Lab End Users Share Why Peer Learning Matters: On the Floor at the Lab Design Conference

Planning a laboratory expansion requires more than understanding an organization's current needs. Lab leaders must consider workflow, efficiency, future growth, and how decisions made today will affect operations for years to come.

For Aaron Odegard, laboratory quality coordinator at Baptist Health in Jacksonville, FL, and Alfonso Ortiz, assistant director with University Health in San Antonio, TX, active expansion projects provided an opportunity to learn from other laboratory professionals facing similar challenges.

Speaking with Jeanette Wider, managing editor for LabX Media Group, during the 2026 Lab Design Conference in Orlando, FL, Odegard and Ortiz discussed why they attended the event, what they hoped to learn, and why lab end users can benefit from connecting with the broader design community.

Both were first-time attendees—and both came to the conference with laboratory growth on their minds.

Baptist Health is expanding its laboratory practice and considering the development of a central lab. Odegard said the opportunity to learn best practices from professionals involved in other laboratory projects was a major reason for attending.

“It seems like a great place to learn some new best practices,” he said. “We wanted to actually get some tips and tricks from people on how they develop their labs [and] what are some best practices.”

Odegard also presented at the conference about Baptist Health's blood bank expansion, giving him the chance to contribute lessons from his own organization while gathering ideas from other attendees.

For laboratory end users, that exchange of project experience can be especially valuable. Scientists and lab leaders understand the day-to-day realities of their facilities, including workflow challenges and operational bottlenecks. At the same time, they may have limited opportunities to see how other organizations are addressing similar issues.

Odegard said the conference can be useful not only for professionals planning a new laboratory, but also for those questioning whether their current spaces and processes are working as effectively as they could.

“I would recommend it, especially if you are starting up a new lab or just even if you're looking at reevaluating how you're doing your lab practice and your workflow,” he said.

Ortiz's decision to attend was also directly connected to an active project. University Health San Antonio is undertaking a laboratory expansion, which Ortiz presented on during the conference.

“What triggered it is, of course, our expansion project that aligns directly with lab design,” Ortiz said.

His goal was to learn from the architects, engineers, lab planners, vendors, and fellow end users gathered at the event, with a particular focus on “developing an efficient and future-ready laboratory.”

That future-ready mindset is increasingly important as laboratories respond to evolving technology, automation, equipment needs, testing volumes, and staffing models. While project teams cannot predict every future change, learning how other organizations have approached flexibility and expansion can help lab leaders ask better questions during planning and design.

The conference also gave Odegard and Ortiz an opportunity to build relationships with other professionals involved in laboratory projects. “You get to see great friends, too,” Ortiz added.

For lab end users, those connections can extend the learning experience beyond individual conference sessions. Conversations with peers and project professionals can provide new perspectives on workflow, design decisions, and lessons learned—insights that attendees can bring back to their own organizations and project teams.

As laboratory projects become more complex, the experiences of Odegard and Ortiz highlight the importance of involving end users in the broader lab design conversation. The people who operate laboratories every day can provide essential insight into how spaces actually function, where workflows break down, and what a new or expanded facility needs to accomplish.

Connecting those end users with architects, engineers, planners, and other lab owners can help create a stronger exchange of ideas—and ultimately better-informed laboratory projects.

Key takeaways from Aaron Odegard and Alfonso Ortiz

Before watching the interview, keep these three ideas in mind:

Learn from projects beyond your own organization. Lab expansions and new builds present complex challenges, but other owners and end users may have already faced similar decisions. Peer learning can help teams identify best practices and ask better questions during planning.

Use expansion as an opportunity to reevaluate workflow. A new lab isn't the only reason to reconsider how a facility operates. Examining current practices, bottlenecks, and workflows can reveal opportunities to improve efficiency within existing laboratories.

Bring the end-user perspective into lab design conversations. Laboratory leaders and operational staff understand how work is performed every day. Connecting their experience with the expertise of architects, engineers, and lab planners can support more efficient and future-ready facilities.

Watch the full interview below to hear Odegard and Ortiz discuss their experience at the 2026 Lab Design Conference—and why laboratory professionals planning a new facility, expansion, or workflow change can benefit from learning alongside the broader lab design community.