2025 Speakers

Kevin Ervin Kelley, AIA, is a principal of Shook Kelley, a strategic design firm he cofounded in 1992 with Terry Shook, FAIA, in Charlotte, NC. Since 2002, Kevin has headed the firm's Los Angeles office and has worked with a team of Perception Managers and Experience Designers. Kevin holds two degrees in architecture from the University of NC at Charlotte and has spent much of his career developing a process that combines business, science, and design into one integrated approach he calls perception design. Kevin’s specialty is getting inside the minds of consumers to determine how the physical environment affects their behaviors, perceptions, and purchase decisions.

Kevin has worked closely with the executive leaders of many well-known companies, such as Harley-Davidson, Whole Foods, Kroger, Kraft, Harris Teeter, Cadbury, The J.M. Smucker Company, Gelsons, Northgate Markets, The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), The Cleveland Orchestra, NFL teams, and USAA in their efforts to develop new kinds of immersive brand experiences that have the power to convene people in places. He has also worked with many global cities and urban districts, such as the City of Makati, South End, Third Street Promenade, Beverly Hills, etc.

He has been an adjunct professor at Harvard University for 11 years and at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte for six years, teaching design, branding, and consumer behavior courses. He is a sought-after keynote speaker on the lecture circuit in the U.S. and Asia.