In this session, designers with Dark Matter University will share their experiences and efforts to explore ideas and actions for how design and landscape architecture institutions and practices can better acknowledge and address racism in the profession, education, and practice.

Delivering innovative design solutions on time and on budget, with happy teams and clients, healthy profit margins, and high quality is essential for business. Using real project scenarios, these firm leaders will share methods and insights on the challenges, dynamic nature, and artful approach of project management in design practices.

The goal of this session is twofold: to better understand how drawings are prepared so they clearly communicate the design by the time they reach the contractor, and to get the most out of visits to job sites. Strategies to provide clarity from design to construction will be explored.

How is your firm addressing diversity and inclusion? For those seeking leadership opportunities, what does it take to be visible? How does EQ and the concept of "authentic self" contribute to the discussion? This session poses the question: is it Push or Pull that generates equity in emerging leaders?

Although disabled people make up the largest global minority, they spend their lives adapting to the built environment, which limits human experience, inclusion, and participation in the public realm. Through the lens of DeafScape, we will discover ways to design with the Deaf community, and beyond, through Universal Design.

This panel introduces leading voices who employ design activism in their work within black and immigrant communities in the United States. Participants will learn about how community design processes can be employed to celebrate the outstanding historical and cultural contribution of black and immigrant communities.

In cities across the country, civic leaders and designers are reimagining public assets such as parks, libraries, and trails to promote more engaged, equitable, and resilient communities. Learn how practitioners in Akron, Detroit, and Memphis are advancing social outcomes through new approaches to the design and management of public spaces.

Mistakes in soil design can result in catastrophic landscape failures. What many landscape architects don’t understand is that often the “small” details in soils can trip up their brilliant design. We will present common misunderstandings about soil to avoid critical mistakes and assure successful landscape design and construction.

Climate change and habitat loss are triggering shifts in the regulation of coastal water bodies. Join us for a look “behind the renderings” to see how regulation impacts designs across the East and West coasts and hear from a bayfront regulator on policy changes that enable fill for habitat projects.

Within the context of increased wildfire vulnerability in both Australia and California, this session will examine ways each builds resilience within communities vulnerable to wildfire. Through both theoretical and practice-based lenses, the panel will discuss topics ranging between social capital, stewardship and management practices, WUI policies, insurance, and infrastructure.