AACE Conference and Expo 2026
This year’s AACE Conference and Expo 2026 is on June 28-30. AACE (The Association for the Advancement of Cost Engineering) is celebrating 70 years of advancing the profession of cost engineering and project controls, as well as 50 years of its certification programs.
This year, they’ve chosen a prestigious location for the AACE Conference & Expo 2026: the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, known as the Entertainment Capital of the World. The MGM Grand is located on 799 South Las Vegas Boulevard, Las Vegas, NV 89109.
With over 1,000 international project professionals expected to attend from the fields of Project and Program management, Project Controls, Risk, Construction and Engineering, the AACE Conference and Expo 2026 is offering Keynote Speakers and over 100 tracks led by internationally acclaimed industry experts.
Keynote Speakers
Monday Keynote
Donnie Campbell is a coach & teacher and the inspiration for Ted Lasso. Coach Donnie will offer an inspirational keynote address, sharing anecdotes of mentoring future stars, including tribulations from his coaching days. During his keynote, Coach Donnie will disclose his three pillars of MVP, a framework that focuses on Mission, Values and Principles that encompasses Leadership, Positivity, Mentorship, and Teamwork.
Tuesday Keynote
The keynote speaker scheduled for Tuesday morning has not yet been announced by AACE. Details will be provided once the speaker is confirmed.
Tracks
The track list is extensive, so we’ve categorized them into AI, Risk, Project Management, EVM and Project Controls, offering a selection from each category so you can get a distinct taste of what the ACCE Conference & Expo has in store.
AI
Dr Prasad S. Kodukulais, a professor from Illinois Tech, and Gustavo (Guz) Vinueza from The Ferryfield Group will present ‘Generative AI, AI Agents, and Agentic AI: Transforming PMOs and Project Controls’.
Dr Prasad and Guz will discuss how AI is reshaping project planning, monitoring and governance within Project management offices (PMOs) and project controls. Dr Prasad and Guz will explain that three distinct but complementary AI models are emerging: Generative AI, AI Agents and Agentic AI. Each represents a different level of autonomy and integration within project management workflows:
- Generative AI is a cognitive support tool that excels at content generation, reporting and translating analytical outputs.
- AI Agents are task-oriented systems designed to execute processes, such as data validation and report assembly, within clearly bounded governance rules.
- Agentic AI enables systems to proactively monitor project conditions, evaluate scenarios, address emerging risks and recommend actions aligned with predefined objectives.
Using a series of case studies, Dr Prasad and Guz will illustrate how these AI models can operate together or independently. Agentic AI is shown to enhance scenario exploration, early risk sensing and adaptive decision support, whilst AI agents ensure repeatability and operational discipline across project control processes. Generative AI complements both by accelerating communication, documentation and organizational learning across portfolios.
Dr Prasad and Guz will offer a clear roadmap for integrating AI into daily practice whilst preserving transparency, governance and accountability.
Eric Dembert and Bryan Kaplan from Deloitte Services LP will present ‘Building Smarter: Harnessing Artificial Intelligence for Construction Oversight’
Eric and Bryan will offer an overview of current construction project management, where early risk mitigation is crucial for successful, on-time and on-budget delivery; however, many projects continue to experience cost and schedule overruns. With the industry largely moving from paper-based to digital, substantial amounts of data are being generated that could help to deliver current projects and benchmark future projects.
Using successful case studies, Eric and Bryan will illustrate approaches to harness this newly available data and leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to predict cost and schedule growth throughout construction delivery, as well as forecast potential weather impacts on project schedules.
By applying these AI models in real-world settings, Eric and Bryan will demonstrate how this approach aims to equip cost management, project controls, project managers, construction executives and other professionals involved in construction with advanced tools to supplement professional judgment.
Arth Patel and Vishwambhara Kumbharathi from Amtrak will present ‘False Confidence – The Risk of AI Hallucinations’.
Arth and Vishwambhara will discuss that as AI enters construction, cost estimating and project controls, promising faster data, earlier decision support and standardized workflows, hallucinations can occur.
