Andy Miller, CEO at Vantem; Joe Butler, Head of StudioBuilt by Amherst; and Justin Stewart, CEO at Synergy; will join Colby Swanson, Partner at ADL Ventures to discuss when and where industrialized construction can actually beat site-built on total cost, speed, and delivery certainty.
Explore more about The Industralized Housing Summit
July 23, 2026
Andy Miller, CEO at Vantem; Joe Butler, Head of StudioBuilt by Amherst; and Justin Stewart, CEO at Synergy; will join Colby Swanson, Partner at ADL Ventures to discuss when and where industrialized construction can actually beat site-built on total cost, speed, and delivery certainty.
“One of the questions I keep coming back to is whether our industrial base is ready for the demand we say is coming,” says Swanson. “The military alone is expected to invest billions in industrialized housing over the next few years, yet much of today’s manufacturing ecosystem remains fragmented, immature, and disconnected. If we aren’t honest about the gap between demand and delivery capacity, we risk creating a wave of overpromising, underperforming projects that could set the industry back years.”
What can the U.S. learn from global leaders in industrialized construction?
Moderator Rommel Sulit, Principal and Founder of ForgeCraft, will be joined by panelists Menno Hilberts, former Managing Director, Project Management at citizenM hotels;
Cooper Lane, President, True Volumetric Corp; and Daniel McCrum, Associate Professor, University College Dublin; to examine proven models from international markets and discuss what has scaled, and what can realistically transfer to the U.S.
“Fragmentation of the construction sector and repeatability of projects are issues around the world in the construction sector,” says McCrum. “I am looking forward to discussing this topic from my European perspective, but also seeing what current best practice is in the United States to turn fragmentation into predictable manufacturing.
Moderator Erik Allen, CTO at Echelon will be joined by Franklin Fernandez, Shore Innovation Manager for NAVFAC Engineering & Expeditionary Warfare Center (EXWC); Jay Kline, Program Director, Digital Technologies at the National Institute of Building Sciences; and Aaron Holm, Partner at Helix and Rhizar to discuss what it will take for AI to become a trusted layer in housing project delivery?
“I’m most interested in how data science and AI can make industrialized construction more predictable,” says Allen. “Especially around cost, schedule, demand, and risk – so that scaling becomes an operational discipline rather than a leap of faith. I’m hoping to learn where the industry’s best data actually exists today, where the biggest blind spots remain, and how better decision systems could help close the gap.”
More information:
cvent.utexas.edu/event/510d0030-a4ca-4a44-a4ea-028cce12f260/summary