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Get Smart at KBIS 2019

January 14, 2019

This year’s NKBA Voices from the Industry Conference is featuring more than 80 speakers in the following kitchen and bath industry topics: Grow Your Business, Kitchen & Bath Specialty Training, Design, Management and Customer Service. All one-hour sessions offer 0.1 CEU, and many will also qualify for other industry CEUs. KBB spoke exclusively with some of the speakers for more info on their engaging sessions.

Color and the Senses: Exploring Synesthesia + Current Color Trends
Kathryn Grube, MID, NCIDQ, LEED AP ID+C, Owner of Functional Color Solutions LLC
Tuesday, Feb. 19, 8:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m., Room N230
Design Track

Take a journey of the 2019 spring and summer color trends and gain an understanding of how color effects the five senses and their various effects with the body for designing benefits in this interactive session. Join the group with blindfolds and see how our minds taste “taste color.” 2019 color trends start with spring and summer haute couture fashion and hybrid with automotive, interiors and paint finishes from all around the globe. See how trends are just that…trends…and what colors actually are best to use in designing for functional outcomes specific to space and the end user needs.

Managing Your Clients
Dennis Dixon, president of Dixon Ventures Inc.
Tuesday, Feb. 19, 9:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m., Room N229
Management Track

Dixon is a builder and remodeler with 35+ years of experience. In his session, which will provide a variety of sales and marketing tips, attendees will:

  1. Learn client-friendly and profitable policies and procedures regarding change orders and allowances to stay in control of the project and client.
  2. Understand how to have a contract that fully defines the project and your responsibilities and quantifies all expectations.
  3. Learn simple codicils (wording) every designer should add to their contractual agreements.
  4. Learn how to prepare fully detailed and fact-filled project specifications that fully define what is and is NOT included as part of your responsibilities and services. Save yourself bundles of time explaining the details and project process.
  5. Review and evaluate 10 client general qualification questions to ascertain whether your services, expertise and professionalism will be aligned with a potential clients’ wants, needs and expectations.
  6. Experience several examples of cost per square foot references and examples to utilize and implement into your selling skills and explanations. Make the connection between cost, value and perspective.
  7. Learn how to profile and seek out ideal clients and projects tailored to you and your skills.

Embracing Smart Technology in Your Kitchen & Bath Designs
Jamie Briesemeister, Sales & Marketing Director, Integration Controls
Tuesday, Feb. 19, 10:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m., Room N230
Design Track

Technology can be overwhelming, complex and at times – ugly. Fears of obsolescence, high price tags and difficult operations make it easy to forget this now critical piece to the design process. Instead of sticking your head in the sand or looking the other way, now is the time to embrace smart home technology.

This course is meant to boost your confidence when discussing smart technologies to benefit your designs and add value to the lifestyle of your clients. You will imagine your day with and without smart controls, learn about reliable smart solutions, hear technology trends and understand how modern conveniences have changed the way we live in our homes.

At the end of this course, you should be able to offer your clients problem-solving solutions and be able to discuss smart home technologies that benefit the kitchen and bath environment with full confidence. Including technology in today’s designs is just smart!

Improve Your Customer Experience with Augmented Reality & Artificial Intelligence
Jim Gurule, Owner/Founder of KitchenPlan.ai
Tuesday, Feb. 19, 3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m., Room N226
Customer Service Track

Learn about the latest mobile camera phone technology that will allow your potential clients to capture their existing kitchen 3D and 2D dimensional data, saving you time and expense and allowing you to prepare for a much more impactful first meeting.

  • Leverage inexpensive or free technologies to ask a few guided questions about their preferences and project, streamlining the project and improving your client experience.
  • Create a real-time 3D kitchen project file in the cloud to allow for further iterations, easy access and collaboration with all project stakeholders (designers, contractors, installers and material suppliers).

We will share a case study where Habitat for Humanity ReStore is using technology to help homeowners, designers and contractors during the planning and budgeting phase of a kitchen renovation so they can save time and reduce costs by donating their pre-owned kitchen to a local-nonprofit. You will learn how technology has improved ReStore’s current donation process, reduced the difficulty of collecting and sharing information that’s needed to submit items for donation and enabled Habitat for Humanity to more easily help the environment and communities in need.

Applying Sustainability & Biophilia to Residential Design: What & Why?
Jeannifer Ellington, Cabinetry Designer, H2 Builders
Tuesday, Feb. 19, 3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m., Room N225
Grow Your Business Track

This session will discuss the importance of making the integration of sustainability and biophilia more common in the residential industry. While these concepts, along with WELL Building Standards, have mainly been focused on the commercial industry and incorporating them in workplaces, hospitals, etc., there are also many health benefits that could come from having them in homes as well. My intention for this session is to help designers, builders and business owners better understand the benefits of these design concepts for them to be able to further explain them to clients.

There will be an overview given of what exactly sustainability, biophilic design and WELL Building Standards are, as well as different ways to incorporate them into residential design projects. We will also look at examples of products and finishes that fall into one or more of these categories and different ways they could be applied to residential/kitchen and bath projects.

Designer Health: Meeting the Demands of Luxury & Lifestyle
Lauren Levant, Principal, Lauren Levant Interior
Wednesday, Feb. 20, 9:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m., Room N227
Design Track

Health is the ultimate luxury. The discerning client of the present and the future is demanding healthy living products that are redefining the luxury lifestyle. Use your knowledge of this subject to increase profitability and stay on the cutting edge of this new market. In this session, we’ll cover:

– Common toxins in building materials and products for the home
– Adverse health symptoms and effects of living in contact with these
– New regulations and testing metrics to evaluate health and safety of these materials now and in the future
– Building materials and products already on the market that are engineered to a higher health standard
– Profitability and health: case studies on turning the right things to do, into the profitable things to do
– Portfolio images of projects that have put these concepts into practice with powerful results

How to Build a Culture That Attracts & Retains Talent
Thad Whittenburg, President, Kitchen and Bath Global Partners
Wednesday, Feb. 20, 10:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m., Room N229
Management Track

With the labor market at its tightest level in decades, it’s more important now than ever to make sure that the employees you have on staff, stay on staff. It all starts with developing an incredible interview process that inspires people to join your organization. That, coupled with an amazing culture, will create a strong demand for people that are truly engaged in their work and bring a positive, high-energy vibe that will help you achieve unlimited success. This fun, interactive seminar will give you the tools to do just that!

2019 Global Color & Design Forecast
Ruthanne Hanlon, National Color & Design Manager, PPG Architectural Coatings
Thursday, Feb. 21, 9:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m., Room N226
Design Track

Join us for this insightful presentation to not only see the 2019 color and design forecast discussed but more importantly understand the influencers behind the direction. Consumer mindsets and interests shift as our world changes; economy, technology, environmental concerns, demographics and more all impact those shifts.

PPG’s global color team of stylists for architectural coatings, automotive, aerospace and consumer electronics research and compile both the macro and micro trends that are influencing style, design, how we live our lives and the spaces we crave.