1.5 ConEd Learning Hours
2:00 p.m.‐ 3:30 p.m.
Strategic planning plays a pivotal role in shaping the future of architectural firms, especially when it comes to creating equitable, diverse, and inclusive workplaces. This session will delve into why and how to integrate DEI into firm planning and function, and the myths and pitfalls to watch out for.
Learning Objectives
1. Gain an understanding of what a strategic plan looks like.
2. Understand how strategic planning can serve as a powerful tool for embedding diversity, equity, and inclusion into the core of architectural firms.
3. Learn actionable insights and roadmap to integrate equity, diversity, and inclusion into your organization’s strategic plans.
4. Learn how to foster a more inclusive, innovative, and competitive workplace.
Peris Lam, Associate
Diamond Schmitt Architects
Persis Lam is a Toronto-based architect, born and raised in Vancouver. Her practice is inspired by collaborative and beautiful design rooted by site and user relationships. She loves architecture for the constant strive to balance the arts and sciences and a technical approach. Beyond design, keeping projects on time and on budget is her strength, managing a variety of client, consultants, and teams while maintaining project goals.
Since joining Diamond Schmitt in 2002, Persis has a wide breadth of experience from dense urban developments such as The Hudson condominium and the Prince Arthur Medical Clinic, to complex labs and programs at the Papadakis Integrated Sciences Building at Drexel University and the Queen’s University School of Medicine. Persis is also instrumental in many multi-unit residential and student residence projects across the southern GTA. She is a licensed architect with the Ontario Association of
Architects and is a Passive House Certified Designer.
Persis was recently a project manager for the Lonsdale Residences, a 177-unit rental building geared to the luxury rental market in Toronto and managed the redevelopment of 1.5M square feet of residential and mixed-use in Mississauga. The site is one of the first projects to adopt the new Built Form Standards.