Hallucinations differ from ordinary software defects in that they are difficult to trace, highly persuasive because they have a professional tone and are contextually embedded, as they are surrounded by otherwise correct content. This false confidence can create a systemic risk and affect budgets.
Using examples from other industries, Arth and Vishwambhara will display real-world consequences of how hallucinations occur. Finally, Arth and Vishwambhara will offer an in-depth defense framework aligned with NIST’s AI Risk Management Framework (AI RMF 1.0), ISO/IEC 23894 (AI risk management) and ISO/IEC 42001 (AI management systems), providing a roadmap and a practitioner checklist that will embed humans in the loop.
Risk
Arnaldo Maria Angelini, from Terna, Apolostolos Chatzisymeon from Nomitech Ltd and Grigorios Anagnostopoulos from Energean will all present ‘How to Manage Successful EPC Oil & Gas Projects with Competitive and Risk Management Strategies’.
Arnaldo, Apolostolos and Grigorios will explain that it is critical for oil & gas companies to implement not only effective project and risk management practices, but also competitive strategies prior to venturing into new exploration or development areas.
Arnaldo, Apolostolos and Grigorios will reveal the current methods employed to mitigate risk for owners and EPC contractors throughout the project life cycle and examine several case investigations, which are both successful and unsuccessful.
Finally, Arnaldo, Apolostolos and Grigorios will reveal the advantages and mistakes made by project teams, as well as the consequences of failing to conduct an in-depth examination of the country’s competitive advantage.
Tatyana Kalita Atilak will present ‘Fit-for-Purpose Project Risk Management as a Driver of an Organisation’s Strategic Advantages’.
Tatyana will demonstrate how a well-designed, embedded project risk function can strengthen an organization’s strategic position, protect financial performance and optimize profitability.
Tatyana will reveal the distinct roles of risk management and risk oversight, outline organizational models for integrating risk management with estimating, cost, scheduling and finance, and discuss the value of aligning project and enterprise risk management, offering delegates practical guidance on building a right-sized project risk function integrating project controls and elevating risk insights to support informed executive-level decision-making.
Project Management
Aaron Fackler and Rachel Domingo from Vertex will present ‘Converting MPP Files to P6 While Maintaining Schedule Integrity.’
Aaron and Rachel will discuss how migrating schedules between Microsoft Project (MPP) and Primavera P6 is increasingly common in both project management and forensic schedule analysis.
Although many schedulers may find MPP easier to learn and more accessible, Aaron and Rachel will reveal that P6 is a more robust platform with many tools for planning, scheduling and analysis.
Using a case study of a building complex that suffered damage from rain and high winds during construction, Aaron and Rachel will explain how the contractor’s developed MPP schedule was converted to P6 to support delay analysis and claims preparation.
By supporting the MPP scheduler and reviewing the project documents, issues were corrected. By converting the MPP schedules to P6 format, a critical path method delay analysis was conducted. The differences between MPP and P6 were highlighted, and emphasized strategies to preserve schedule integrity and critical path accuracy were outlined to mitigate risks in claims and dispute resolution.
John Holincheck ACUITY International and Sylvia M. Donado from Clarity Partners, LLC will present ‘Portfolio Scheduling: Do You Have All the Puzzles?’
John and Sylvia will reveal that as project implementation becomes more complex, greater attention is needed to managing costs, time and resources. All of these components need to be thoroughly considered at a portfolio level to ensure informed decision-making by stakeholders and bridge the gap between strategy and implementation by streamlining communication & collaboration.
John and Sylvia will review the published AACE PS-3805, ‘Scheduling: Do you have all the Puzzle Pieces?’ expanding beyond an individual project to include considerations at the portfolio level.
H. Lance Stephenson at AECOM and Larry R. Dysert from Conquest Consulting Group will present ‘Strategic Portfolio Management: A Project Selection Methodology.’
Lance and Larry will introduce a structured and defensible method for project selection that enhances strategic alignment and overall enterprise value. Lance and Larry will offer project professionals:
• A clear framework for evaluating and selecting projects that align with corporate strategy, risk, financial return on investment and capital constraints.
