Schedule of Events 

Saturday, November 14 

8:00AM – 9:00AM: Breakfast with the AIA SfX Network and Sponsors Content Leaders: 

Venesa Alicea-Chuqui, AIA, NOMA, LEEP AP | Founder/Principal, NYVARCH Architecture Matthew Clapper, AIA, NCARB | Founder/Principal, Modern Architecture and  Development 

Christopher Toddy, AIA | President, Christopher @ Architects LLC 

Submitted for 1.5 LU’s 

Maintaining firm prosperity, relevancy and resilience in a changing social-distancing,  economic, staffing, and technological environment are paramount for architectural  firms, especially those with one-to-nine staff. AIA can be most important resource for  professional resiliency and advancement, and the AIA national member group – AIA  Small Firm Exchange (SFx) – works on your behalf to communicate needed resources to  firms. Join us in a conversation to discuss small firm resiliency and to discover new  resources and initiatives that support your firm’s success. 

9:00AM – 10:30AM: Day One Takeaways & High-Performance  Productivity for Architects 

Content Leader: Dr. Stevie Dawn | CEO & Founder, Stevie Dawn Inspires, LLC Submitted for 1.5 LU’s 

We live in a fast-paced ever-changing world. We are being asked to do more with less  and in less time than ever before. It is a workplace imperative that we become efficient  and effective in all our tasks. However, we do not need another way to create a to-do  list. We need instead to focus on improving prioritization and eliminating distractions in  our daily work. In this workshop, we will discuss the importance of focusing on the  tasks that truly matter, the importance of delegation, and how to prioritize our tasks.  Participants will be introduced to the SHARK Method as a productivity tool useful for  professionals at all levels of an organization. It is time we stop feeling overwhelmed and  start feeling in control of our calendar. 

10:30AM – 10:55AM: Live Meet Up with Dr. Stevie Dawn Blake and Sponsors Want to ask Dr. Stevie more questions? Join her for a meet up to get your burning  questions answered. Talk with our Sponsors and thank them for their support.

11:00AM – 12:30PM: Satisfied Clients, Engaged Architects & Cash Flow: A Crash Course in Small Firm Management  

Content Leader: Russell Davidson, FAIA | Managing Principal & President, KG&D  Architects 

Submitted for 1.5 LU’s 

It’s hard for clients to select the right architect for their project. It can be even harder  for the design professional to explain their fees or contracts. Learn how to determine  the appropriate percentage fee for each of the various contractual phases of a project— from pre-contract site investigation all the way through the post-construction phase. 

This session will help architects working in small firms define the value of exactly what  it is you do and communicate that value to your clients. You will learn how to present  these costs to the client, how to talk about it so that they understand how the fees are  determined and what formula to use depending on the project. 

12:30PM – 12:55PM: Lunch Break & Live Meet Up with Russ Davidson and  our Sponsors 

Don’t let your questions go unanswered! Visit Russ for his live meet up. Preview our  Sponsor’s virtual booths. 

1:00PM – 2:30PM: Raising and Maintaining Standards of Quality in a Small  Firm  

Content Leader: Andrés U. Cortés, AIA, NCARB, LEED AP | Partner, Agencie  Architecture & Engineering,  

Submitted for 1.5 LU’s 

This presentation focuses on lessons learned and best practices towards changing the  Quality Control processes to account for distanced collaboration between experienced  architects and engineers with early to mid-career small firm designers. The session will  illustrate a case study whereby our firm participated as a sub-, working with many other  sub-consultant teams, real time in BIM360 and other crowd-based platforms for the  development of a project. Added to the complexity of individual Team members  working remotely, is the fact that many individual Team members where located across  multiple time zones, and in some cases did not possess the full technical or  administrative training required to perform tasks effectively. Challenges the firm  encountered will be reviewed and speak about the attempts at meeting these hurdles. 

2:30PM – 2:55PM: Live Meet Up with Andrés U. Cortés and Sponsors It’s the last meet up of the symposium. Be sure to stop by to talk to Andrés Cortés  before you leave! One last time to talk with our Sponsors. Be sure to thank them for  supporting the Small Firm Symposium.