VIP Guests will be emailed details

We have a welcome reception at The Found:RE hotel where you can sign-in, get your badge, and meet other attendees in preparation for the next day!

Move on to spend more time with the event team to break the ice for tomorrow!

What happens when a client’s vision has never been built before?

You figure out how to build it.

Jonathan “Jonny” Nalepa and the Smart Aquatics team are pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in pools and outdoor living—from suspended acrylic pools and movable floors to dramatic fire-and-water features and one-of-a-kind aquatic environments. But bold design is only half the story. The real challenge is turning an outrageous idea into something that can actually be engineered, constructed and perform as intended.

In this opening keynote, Jonny will take you behind the scenes of world-first and boundary-pushing projects, sharing how his team brings together imagination, technical precision and construction know-how to make the seemingly impossible possible.

Whether you design landscapes, pools or complete outdoor environments, Jonny’s challenge is simple:

Stop designing around what’s already been done. Start asking what could be done next.

Where Has Your Passion Gone?

Passion is a super power that inspires, convinces, and elicits admiration from even the most successful people. For many business owners, maintaining consistent enthusiasm for their job can feel impossible. I love what I do but that wasn’t always the case. I’d like to share with you my journey from apathy to avidity and highlight the actions, questions and conditions that allowed the embers to reignite.

Better Collaboration

Beyond Drainage: Designing Landscapes That Work With Water

Discover how modern hydrology, green infrastructure, and smarter design strategies are reshaping the future of stormwater management- and why landscape professionals need to lead the change.

Better for the Planet

The $10 Million Marketing Mindset: How to Grow Beyond You

Do you know what the primary growth constraint of your business is? From interviewing over 100 of the industries leading entrepreneurs, we’ve identified the primary growth constraint for landscapers and the best of the best, say it’s themselves. Join Rob Murray, Co-founder & CEO of Intrigue and lead generation partner for almost 200 landscape clients, as he breaks down the three core pillars of a $10M marketing mindset. We will explore why your business must serve the customer above all else and how to stop treating marketing as an expense and start treating it as a revenue-generating investment.

Better Business

Hardscapes: Permeable Systems Training Course

Learn how to design and install long-lasting hardscape surfaces that resist shifting, reduce runoff, and meet modern performance and sustainability standards.

Better Details / CEU

AI: What’s Hype, What’s Real and What’s Next in Landscaping and Beyond

Learn how to cut through the AI hype and use today’s most practical tools to streamline operations, improve customer communication, increase profitability, and prepare your business for what comes next.

Work Smarter

Enhancing Outdoor Environments with Audio

Discover how thoughtfully designed outdoor audio systems can elevate landscapes, enhance outdoor experiences, and create deeper connections between people, nature, and the spaces they inhabit.

Better Details / CEU

Design Your Culture: How Great Landscape Companies Attract and Keep Great People

A field-tested, eight-pillar framework for recruiting and retaining top talent. A thriving team is not an accident—it is something you intentionally design.

Better Business

Adding Design to Your Landscape Business

Explore how adding landscape design services to your contracting business can elevate the quality of projects you pursue and increase the value you provide to clients.

Better Collaboration

We Can’t Operate Like It’s 1990 Anymore

Real-world examples demonstrate why the industry must work differently across disciplines. From communication and collaboration to soil improvements, attendees will leave with practical actions they can implement.

Better for the Planet

From Guesswork to Growth: Using Real Cost Data to Build a More Profitable Landscape Business

Explore how leading landscape companies use real-time production data and AI-powered insights to improve estimating, increase efficiency, and make more profitable decisions.

Work Smarter

The Red Thread—Connecting Disciplines for a Better Future

What connects where we’ve been with where we need to go next?

Bring together leaders from different corners of the outdoor living industry and you’ll hear very different stories—but look closely and a common thread begins to emerge.

In this candid main-stage conversation, business owners and industry leaders will share the lessons experience has taught them, the changes they’re seeing now, and what they believe will define the future of our industry.

Where are the biggest opportunities? What needs to change? What should we stop doing? And how can designers, builders, maintenance professionals, manufacturers and other industry partners work together more effectively instead of solving the same challenges in isolation?

The future of our industry won’t be shaped by one discipline alone.

Follow the red thread and discover what we can learn from each other—and what becomes possible when we start connecting the dots.

