The National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS) has released its annual call for speaker abstracts in preparation for its Building Innovation 2020 conference and expo. The event, which will take place in Arlington, Va. from April 6-9, will cover issues related to resilience, technology, and the workforce in the built environment, according to a press release. After an initial day of welcome events, attendees will spend the subsequent days exploring each topic, listening to experts in the field, and participating in collaborative sessions.

NIBS will select 28 speakers from the pool of abstracts that authors can submit through the NIBS website until Friday, Oct. 11. After the submission period ends, the NIBS Review Committee will evaluate each proposal on the basis of scientific merit before selecting those that will be featured during the conference. NIBS will then provide the authors of each abstract with guidelines for their presentation.

Previous speakers for Building Innovation 2019 include Richard P. Kadlubowski, AIA, senior vice president and director of architecture at Arlington, Va.-based Hoffmann Architects; Kyle Barker, AIA, associate at Boston-based MERGE Architects; and Calvin Kam, AIA, adjunct professor at the Center for Integrated Facility Engineering of Stanford University in Stanford, Calif.

NIBS also welcomes any industry professionals to the conferences and expo, offering full conference passes ($600) and single-day passes ($450) to non-members.