2018 BIFMA 360 LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE

January 31, 2020

the bifma 360 leadership conference brings the leaders of the furniture industry together. 

For the 2018 conference, held over January 29-31 in Miami, Florida, Alissa Wehmueller and I were invited to join an esteemed line up of distinguished speakers. 

Alissa is a Principal at Helix architecture in Kansas City, Missouri, was a Past President of the IIDA Mid-America Chapter, and was recently the 2017 IIDA Member of the Year. 

Together, we provided a unique perspective to the challenges that we, as practicing interior designers and strong advocates for the profession, face in our very own changing industry and the role we need our dedicated partners in the furniture industry to provide.

The conference theme was "YOU: leadership, reputation, creativity." The 360° explored the roles we play, what those roles mean, and what new thinking will help us to be better leaders. 

Alissa and I were given two opportunities to share our viewpoint. First, for a limited audience of 30 individuals, we prepared a workshop-style presentation called "Do This! Don't Do That!" which was focused on the social interaction between designers and furniture manufacturers branding.

To kick off the last day of the conference, our final presentation, "The Designer's Perspective: The Changing Furniture Industry," was delivered to the full audience of 200+ attendees. During this time we spoke to three main topics: coworking + project timelines, the buying process, and fast fashion / fast furniture.

At the end of our discussion about various obstacles, pain points, and disruptors, Alissa and I wanted to emphasize that the growth of our community can only be achieved with group effort. Therefore, we ended with a specific challenge addressed to the furniture industry, to BIFMA, and to our fellow designers.

These conversations proved to be extremely meaningful and relevant to the audience and we were honored to be rated the second highest of the conference's speakers!

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