2027 PROGRAM
See what’s shaping the next generation of laboratories
The 2027 Lab Design Conference brings together the people designing, engineering, building, operating, and working inside laboratory environments to share the projects, decisions, challenges, and ideas moving the industry forward.
Go behind the projects. Hear what worked—and what didn’t. See what’s coming next.
EXPLORE THE CONFERENCE TRACKS
Multiple focus areas. The challenges defining laboratory design right now.
The 2027 conference sessions are organized into focused educational tracks spanning the challenges, decisions, and opportunities shaping laboratory environments today.
Explore topics ranging from adapting existing facilities and designing around laboratory users to sustainability, emerging technology, complex project delivery, and lessons learned from real-world laboratory projects.
LAB TRANSITIONS
Adapt without standing still
Renovation | Adaptive Reuse | Relocation | Retrofitting
Explore how teams renovate, relocate, retrofit, and adapt laboratory environments while research continues—from occupied renovations and equipment moves to adaptive reuse and the decision to renovate or build new.
USER-CENTRIC DESIGN
Design around the people doing the work
Stakeholder Input | Workflow | Collaboration | Consultants
Explore how researchers and laboratory users can be placed at the center of planning and design—from translating workflows into requirements to engaging the right stakeholders and creating stronger collaboration between users and design teams.
Sustainability
Push performance further
Sustainability | Energy | Infrastructure
Explore how laboratories can improve energy efficiency, sustainability, resilience, and building performance while supporting demanding research requirements—from airflow and cooling to equipment strategies and post-occupancy lessons.
LAB OF THE FUTURE
Design for what’s next
AI | Robotics | Automation | Emerging Technology
Examine how AI, robotics, automation, and evolving technologies are reshaping laboratory workflows, equipment, computing needs, and infrastructure—and how today’s facilities can remain flexible enough for what comes next.
LESSONS LEARNED
Find out what they’d do differently
Project Delivery | Case Studies | Challenges & Solutions
Go behind the scenes of laboratory projects to hear candid accounts of what worked, what didn’t, and what teams would change the next time—from mid-project surprises and equipment challenges to pivotal design decisions.
COMPLEX COLLABORATIONS
Get the details right
Interdisciplinary Coordination| Integrated Planning| Project Delivery | Decision-Making
Explore the strategies, relationships, and decision-making needed to deliver complex science and research environments. Sessions examine how stakeholders and disciplines work across technical systems, competing priorities, and uncertainty to mitigate risk, maintain project objectives, and solve problems together.
The best laboratories aren’t designed in a vacuum
They emerge when the people planning, designing, engineering, building, operating, and working inside them understand one another’s priorities.
The Lab Design Conference brings those perspectives into the same conversation—so you can understand not only how a laboratory was designed, but why decisions were made and how those decisions perform once the space is in use.
How was it designed?
Understand the strategies, requirements, and project decisions behind laboratory environments.
Why were those decisions made?
Hear the trade-offs, constraints, competing priorities, and objectives that influenced the outcome.
How does it perform?
Explore what project teams learned once plans became functioning spaces.
How does it work for the people using it every day?
Hear from laboratory professionals whose workflows, teams, research, safety, and productivity are directly affected by the built environment.
Your perspective belongs in the room
If you manage, operate, or work inside a laboratory, the decisions explored at the Lab Design Conference directly affect the environments where your work happens.
Bring your experience to the conversation—and learn how other teams are approaching the spaces, systems, workflows, safety challenges, technologies, and changing research needs that shape laboratory work.
The 2027 program intentionally creates opportunities to hear the laboratory end-user perspective alongside the people planning, designing, engineering, building, and equipping these environments.
Learn. See. Explore.
The ideas don’t stop when the session ends
The Lab Design Conference gives you multiple ways to understand the challenges shaping laboratory environments—and explore how others are solving them.
LEARN
Hear the story behind the project.
Educational sessions and case studies take you inside the decisions, challenges, trade-offs, and lessons shaping laboratory environments.
EXPLORE
Discover what could make it possible.
Continue the conversation in the exhibit hall. Follow the Innovation Trail to find companies by solution category and experience fast, focused Solution Spotlights from participating partners.
SEE
Step inside the laboratory.
Exclusive lab tours take the conversation into real facilities, giving you the opportunity to see design decisions, workflows, technologies, and laboratory environments in practice.
Learn from the project. See it in practice. Explore what comes next.
CONTINUING EDUCATION
Build your knowledge.
Earn AIA credit.
The Lab Design Conference combines practical learning with opportunities to earn continuing education credit throughout the conference program.
AIA CONTINUING EDUCATION
All educational sessions at the 2027 Lab Design Conference will offer AIA continuing education credits, giving architecture and design professionals the opportunity to earn credit while learning from real laboratory projects, challenges, and ideas.
SELECT HSW SESSIONS
Select educational sessions will also qualify for Health, Safety, and Welfare (HSW) credit.
Individual credit information will be clearly identified on the Agenda page once the full program launches.
Your four-day conference experience
From focused learning to behind-the-scenes access
Each day of the Lab Design Conference offers a different way to learn, connect, explore, and experience the ideas shaping laboratory environments.
MONDAY, MAY 10
Dive in
Three Interactive Workshops
Start your conference experience with one of three optional workshops designed for deeper learning, practical insights, and focused discussions around laboratory design challenges.
Optional Add-On | $215 per person
Welcome Reception
Kick off the conference by connecting with fellow attendees, exchanging ideas, and building relationships that will carry through the days ahead.
TUESDAY, MAY 11
Get inspired
Keynote
Design Excellence Awards Ceremony
Educational Sessions
Innovation Trail
Solution Spotlights
Networking Reception
Explore standout laboratory projects, discover innovative solutions, and hear from the people pushing laboratory design forward. Celebrate excellence, exchange ideas, and make connections with professionals across the industry.
WEDNESDAY, MAY 12
Turn ideas into action
Educational Sessions
Innovation Trail
Solution Spotlights
Closing Session
Build on what you’ve learned with practical insights, real-world project lessons, and solutions you can apply to your own work. Continue the conversations, explore new approaches, and leave with ideas worth bringing back to your team.
THURSDAY, MAY 13
Step inside
Three Exclusive Lab Tours
Go beyond the presentations and experience Dallas-area laboratory environments firsthand. See how design decisions translate into working spaces and gain perspectives you can’t get from a conference room.
Optional Add-On | $225 per person
Choose from two morning tours departing at 9:00 AM and returning by approximately 11:30 AM, or an afternoon tour departing at 12:30 PM and returning by approximately 3:00 PM.
Ready to build your schedule?
The complete 2027 Lab Design Conference agenda is now available.
Explore sessions across all seven educational tracks, find AIA and HSW continuing education opportunities, and start planning your time in Dallas.