Join our team at the upcoming SCUP Annual Conference in Minneapolis as experts from across the firm will share integrated strategies for empowering remote education, building a unified workforce training ecosystem, and implementing a framework for AV/IT in emerging space typologies.

Empowering Remote Education with a State-of-the-Art Production Hub

• Monday, July 20 | 8:30 AM – 9:30 AM

  Higher Education Leader Emily Winters, AIA, LEED

  As demand for flexible learning grows, institutions must create environments and supports that expand access for non-traditional and remote learners without sacrificing academic quality. West Texas A&M University stands as a proven case study of success in this regard: after more than a decade of leadership in virtual delivery, WTAMU has renovated its historic Education Building into a state-of-the-art faculty support and production hub, empowering faculty to create engaging, high-quality, gamified content that rivals or exceeds traditional classroom outcomes. Join us and learn practical, replicable strategies for designing spaces, services, and workflows that streamline digital course production, enhance teaching effectiveness, and improve student engagement.

Breaking Down Silos: Building a Unified Workforce Training Ecosystem

• Tuesday, July 21 | 9:50 AM – 10:50 AM

  Higher Education Leader Adam Post, AIA

  Career and technical education thrives when K-12 education, higher education, industry, and government work as one ecosystem. This panel brings together CTE leaders from Georgia, Texas, and Louisiana community colleges who have successfully dismantled silos through shared facilities, aligned pathways, and braided funding. Panelists reveal replicable strategies for co-designing credentials, stacking funding sources, and creating flexible multi-use spaces that serve secondary students, college learners, and workforce training simultaneously. You will leave with proven frameworks to forge regional partnerships, secure sustainable funding, and design campus environments that eliminate redundancy while accelerating student transitions into colleges.

Designing for the Unknown: A Framework for AV/IT in Emerging Space Typologies

• Tuesday, July 21 | 1:30 PM – 2:30 PM

  Higher Education Leader Jackie Eckhardt, AIA, LEED AP BD+C and Higher Education Design Leader Benjamin R. Strain, AIA, LEED AP

  Campus design and planning must now account for new, undefined typologies; failing to integrate AV/IT early in these plans risks immediate functional obsolescence. Drawing on thematic analysis of interviews with campus leaders, this panel explores how early AV/IT integration addresses the transformational pivot toward AI-enabled, adaptable space typologies like AI makerspaces pioneered with Colorado State University’s Systems Engineering Department. A new 165,000-SF academic facility is designed to bring together engineering, computer science, artificial intelligence, hands-on learning, and interdisciplinary research at the heart of campus. We will also detail infrastructure strategies (power, data, cooling) to future-proof spaces for unconceived AI tools. You will learn a research-backed framework for convening facilities planning teams that can successfully fit out and future-proof emerging space types before requirements are fully known.