The $200/ft2 Service Hiding in Your Business

How design, build and maintenance companies enter the living wall and architectural greenery market, why most walls fail, and how biophilic projects move contractors from commodity bides to premium work. More info here

Better Collaboration

Regenerative Landscapes: Rebuilding Biodiversity, Resilience and Community in Our Urban Environments

Explore practical regenerative design strategies that rebuild healthy soils, increase biodiversity, conserve water, and create thriving urban habitats.

Better for the Planet

Stop Repeating Yourself

It's easy to fall into the habit of using the same materials and details because you already know they'll work. They're easier to price, easier to build, and easier to sell. But if every project starts looking like the last one, clients start to think that's all you do. In this session, I'll share why we try to include something we've never built before in every project, how each new iteration of an idea makes the next one better, and why showing a wider range of work opens the door to bigger, more interesting projects.

Better Details / CEU

Under the Hood: A Live Business Diagnostic

Every business has a growth constraint. Join Christene Marie for an interactive roundtable designed to help you identify what is holding your business back and uncover practical opportunities to accelerate growth.

Better Business

Stop Losing Time (and Money): Practical AI for Smarter Operations

Every business has hidden gaps where leads, promises, proposals, and customer communication fall through the cracks. Learn five simple AI implementations that close those gaps quickly and create immediate operational wins. Through real examples and practical implementation strategies, you'll see how AI can become a dependable business system—not just another tool to learn.

Work Smarter

Beyond Pretty Finished Photos: Using Images to Attract Better Leads and Close Faster

Beautiful project photos are only the beginning. Chris Major will show landscape designers how to use images strategically to attract ideal clients, communicate value, strengthen sales, support hiring, and build trust.

Work Smarter

The Green Roof Learning Curve: How Maintenance Shaped Better Design

An honest look at the challenges, failures, and breakthroughs that have helped redefine green rooft design with the Optima Camelview Project with Floor & Associates.

Better for the Planet

Crafting the Desert Floor - Integrated Design and Assembly in the Sonoran Desert

Combining integrated architecture, fabrication, and construction specifically for the Sonoran Desert landscape, the work shows regional responsiveness, the harsh environmental realities, and material adaptation. The projects focus on sustainability, preservation, and environmental systems. Case studies on research and fabrication through technology illustrate the hands-on approach of the firm. The firm organizational structure highlights the value of self-performing complex architectural components and risk and rewards associated with it.

Better Collaboration

Stop Competing for Clicks. Start Creating Conversations.

Discover how unforgettable experiences, bold branding, and community engagement can make your business the one customers remember long before they need your services.

Better Business

Tree Stabilization Strategies for Ground-Level and Rooftop Landscapes

Explore the latest strategies for stabilizing trees in challenging environments, from ground-level installations to rooftop landscapes, using percussive earth anchors and other proven anchoring systems.

Better Details / CEU

A chance to say goodbye until we meet again!

James Trahan from 180 Degrees Design + Build and Daniel Kretschman from Openbook Pools take us around Phoenix.

Openbook Pools project details:

A complete backyard transformation and full outdoor living build. Openbook delivered a new pool with Baja shelf and attached spa, an expansive travertine deck, a covered outdoor kitchen and lounge, a lighted sport court, custom casita, and full landscape package — designed and built entirely in-house from 3D concept through construction.

Scope detail

• Pool & spa — new pool (~1,300 sf interior) with Baja shelf, de-attached spa (~215 sf), Pentair package: IntelliCenter, dual IntelliFlo3 VSF pumps, 520 sf cartridge filter, 400K BTU MasterTemp heater w/ blower, Microbright color LEDs, relocated equipment pad
• Hardscape — ~4,000 sf travertine/limestone paver decking, ~4,300 sf Bermuda Pro 87 turf
• Sport court — 1,800 sf court, basketball goal, two court lights
• Ramada — ~368 sf aluminum shade structure with can lights, Big Ass fans and heaters, misting system
• Outdoor kitchen — splitface CMU with ~210 sf mitered granite, Blaze 5-burner grill, built-in 36" Blackstone griddle, ice machine, dual beverage coolers, sink, storage drawers
• Fire feature — gas burner with glass fill and travertine surround
• Landscape — 6 × 24" box trees, 20 × 15-gal, 30 × 5-gal, planter beds, irrigation, lighting package
• Custom San Juan Ironworks front door