from the outset
- Optimizing communication on client needs to develop strategic relationships to navigate challenges and limitations
- Evaluating partners based on their ability to accelerate delivery without compromising the scientific functionality, compliance, or long-term adaptability of lab spaces, especially in fast-paced pharma environments
9:20 am Adapting Integrated Project Delivery Methodology for Right-Sized Life Science Builds
Synopsis
- Identifying the common factors that prevent teams from aligning early in the project lifecycle and how delivery models can be adjusted to foster trust, transparency, and shared goals from day one
- Examining how IPD methods can be scaled to suit the unique needs of smaller lab and research facilities, while preserving the core benefits of integration, flexibility, and stakeholder engagement
- Discussing how teams can maintain momentum, control costs, and adapt to evolving client needs by leveraging lean principles and phased design/construction approaches tailored to the complexity of smaller life sciences builds
10:30 am Speed Networking & Morning Refreshments
11:10 am Panel Discussion: Early Collaboration Across Stakeholders to Prevent Mismatch & Redesign
Synopsis
- Collaborating early across disciplines to define goals, reduce risk, and avoid costly redesigns by aligning clients, architects, construction managers, and general contractors from the start
- Integrating diverse stakeholder perspectives—including end users, compliance teams, and facilities managers—to ensure technical, operational, and post-COVID workplace needs like remote work, are built into the project vision
- Communicating proactively through shared platforms and collaborative planning keeps teams aligned, enabling smarter, faster decisions throughout the project lifecycle
Navigating Market Turbulence & Constraints to Build Resilience
11:50 am Balancing Budgets & Projects with Tariff Impacts: Paving the Way Through a Period of Uncertainty
Synopsis
- Learning how teams are building flexibility into budgets, modeling escalation scenarios, and making early procurement decisions to mitigate tariff-related risks
- Exploring how the industry is responding to tariffs on European and Asian equipment—especially for long-lead process systems—and whether reshoring or alternative sourcing is a viable path forward
- Understanding how owners are adapting by operating leaner, relying more on trusted partners, and expecting turnkey delivery models that minimize resource strain and maximize predictability
12:30 pm Lunch Break
1:30 pm Case Study: Revealing How Developing a Separate, Specialized Procurement Team Can Help to Strengthen Supply Chain Control
Synopsis
- Learning methods to consolidate sourcing, logistics, and vendor management to streamline procurement and improve visibility across the supply chain
- Exploring platforms that enable earlier identification of long-lead items and potential bottlenecks, allowing project teams to manage risk and maintain schedule certainty proactively
- Discovering how leveraging data insights and international sourcing capabilities can optimize cost, quality, and delivery, especially for specialized equipment in life sciences and mission-critical builds
2:10 pm Tackling Labor Constraints in Specialized Trades to Ensure High Quality Projects
Synopsis
- Examining the dual challenge of sourcing enough workers and ensuring they meet the technical standards required for hygienic welding, piping, and other mission-critical scopes
- Exploring how project teams are enhancing jobsite conditions, offering financial incentives, and prioritizing worker well-being to make their projects the employer of choice
- Assessing how to mitigate the strain caused by large-scale builds such as datacenters, pulling labor from distant markets, such as regional workforce planning, targeted training programs, and partnerships with local trade organizations to strengthen labor pipelines in both urban and rural areas
2:50 pm Afternoon Refreshments
Harnessing AI to Accelerate Delivery & Enhance Precision in Life Science Projects
3:30 pm Audience Discussion: Boosting Efficiency & Quality from Preconstruction to Project Delivery With AI
Synopsis
- Discovering how AI is being used to optimize early-stage planning—from site selection and feasibility analysis to design iteration and cost modeling, enabling teams to make faster, more informed decisions
- Exploring how AI-powered tools are being piloted to monitor progress, detect deviations, and improve safety and quality assurance during construction
- Gaining insights from early adopters about what’s working, what’s not, and how to evaluate AI tools for practical value, not just novelty, in life sciences project delivery
4:10 pm Bridging the Gap Between Owner’s AI Vision & Contractor Execution
Synopsis
- Understanding how clients are evaluating AI—from incremental tools that enhance planning and operations to transformative technologies that reshape research and production—and what this means for future facility requirements
- Identifying how to bridge the gap between high-level AI ambitions and the practical implications for design, infrastructure, and construction planning
- Assessing how contractors, designers, and consultants can proactively build AI literacy, adapt workflows, and collaborate with owners to anticipate and support evolving needs