2026 LCI Congress Conference Program Preview

We spoke with Kevin Labrecque, Founder & CEO of Integration Point LLC and the 2026 LCI Congress Content Chair, to get a preview of this year’s dynamic LCI Congress conference program. Kevin has led the Congress abstract selection process, which is integral to building the program each year, since 2018.

Learn more and join us at the 2026 LCI Congress, October 12-16, in Arlington, Georgia, for unforgettable Lean content and connections. Register today with the lowest rates of the year.

The Big Picture: Continuous Improvement at the Heart

Kevin began by sharing, “Continuous improvement is at the very heart of what we do inside the Lean community and LCI, and we do that for Congress every year, whether it’s the program, the abstract selection process, how we keep people interested and coming back each year—it all has a component of reflecting every year on ways to do better from last year. It’s part of the entire Lean process.”

The Program: From Learning Day to Gemba Day

Learning Day includes content for every level of Lean.

Congress kicks off with Learning Day, including a range of half-day and full-day courses for every level of Lean across job functions, on Tuesday, October 13.

Kevin noted that Learning Day spans a “wonderful program of some standard, basic courses to advanced offerings, and allows every attendee to learn and sharpen their own saw. As an attendee since 2009, I still go, and every time I do, I make more connections in my own work or hear something a little deeper. New courses are offered as well.

If you are brand new to Congress and coming for the first time, there are some primers to get you dialed in and ready to enjoy the Core Program days. If you are an advanced practitioner, there is advanced Learning Day content for you to chew on and go deeper.”

The Core Program spans keynotes, breakout sessions, experiential learning, networking, and more.

The Core Program takes place on Wednesday, October 14, and Thursday, October 15. It spans general sessions for all attendees, breakout sessions, networking opportunities, and more. There’s also time built in for all the Exhibit Hall has to offer. Kevin recommends arriving on Tuesday, October 13, to get registered and attend that evening’s Kick-off Social event with everyone (and join Learning Day, of course!).

General Sessions

Kevin offered, “On Wednesday, we first have general sessions that take place in the ballroom where everyone joins together. These include our first keynote address and introductions. You will get great content and get updated and oriented on how to make the most out of Congress, especially if it’s your first time.”

Breakout Sessions: Presentations and Live Labs

Kevin continued, “Next, there are the breakout sessions. There are two basic types—full-blown presentations in 45-minute time slots, which typically also include about 10 minutes for questions and answers. Presentations are a blast of information on a given topic. Sometimes they include a panel with two companies chewing on the same topic, and we all get to learn from both sides of the experience

The second type is live labs. These are demonstrations of tools that are immediately practical to apply in the projects we deliver, including unique, innovative ways people have been tackling things. You get to witness real practitioners walking you through a tool, and some are experiential with group participation. They are an opportunity to enhance the learning overall. As a continuous improvement example, there are two live lab formats this year. Some will take place in two twenty-minute sessions within a 45-minute time slot. New for this year, we will also have double-live lab slots for ones that are much bigger with deeper content.”

In terms of the content covered, Kevin shared that “out of the breakout sessions, some topics come from the submitted abstracts, and some are courses that LCI and its board want to cover in the context of Congress each year.”

Networking Opportunities

Networking is built in throughout Congress, with scheduled events and breaks, and in the time between sessions, which is now 30 minutes. Special events include the Congress Kick-off Social on Tuesday at 5 pm and the Exhibitor Reception on Wednesday at 4:30 pm, both in the Exhibit Hall.

“We provide opportunities to get together, especially in the Exhibit Hall. A lot of unique things happen there. I would encourage everyone to attend the networking events, both the opening event on Tuesday and the Exhibitor Reception on Wednesday, where we get the opportunity to network within the Exhibit Hall and get to know all the exhibitors and available tools and the value they bring to us as a community,” noted Kevin.

Podcast Studios, Innovation Spotlight, and the New Relaxation Lounge

Kevin noted that “For the second year, Congress is hosting Podcast Studios, where podcasters, some of the people we listen to regularly in the community, get a chance to reflect on what they’re seeing and hearing with everyone at Congress. It’s a way for those who want to reflect on Congress to do so, and for those who can’t attend live, it gives them a connection too.”

For another continuous improvement piece, Congress will again feature the Innovation Spotlight, which was successfully introduced last year. Kevin shared that “It allows Lean partners, like software companies, to showcase what they provide. We haven’t had the opportunity to do that because, in the abstract selection process, we mainly focus on the actual practitioner content. That’s always included some element of software and tools, but now this gives a clear spotlight to show the value these companies offer. Some are interactive and fun, and it’s a great addition to Congress.”

“There’s also the new Relaxation Lounge, a space to go and unwind,” noted Kevin.

Gemba Day

Gemba Day takes place on Friday morning, October 16. Transportation is provided, and each tour is a curated experience with a maximum of 50 attendees per tour.

Kevin offered, “Gemba Day is when we get the opportunity to go and see what’s going on in the community, and we all collectively learn. It’s the heart of what we do as a community. If you participate in any local Community of Practice, it is that at scale.

You can experience Lean in action, either with your internal team or you get the chance to meet other Lean practitioners. At one Congress, we went to a Toyota facility, and for me, seeing Takt Time and Visual Controls in the context of a factory environment, rather than what we do in construction, was interesting to me.

We have gotten some very unique projects, sites, factories, and more over the course of the years, and I’m excited about the opportunities in Atlanta.”

Stay tuned for the announcement of this year’s Gemba Tours.

The Congress Tracks: From Inspiration to Implementation

Building on this year’s Congress theme, Building the Future Together: Lean at the Crossroads, the four Congress tracks are tailored to varied areas of interest and audiences.

