Summary: The perfect storm of design and construction industry events is headed to Boston next month. Build Boston, the Boston Society of Architects (BSA) convention and tradeshow, and Greenbuild, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) annual convention, both take place during the third week of November—and just down the street from each other—allowing you easily to explore two premier conventions and tradeshows in one fabulous city.

Complementary content
Among the eight special symposiums at Build Boston, the symposium on integrated practice sponsored by the BSA and Autodesk brings together leading practitioners and researchers for a series of interactive panel presentations and case-study discussions. Topics addressed include collaborative integrated process management, the current and future state of integrated practice, organizational change, and decision-making.

“Integrated project-delivery methodologies are alive with the ideas of sustainability,” says Phil Bernstein, FAIA, vice president of Autodesk and a featured speaker at both Build Boston and Greenbuild. “Green building must adopt an integrated point of view—not in terms of requiring an integrated project per se, but in terms of needing to embrace the long view and look across the lifecycle of a project and the many players involved.”

“With both Greenbuild and Build Boston in town, there’s a terrific intersection for AEC professionals interested in finding out more about the realignment of processes in the building industry,” says Bernstein.

How to do both shows
The BSA and the USGBC are partnering to offer attendees free registration for their respective exhibit halls. A registration counter for Build Boston at Greenbuild and one for Greenbuild at Build Boston also will feature each other’s show hours and event highlights.

Greenbuild offers full or one-day conference registration options, and Build Boston has multiple registration options including one-, two-, and three-day packages; special symposium pricing; and a la carte options. Build Boston also offers a multitrack workshop schedule from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. daily on November 18,19, and 20, with more than 200 workshops. Greenbuild offers workshop sessions on November 19, 20, and 21.

The schedules for the two shows overlap significantly, Build Boston’s exhibit hall opens at noon on Tuesday, before Greenbuild’s general admission begins. Build Boston’s trade show also is open Wednesday and Thursday from noon to 6:00 p.m., and the Greenbuild exhibit floor is open Wednesday and Thursday from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., making it possible to visit both exhibit halls during breaks from sessions at either conference. Both groups are offering a wide selection of tours. Build Boston notes that their tours are ”designer-led, behind-the-scenes tours of cutting-edge architecture.”

See old friends and meet new ones
Build Boston also invites you to drop by its nightly cocktail or alumni receptions, where you likely will meet old friends and make new ones. Last year, more than 600 professionals attended the BSA/Build Boston Gala, the grand finale of a grand week. Out-of-towners interested in seeing how Bostonians celebrate design or visiting with Richard Fitzgerald, the BSA’s departing executive director, are welcome to attend the gala this year.