Leadership Program for Women in Architecture, Engineering & Construction

AEC leadership is changing. Technical expertise and project delivery remain essential, but today’s leaders must also navigate AI and technology, client expectations, financial pressures, risk, workforce challenges, and business strategy. Explore what it takes to move from technical expert and project leader to a more strategic, adaptable leader and the capabilities that will define the next generation of women leading AEC.

The path from project leader to executive is changing as quickly as the industry itself. Hear from experienced AEC leaders about the skills, mindset, and business perspective needed to lead through shifting client expectations, new technology, workforce pressures, and increasingly complex projects. The conversation will explore what distinguishes high-performing project leaders from future executives and what women can do now to prepare for their next level of leadership.

• What leadership skills have become more important in the last five years?
• What separates a strong project manager from a future executive?
• How has AI changed what you expect from your teams?
• What do clients expect from leaders now?
• Where do technically excellent women sometimes get stuck?
• What do you wish you had learned earlier?

When schedules slip, budgets tighten, teams are stretched, and unexpected problems surface, AEC leaders rarely have the luxury of having all the answers. This interactive session puts participants in a realistic project scenario and challenges them to make decisions under pressure, balance competing priorities, communicate with stakeholders, and take ownership when the path forward isn't clear.

• Separating urgent issues from important ones
• Making sound decisions with incomplete information
• Communicating decisions to different stakeholders
• Escalating issues without surrendering ownership
• Staying composed and credible when challenged

Take a break from the sessions and make time to connect with other women across architecture, engineering, and construction. Use this time to meet someone new, exchange experiences, and compare perspectives on the challenges and opportunities shaping your careers and the industry. A light networking activity will be provided to help spark conversations and make it easier to connect beyond your existing network.

AEC projects rarely move forward through authority alone. Leaders must build alignment across owners, architects, engineers, contractors, subcontractors, executives, vendors, regulators, and project teams, often without having direct control over the outcome. Explore practical strategies for building credibility, communicating with different stakeholders, navigating competing priorities, and gaining buy-in when you’re not the person making the final call.

• Build credibility and trust quickly with new stakeholders
• Adapt your communication style to different personalities and decision-makers
• Push back on priorities or decisions without damaging relationships
• Turn competing interests into shared goals and actionable next steps

Lunch is on us. Enjoy a relaxed break and choose how you want to spend the hour: connect with other women in AEC, play a game, or simply step away and recharge.

• Take a Swing: Pair up with someone new for a friendly golf simulator challenge.
• Rooftop Reset: Join a guided meditation, stretch, and breathwork session outdoors.
• Mentor Meet-Up: Use this time to connect with an experienced leader you've met during the conference.
• Connect: Make new connections in a relaxed setting.

AI is moving from an emerging technology to an everyday tool across the AEC industry, changing how teams plan, design, communicate, manage projects, and make decisions. This session looks beyond the technology itself to examine what AI means for the people leading the work and how leaders can use it without losing the judgment, accountability, and human connection that projects depend on.

• What work should leaders automate?
• What should never be delegated to AI?
• How does AI change project management and team leadership?
• What new skills will junior professionals need?
• How should leaders manage teams that use AI?
• How do you maintain quality, accountability, and trust?
• Where can AI create the greatest opportunity for AEC leaders today?

The project is six weeks behind schedule. The client is furious. The superintendent and PM aren't communicating. A key subcontractor is threatening to walk. The executive team wants answers, and the team says they're already overloaded. There is no perfect solution. And that's the point.

Participants will work through realistic AEC cases, with new complications introduced throughout the exercise. Using real-world scenarios and bottlenecks submitted in advance, this segment will challenge teams to move beyond putting out fires and diagnose what is actually driving the problem.

Teams will practice:

• Conflict mapping: Where is the real source of the conflict?
• Root-cause analysis: What is causing the problem—not just showing up as a symptom?
• Stakeholder alignment: Who needs to be brought into the solution?
• Breaking down silos: How do you get people working toward the same outcome?
• Difficult conversations: What needs to be said—and who needs to hear it?
• Decision-making under pressure: What do you do when you don't have all the information?
• Competing priorities: What gets addressed first, and what can wait?
• Mediation and negotiation: How do you move people toward a workable solution?

The goal isn't to find the “right” answer. It's to practice thinking like a leader when there isn't one.

Join a guided behind-the-scenes tour of the Cleo Parker Robinson Dance campus, with insights from the Mortenson team involved in bringing the project to life. Explore the project through an AEC lens while learning about the design, construction, collaboration, and leadership decisions behind a space created to serve Denver’s arts and cultural community.

• See how design, construction, and community priorities come together
• Hear firsthand about the challenges and decisions behind the project
• Explore how AEC leaders navigate multiple stakeholders and competing priorities
• Consider how the built environment can create lasting community impact
• Connect informally with other women in AEC while experiencing the project firsthand