In this testimonial-style discussion, two speakers reflect on their experiences at KA Connect, a conference deliberately crafted to feel like a close‑knit community rather than a typical industry event. They describe the conference’s founding manifesto—natural light, ample time for peer collaboration, good food, and a strict no‑vendor, no‑pitch policy—aimed at creating a space for AEC (Architecture, Engineering, Construction) knowledge‑architecture professionals. Attendees repeatedly emphasize how the event helped them discover “their tribe,” fostering deep, lasting friendships through small‑group conversations, casual hangouts, and high‑quality, thoughtfully paced programming. The speakers highlight the attendee‑centric design that encourages slow digestion of information, peer‑to‑peer knowledge sharing, and a collaborative atmosphere where competitors become colleagues. Overall, the dialogue portrays KA Connect as a uniquely supportive, community‑driven conference that prioritizes connection, shared challenges, and the collective advancement of knowledge architecture within companies.
Chapters
You have to be careful because it can very easily sound like some kind of cult, right? Like, it's the best. You get a lot of hugs and the food is good and the people are nice and they're sharing what they think. And, and, you know, people are like, mm, I don't know, it sounds a little too good to be true. But how else do you talk about it? It's a pretty special thing.
Just meeting all these people and seeing how everyone talked together and showed what they're doing was like nothing I'd ever been to before.
I literally sat there and was like a kid in a candy store. I could not believe how I just literally landed into my own tribe. Everybody was talking the language I wanted to talk about for all the other places I worked at.
I remember sitting through the first talk last year, like leaning back in my chair and being like, "What did I just witness?" It I felt like I had found my people. There are people out there who think the way I think and who wrestle with the same things I'm wrestling with.
I'm sitting there and my head is exploding because they're talking about the headache that I feel but can't name. They're talking about all these pains and that they're working to solve them and they're sharing what they're doing. When I launched the conference, we actually had a manifesto that I started with. And it was like lots of natural light, lots of time to connect and collaborate with your peers, good food, no vendors, no pitching. And we really wanted to constrain the conference to really being just AEC people. We wanted to make a unique experience that was about connection, about knowledge sharing, and just felt like just like a really great place to be.
We've tried to, and I think like succeeded, in designing for the attendee experience not only in receiving information, but also processing and digesting information, being able to slow down. This isn't a conference. This is a place where people gather to share knowledge and experiences, and it's jam-packed with amazing opportunities to learn and really sit and talk and connect with people.
The content is always top-notch, right? It's unlike any conference It's unlike any conference, full stop. Just the quality of the programming, the pacing, just the kind of human touch to it all.
One of the things we always heard was, "I loved connecting with people. I had conversations here that I have needed to have and I've just never had an opportunity to have before. I found my people and I got to spend time with them, and that was incredibly valuable." One of my favorite things about KA Connect truly are the small conversations that happen, the hangouts, the casual conversations. Obviously the main presenters are fantastic as well, but those times where you can just sit around a table and truly brainstorm with your peers, it's so invaluable.
You're going to meet someone new, you're going to stay in touch with that person, and you're going to look forward to seeing them at the next one. Maybe there's 5 people that you had lunch with or you sat next to that you just connected. I consider a couple dozen people here to be genuine friends of mine that I can pick up a phone at any time and they know they can pick up a phone and call me.
This is the place I go to see all my friends. That's KA Connect. I could call anybody next week and say, "Can you show me this on your internet? How are you tackling this?" And that's the community that's been built at KA Connect. It's my number one conference every year.
Some of us kind of compete in some markets, but not here. Here we're colleagues and we're friends and it's amazing. All the people that come here, I think, are designers of the kind of knowledge architecture of their company. They care a lot about their company. They want to make it smarter. They want to make it better. They want to make sure that people have equal access to knowledge. And so if that sounds like the kind of thing and the kind of person you are, these are the people that you'll find here at the conference.
This is your conference. This is your week. This is your time to learn and process. And we want to create opportunities for you to do that in whatever way makes sense for you in the moment.
