As a lab leader, you not only have to keep experiments running, but also manage staff, anticipate risk, set strategy, and allocate resources. The 2026 Lab Manager Leadership Summit, taking place April 20–22 in Phoenix, AZ, offers a rare opportunity to pause your daily routines, exchange ideas with peers, and develop concrete strategies you can put into practice as soon as you return to the lab.
What to expect
At the Summit, you’ll gain fresh perspective and best practices through keynote talks, panels, and peer discussions that explore how other labs tackle challenges in change management, innovation, budgeting, and more. You can participate in hands-on workshops designed to help you apply strategies directly to your own lab’s operations rather than passively absorb them. The event also offers deep networking opportunities—from interactive roundtables to casual meetups and the lab tour—where you can connect with peers who understand your pressures and share similar goals.
Past attendees consistently praise the Leadership Summit for its lasting value, noting that the connections and friendships they make often continue well beyond the event. Many even return in future years as speakers, eager to share how the experience shaped their leadership and lab success. You’ll also have direct access to vendors and partners who specialize in laboratory operations and can help you evaluate practical solutions.
Getting the most out of your Leadership Summit experience
To get the most out of your experience, approach the event intentionally:
- Pre-plan your agenda. Review the session tracks ahead of time. Identify “must-attend” talks, workshops, and roundtables. Block those into your calendar and leave some space for flexibility.
- Arrive early and stay late. Some of the richest interactions happen before and after sessions—use that time to meet people, ask questions, and build connections.
- Divide and conquer across your team. Send more than one person from your lab or department. That way, your group can cover multiple concurrent sessions, then regroup and share key insights.
- Set internal goals. Before the Summit, ask each participant to identify two to three challenges in their lab (staffing, workflows, automation, quality, etc.). At the Summit, attend sessions tied to those and collect ideas to pilot.
- Be active and vocal. Ask questions. Join roundtables. In workshops, share your context and test solutions in real time. The more you participate, the more you’ll gain.
- Follow up. After the Summit, schedule a debrief meeting. Review what each attendee learned. Decide what to pilot, who owns it, and set timelines.
Highlighted sessions and workshops
Here are some featured elements of the 2026 worth prioritizing:
- Expert-led workshops (Day 1). Choose from focused, in-depth sessions on leading change, strategic hiring, assessing and controlling lab risks, CLIA compliance, or optimizing chromatography methods. Each workshop is a chance to learn directly from a seasoned expert in a small-group setting.
- Lab tour (Day 1).The behind-the-scenes tour at Arizona State University’s Biodesign Institute gives you a unique look at facility layout, workflows, and real lab design in action. It’s also a great networking anchor point.
- Keynote: Leading Through Disruption (Day 2).This session frames how to lead through uncertainty, an essential skill in today’s science and regulatory climates.
- Roundtables and breakout sessions, including topics on AI, agile budgeting, lab quality, and team dynamics. These smaller gatherings encourage peer exchange and discussion of applied strategies.
- Keynote: Future-Ready Leadership (Day 3).A forward-looking address to help you anticipate shifts, adapt, and build resilience in your lab structure and people.
- Closing panel: The Lab Leader’s Edge. A wrap-up discussion featuring senior leaders, offering reflections and operational wisdom for your lab’s next chapter.
- Sessions on career growth, burnout, and automation strategies. These speak to both your personal leadership journey and the technical/operational challenges your team may face.
Because many sessions run concurrently, your team can split up and swap notes at breaks to cover more ground.
Why bring multiple people from your team
When a single individual attends, they become the “lone delegate” trying to absorb everything. But labs are complex, and the Leadership Summit is designed with multiple learning tracks to reflect that. Sessions span people leadership and soft skills development, business and operational challenges, and exclusive Leadership Circle discussions created specifically for senior leaders. By sending multiple team members from different roles or stages in their careers—such as a manager, quality lead, or technical specialist—you can ensure everyone attends the sessions most relevant to their responsibilities and development goals.
By bringing multiple team members, you can:
- Maximize coverage. No need to struggle deciding on which sessions to attend. Your group can divide and conquer the program.
- Enable in-situ brainstorming. During the Summit, your team can compare takeaways and start shaping how the new ideas might map to your lab.
- Multiply networking reach. More participants means more connections made across different domains.
- Accelerate internal adoption. Having multiple stakeholders at the Summit means internal alignment begins right there. When you return, you can more quickly drive change.
Corporate discounts are available to teams purchasing three or more tickets. Learn more here.
Put your learning into action
The Lab Manager Leadership Summit isn’t just another conference; it’s an immersive, action-oriented gathering designed to strengthen your leadership, your strategies, and your network in the context of modern labs. Attending with a team, engaging in workshops, exploring labs up close, and actively networking will help you extract more value than you might expect. As your lab’s leader, you owe it to your staff, your organization, and to yourself to invest in learning environments like this, and to return ready to lead with new insight. Register today