• A practical set of tools for evaluating, prioritizing and managing project proposals considering conflicting priorities and limited resources.
• Techniques for incorporating project selection into broader portfolio governance and decision-making processes, ensuring responsiveness to changing market and organizational conditions.
EVM
Dr Hatem Ibrahim, Khaled M. Aziza & Suleiman Al Rai, all from the Delta Consulting Group Inc., will present ‘Leveraging Earned Value Management to Support Causation Analysis in Project Disruptions’.
Dr Hatem, Khaled, and Suleiman will explain how project disruptions that result in rework are challenging to schedule, affect performance and complicate cost control and often escalate into disputes that require a causation analysis.
Dr Hatem, Khaled and Suleiman will discuss how Earned Value Management (EVM) can support such analyses, as it provides performance metrics that serve as existing indicators of efficiency loss, allowing for the correlation of productivity declines with disruptive events.
Although EVM depends on reliable baseline data and cannot fully capture qualitative factors, when combined with other forensic methods, it remains a powerful and defensible tool for supporting disruption claims and converting performance data into persuasive evidence of causation.
Using case studies, Dr Hatem, Khaled and Suleiman will demonstrate how EVM can be leveraged as a forensic framework to support causation analysis, outlining a practical framework for demonstrating cause-and-effect linkages.
Jessica Edwards from Brindley Engineering will present ‘Reviving Earned Value Management: From Illusion to Insight’.
Jessica will illustrate that although Earned Value Management (EVM) is a widely recognized process in project controls that integrates scope, schedule and cost, its practical application has drifted from its original purpose, becoming rigidly standardized and refined for compliance rather than insight.
Jessica will offer a detailed real-world reporting example that demonstrates how excessive quality, misaligned incentives and tool-driven behaviour erode the meaning of earned value metrics. Jessica will provide recommendations for restoring EVM’s purpose by refocusing systems on material drivers, management questions and actionable insight.
Project Controls
Christopher W. Carson from Arcadis and Glen R. Palmer from Palmer Consulting Services will present ‘The Ten Biggest Lies in Project Controls’.
Chris and Glen will discuss how project and construction managers are not always accurate or even untruthful in their informal assessments of a project’s status, ranging from planning & scheduling to project costs and project team capabilities. As project controls rely on accurate information, the value of any recommendations will be reduced and could lead to disputes later.
Chris and Glen will reveal the 10 biggest lies they have heard from project and construction managers and offer proactive actions to mitigate the problems caused by these falsehoods, drawing on lessons learned from project controls, forensic analysis and dispute resolution.
Sudhakar Pulagam from Accenture and Tracy Leung from Ontario Power Generation will present ‘From Chaos to Clarity: Streamlining Project Controls Communication in High-Stakes Projects’.
Sudhakar and Tracy will explain how project controls communication is a critical success factor for large-scale, long-duration, high-cost and high-risk projects.
When capital investments and significant public impact are involved in industries like infrastructure or energy, poor communication can lead to disputes, project delays and misinformed decision-making.
Sudhakar and Tracy will discuss how project controls professionals are key translators and communicators throughout the project lifecycle and engage in various areas of project management, including cost, schedule, risk and quality management.
Sudhakar and Tracy will share practical insights to address communication chaos that can occur on mega projects involving diverse stakeholder groups, such as owners, vendors, internal teams and regulators, ensuring information is not only available but also meaningful and actionable, aligned with project success.
AACE Conference and Expo 2026
Registration Details
| Stature | One day Technical Program | Full Conference & Expo |
| Member | $950 | $1275 |
| Non-Member | $1050 | $1475 |
| Student | N/A | $950 |
* Students can only purchase tickets for the full conference program.
* Delegates who register for the full conference & expo program will receive the full session recordings.
* One-day attendees will be offered full session recordings of that day.
To register click here
Summary
AACE Conference and Expo 2026 is marking this milestone event with inspirational keynote speakers. The program features a multitude of peer-reviewed tracks designed to help delegates stay ahead in their field, learn from industry leaders and deepen their expertise. Throughout the event, the Expo will be open for delegates to discover the latest tools and software packages.