ANSI Innovation Summit to Open with Fireside Chat Among Standards Leaders and a Standards Lab

Sessions explore how standards can move faster while keeping the trust that makes them work.

The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) will open its 2026 Innovation Summit on Tuesday, July 28, at the Grand Hyatt Denver with two back-to-back sessions on standards development in a fast-changing technology landscape. The afternoon pairs a fireside chat among standards leaders with a standards lab on the new methods organizations are testing to accelerate their processes.

• VIEW FIRESIDE CHAT AGENDA
• VIEW STANDARDS LAB AGENDA
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Standards at the Speed of Innovation: A Fireside Chat with Standards Leaders

ANSI president and CEO Laurie E. Locascio, Ph.D., NAE, will sit down with the leaders of five standards developing organizations (SDOs) to discuss how the standards community is evolving its development processes to match the pace technological change. The discussion draws on the U.S. Standards Strategy 2025, which calls on the community to make standards development more efficient by embracing innovation and training the next generation.

Locascio and the executives will explore how flexible, iterative, and adaptive approaches can keep standards relevant and effective—and how the ingenuity for which the U.S. standards system is known can drive development models that are timely, efficient, and responsive to rapid societal and technological change. Audience Q&A will follow.

Joining Locascio for the discussion are:

• John Belcik, CEO, International Code Council (ICC)
• Peter Doty, interim COO and executive vice president, SAE International
• Andrew G. Kireta Jr., president, ASTM International
• Jeff Marootian, president and CEO, UL Standards & Engagement
• Susan Miller, president and CEO, Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS)

The Standards Lab: Testing New Development Approaches

Immediately following, the Standards Lab turns from conversation to practice. The interactive session showcases how SDOs and consortia are using AI, collaboration tools, agile review mechanisms, and fast-track pathways to modernize development while maintaining rigor. Attendees will leave with practical strategies they can apply to their own processes. The program is emceed by Mary Saunders, ANSI senior vice president, government relations and public policy, and features four short talks followed by a moderated audience Q&A:

• Jesse Dunietz, AI standards, policy, and international engagement lead at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), on using NIST's AI Standards Zero Drafts pilot to show how extensive work before the formal SDO process can speed standardization while widening participation
• Casey Granata, senior program manager, grid, at the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA), on introducing a “standards sandbox” that lets emerging technologies be tested under provisional guidelines aligned with NEMA’s technology roadmap, allowing real-time iteration without sacrificing trust or rigor
• Jason Wampler, managing director of IT at the International Society of Automation (ISA), on addressing the intellectual property, accuracy, and safety concerns SDOs face with large language models, and demonstrating Mimo®, ISA’s approach to using an LLM for content sharing, membership growth, and community building
• Jory Burson, vice president of standards at The Linux Foundation and general manager of Joint Development Foundation Projects, on a framework that uses GitHub-based templates and Git workflows to make launching a standards effort as straightforward as starting an open-source repository

A networking reception will follow.

Visit ansi.org/summit for details about all ANSI Innovation Summit events.