Over the course of just five days, nearly 2,700 design-build professionals packed the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland, for DBIA’s 2025 Design-Build for Transportation/Aviation and Water/Wastewater Conferences. Transportation/Aviation welcomed nearly 1,300 attendees, and Water/Wastewater brought in a record-breaking 1,400.
These back-to-back events featured a who’s who of Owners, practitioners and industry leaders from across the country to explore how design-build continues to deliver real results in our nation’s most complex infrastructure projects.
Each conference offered multiple tracks designed to meet attendees where they are, whether focused on procurement strategies, digital innovation, resilient infrastructure or collaboration best practices. Attendees could follow a single track for an in-depth look at their specialty or mix and match sessions to build a customized experience based on their roles and interests.
General Sessions That Cleared the Runway
Futurist and technology expert Alex Salkever kicked off the Transportation/Aviation Conference with a compelling keynote, Driving the Future, examining how AI, green energy and emerging tech are reshaping our work, our world and our job descriptions. One takeaway from Salkever’s keynote addressed the common question about whether AI will “take your job,” explaining it’s not so much about whether AI will take away a whole job but rather which parts of it — and how that can make you better at the rest.
The conference drove forward with Planes, Trains and Transformations, where leaders from Amtrak and the DBIA Award-winning Nashville International Airport gave a behind-the-scenes look at how design-build is driving a new era in multimodal transportation infrastructure.
Engineering’s Economic Impact, Industry Sentiment and Future Outlook: Insights for 2025 and Beyond brought Joe Bates (The Institute for Association and Nonprofit Research) and Jon Gray (Rockport Analytics) to the stage to break down the latest data from the ACEC Research Institute, revealing how engineering drives job creation, GDP growth and tax revenue — and what those numbers mean for design-build professionals navigating economic headwinds.
At Water/Wastewater, futurist Andy Busch opened the conference with a rapid-fire economic briefing that connected big-picture market shifts with the realities of infrastructure investment. And in a joint general session, FMI Corporation’s Chris Daum, Emily Beardall and University of Colorado at Boulder’s Keith Molenaar, Ph.D., FDBIA, examined everything from industry sentiment to the evolving risks in progressive design-build.
Another standout Water/Wastewater general session, Balancing Growth: Managing Municipal Water Resources Amidst Competing Public and Private Demands, featured Matt Reaves (Garney Construction), Ernest Maschner, DBIA (Victaulic) and Dave Sobeck (Carollo Engineers). Together, they tackled the tough questions facing municipalities as they try to balance expanding industrial demands like semiconductor manufacturing with public water needs and limited resources.
Even the lighter moments had something to say. The Design-Build Match Game offered a tongue-in-cheek take on Owner/Design-Builder alignment. Moderated with humor and including audience participation, the session featured design-builder contestants Tom Visosky (CDM Smith) and Linnell Stanhope (Crowder) seeking their Owner of Choice from panelists David Cameron (City of Republic, Missouri), Rebecca Tejada (Parker Water & Sanitation District) and Shannon Spence (Prince William Water). Host David Kinchen, DBIA (Burns & McDonnell), and roving reporters William G. “Bill” Hasbrook, Jr., MEMS, TCFM, FDBIA, and David Hill, DBIA, kept the game moving.
From the Jobsite to the Flight Deck
Some of the most talked-about moments came straight from the field. Digital delivery drew standing-room-only crowds as speakers from PennDOT, TxDOT and Ferrovial shared how they’re leveraging VDC and BIM to transform transportation projects. In Water/Wastewater, the Burgess & Niple team offered a practical, forward-looking session on how digital tools are accelerating timelines and boosting efficiency in fast-tracked projects.
Progressive design-build (PDB) was also front and center. From Sound Transit’s first PDB effort to the Seminole Tribe of Florida’s 11.5-mile infrastructure upgrade ahead of a casino grand opening, attendees got a ground-level look at how collaboration and urgency can deliver results. Virginia Passenger Rail Authority’s $2.3B Long Bridge program and Transform 66 initiative also drew major interest, as speakers detailed smart procurement strategies and risk-sharing models for megaproject delivery.
On the aviation side, San Francisco International Airport’s design-build team shared how offsite-prefabricated terminal corridors — installed overnight — kept one of the nation’s busiest airports operational during construction. Talk about turbulence avoided.
Meanwhile, sessions like the Marine Corps’ look at design-build in military facilities reminded attendees just how far the delivery method is reaching and how adaptable it has become across diverse project types, from base to basin.
High-Level Insight Meets Ground-Level Grit
Not every session was about structures and schedules. Women in Construction offered an honest, impactful discussion on equity, leadership and career advancement in a historically male-dominated industry. The Role of the Owner Advisor provided actionable guidance for aligning Owner needs with design-build best practices. A certification session offered clarity on the path to becoming a Designated Design-Build Professional®, while track sessions broke down the details on everything from collaborative risk management to seismic upgrades and sustainable water systems.
Even the networking events had range, from packed exhibit halls to hallway conversations about AI, cost escalation and what it takes to “stick the landing” on a project like a wastewater treatment facility buried 170 feet beneath the James River.
If your camera roll is full and your feet are still recovering, we’ve got your visual boarding pass: cruise through our SmugMug photo album and relive the moments, the memories and maybe that one unforgettable session you missed while grabbing coffee.
Wrapping Up a Week to Remember
From coast to coast, streets to skies, pipes to power grids, design-build is shaping the future of infrastructure across sectors and across the country. This year’s Transportation/Aviation and Water/Wastewater Conferences demonstrated once again that DBIA’s community is ready to tackle the toughest challenges with innovation, collaboration and speed. If you missed attending or would like to view specific conference sessions, recordings will be available to purchase on DBIA’s website in the coming weeks.
