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Connect Search Primary Menu Skip to content Home ABOUT Join Email Twitter Facebook LinkedIn YouTube Search industry roundtable Everybody is Included September 21, 2020 IIDA HQ Leave a comment The following is an excerpt from IIDA’s annual Industry Roundtable report, Industry Roundtable 23: The Future of Place, Experience, and Worklife . The roundtable took place at BMW Designworks in California. Read the full report here . My prediction for 2050? That women leaders in the design world will triple. Gabrielle Bullock, IIDA, FAIA, NOMA , Perkins and Will While the design industry still struggles with diversity, progress has been made in recent years, and leading practitioners and manufacturers are deeply committed to the goal of inclusivity—both within their own organizations and with respect to the end-user for whom they are designing. Current efforts to diversify the talent pipeline ensure a more equitable future. The profession will look very different in the coming decades, more reflective of the world at large. The design ecosystem will encompass a greater diversity of practitioners, collaborators, and partners and a wider range of ages and gender identities, as well as a broader cultural and racial makeup. (This will make for an intriguing Industry Roundtable: “In 2050, the age range around this table will span 80 years; some will attend via hologram; everyone will speak in their native language and the audience will hear it in theirs, whether attending remotely or in-person,” Ryan Menke, Ind. IIDA, senior vice president of sales and marketing at OFS presages.) The industry will become more inclusive by default, but also by intention, as designers advocate and agitate for systemic shifts. “For instance, space and local/international codes can work together to support a growing community of gender nonbinary individuals,” explains Mavis Wiggins, Assoc. IIDA, managing executive of TPG Architecture. Multidisciplinary design professionals and firms with expertise and backgrounds in other fields are likely to disrupt our industry, which will be even better equipped to solve the complex, multimodal problems of tomorrow. “In thirty years,” James Kerrigan, FIIDA, design principal of interiors at Jacobs predicts, “BMW will be here speaking about how they got into the design space by applying their production and supply chain know-how to overturn traditional construction approaches, delivering high-tech, sustainable, and beautiful design solutions for interior and exterior applications.” For now, inclusivity looks different at every firm, and so do the specific impediments to achieving it. As an example, Landscape Forms is currently endeavoring to make two very different populaces feel equally included under one roof. “Our production staff and our office teams are antitheses of each other, and here we are asking them to work together,” Kirt Martin, vice president of Capitol One says. Design, particularly of office amenities, has played a role in bridging that gap, he explains. So has giving employees as much choice as possible about when, how, and where they work. For Netflix, an impetus for addressing inclusion is the network’s penetration into previously unexplored external markets—“countries that haven’t yet experienced content the way we do, and from whom we’re learning a lot,” says Elizabeth Christopher, design manager at Netflix. Design leaders are seizing opportunities to better narrate the stories of those who are oft-overlooked or excluded in our spaces and our culture. “In order to design a better world, we need to unpack the missing data: the missing stories of the people we purportedly design for,” says Angie Lee, IIDA, AIA, partner and design director of interiors at FXCollaborative. Being inclusive also means considering vulnerable and under-resourced populaces, and being proactive about designing solutions for them, whether or not we’re hired by clients to do so. “What matters now is designing for social equity and affordable living,” says Martin. The industry will be challenged and emboldened to address pressing issues like urban density, overpopulation, and the housing crisis, and to help climate refugees. “Equality and justice for women and minorities will positively change our built environment,” concludes Diana Farmer-Gonzalez, IIDA, Assoc. AIA, principal and co-managing director of Gensler’s Miami office. advocacy IIDA Virtual Advocacy Symposium: State of Affairs September 21, 2020 IIDA HQ Leave a comment In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, IIDA Headquarters made the decision to host our annual Advocacy Symposium—which took place last week—virtually over Zoom. With around 300 registered attendees (our largest numbers ever!), we held six webinars covering topics including the basics of and an introduction to advocacy, conversations with designers who serve in public office, an update from the Sascha Wagner, FIIDA, International Board President of IIDA, and an entire day dedicated to legislative and advocacy updates from our lobbyists and chapter leaders on the front lines. The “State of Affairs” panel provided a great overview of best practices to use when communicating to legislators, gave updates on how IIDA and ASID have joined forces to streamline our advocacy goals and collateral, and discussed why coalition building is so important when passing legislation. Buddy Julius, an IIDA/ASID Wisconsin lobbyist, gave an interesting perspective on how COVID-19 has changed the way we communicate with legislators—and how it has ironically made them more accessible and easier to reach. “Legislators are at home more just like the rest of us and typically more available over Zoom or the phone to talk than in person, especially to constituents, so now is a great time to reach out to educate them about interior design,” says Julius. If you do agree to meet with a legislator in person, remember, it’s always acceptable to bring a friend! Bringing an advocacy veteran along can help ease your nerves, and it’s helpful to show strength in numbers. Legislators like to know what their constituents need and for that to happen, you have to educate them. Bryan Soukup, vice president of government and public affairs for ASID, shared details about his role at the organization and provided examples of how IIDA and ASID have teamed up to create new advocacy collateral for the industry. The associations partnered with CIDQ to create a series of three videos that help explain what interior designers do, what the NCIDQ is, and how designers affect the health, safety, and welfare of the public in code-impacted spaces. The associations have also authored advocacy action plans for chapters who may not know where to start when it comes to advocacy and to make sure we are speaking from one voice as an industry. Finally, this last year IIDA and ASID have hosted six webinars together every other month covering best practices for educating legislators, how to build coalitions, and the legislative process. You can find the joint explainer videos on the IIDA YouTube channel . Building coalitions in legislative efforts consist of educating and attempting to expand support from other organizations or groups that might be interested in the issue at hand. According to Abigail Wilson, the public policy and grassroots advocacy manager at IIDA, “Coalition building is so important to our efforts, especially because our issues are very specific to one profession because legislators like to see that the legislation they pass has a positive impact on as many people and groups as possible.” In Ohio, where Wilson has led and overseen the regulation efforts for the past three years, IIDA was able to solicit a letter of support from the Ohio Restaurant Association and numerous public universities including The Ohio State University, which has a strong interior design undergraduate program. Including other institutions or groups in your legislative strategy is a sure-fire way to show that...