Next Generation Delivery Integration

We asked Kevin to discuss the offerings in this track. He shared, “This is where we get to explore the advanced edges of technology and processes as applied to what we do from the project delivery perspective, whether in design or construction. In this track, we’ll explore the integration of emerging tools, including AI and data-driven decision-making, with proven Lean practices, including practical, tactical tools like Takt planning and Last Planner System®.

This track also includes our content on offsite manufacturing, design for manufacturing and installation, and prefabrication.

Attendees will gain practical insights and real-world examples demonstrating how the Lean fundamentals are improved. This track is geared towards people wanting to explore advanced-edge thinking and innovative processes and tools being applied.”

Field-First Lean: Tools, Flow, and Daily Improvement

Describing this track’s focus, Kevin offered, “This is where the rubber meets the road—the practical application of Lean in the field. You might see some things like Last Planner System®, field-based approaches, 5S presentations, and Visual Control presentations. These sessions cover how we see the principles of Lean manifested in the field.

These sessions are largely geared towards general contractors, superintendents, and our field trade partners. We provide as rich content as we can for these individuals.”

Becoming a Lean Organization through Culture & Learning

In this track’s sessions, Kevin shared that “We find more of the organization-wide approach and growth through Lean, and how organizations look beyond individual projects to how they develop Lean learners internally, including how they coach and manage for overall improvement across the organization, and how they organize that for overall transformation. It’s that transformation aspect overall.

We will hear transformation stories from companies, and sometimes about markets, such as how groups of us banded together to think about how to transform the delivery of projects in our market overall. There will be interesting back-of-house stories, not just project delivery focused. Some years, we have had accounting teams presenting their application of Lean principles, and we’ve had design firms show how they improved their practices across the board.

This track is great for advanced practitioners helping to lead Lean in their organization and leadership at any level in their organizations, whether they are owners, designers, construction managers, general contractors, or trade partners. It’s for those concerned with scaling Lean throughout the organization, based on what is being applied and learned from a Lean project delivery perspective. It is largely about that concept of Lean transformation.”

Whole Team/Whole Project Integration in Design and Construction

In this track, Kevin noted that “This is where we get to look at when we do our best as an industry, taking the thread through from the owners’ perspective and even the community surrounding the owner, all the way to design thinking, planning, pre-construction, construction, project trade delivery, and suppliers and vendors. It’s about how you look at the entire value stream and apply it on a project overall.

There will be some great reflections from owners over the years. How do they stand up the highest performing teams they can and look at that as a repetitive cycle in itself, beyond just the individual project deliveries? We will see the best practices to get to high-performing teams and the application of those principles to maximize the effort everyone puts in, and really get the value stream map out of the entire equation. It’s about how we do the best we can to deliver from initial thought through operational facility.

The target audience is anyone starting up an IPD project or looking at the best ways to maximize efforts and streamline them from end to end. It’s for anyone interested in taking the value stream and making the most of it for any project effort, so that’s owners, designers, any of the partners—everyone of them touches some corner of that in a value stream map.”

What’s In It For Advanced Lean Practitioners?

We discussed the many opportunities for advanced practitioners at Congress. When developing and offering advanced Lean content, Kevin expanded upon two key areas:

The Content: “We offer selected content at the advancing edge of some element of design and construction. All content is now labelled, and this content will be tagged for advanced practitioners in the program,” Kevin shared.
The Space: “We’re now providing a space adjacent to where those advanced practitioner sessions are happening. The intention is to formally provide a space for advanced practitioners to knock heads on a topic they just heard about and get into it with the advanced practitioner community. They can meet and talk about topics, think through the next steps, compare notes, and further develop their own thinking and practical next steps. In that space, advanced practitioners can talk about content that’s on the program schedule and also throw their own topics up to talk about them,” Kevin noted.

Final Thoughts

We asked Kevin what he’s most excited about for Congress this year. He shared, “First, it’s the same thing I’m always excited about. I show up with a fresh tablet and wind up learning something new every year. It comes from any corner. I always find something that inspires me as a Lean practitioner to bring back to what I do—with my clients, my projects—it’s cross-pollination. I take it and put it into practice wherever I can. And then I can talk to people about what I learned. I have not had a year when I didn’t learn something that changed what I do overall.

More specifically to this year, I’m excited about our coverage of AI. There are interesting ones in the mix, including From Hackathon to Habit: Designing Lean Learning Experiments, a session about an AI Hackathon done internally. That’s inspiring in terms of applying AI and group thinking to problem-solving. I’m excited about that one and other AI sessions too.

I am constantly excited about what we do with respect to offsite manufacturing and prefabrication. I worked in mechanical for 10 years. I watched it happen for us in terms of the strategy and what it meant in terms of worker safety, engagement, and continuous improvement. I’m always curious about that space and how it’s advancing.”

Kevin noted that the submitted content is impressive and gets better with each year: “It’s so hard for the abstract selection committee to make the selections. The quality goes up, and the quantity of quality content goes up every year. We only have so many slots. Thankfully, now some of the content can overflow to the CoPs, and we pass that on internally through LCI.”

Kevin hopes that attendees take away “one little thing they can apply the next Monday morning. One way to do that best is to make those commitments to yourself and express it though some of the open sessions. When we talk to each other, it tends to lock it in better for ourselves. That opportunity to share with one another is the heart of Lean construction.”

Join us at the 2026 LCI Congress for all this and more!

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Interested in sponsoring or exhibiting at the 2026 LCI Congress?

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Questions on the Congress program?

Contact Joan Piccariello with any questions about the Congress program.