10.6.08 | Industry forums and roundtable discussions often disappoint. After long weekends of wordy exchanges, a bit of occasional pontification, and finally consensus building about an issue, ideas soon evaporate without action. However, the Kimball Office Work Group was all business when it met for three days to discuss Sustaining Interior Design Education. It not only succeeded in identifying the problem and challenges, it responded with the attached report: a strategy, complete listing of recommendations and an implementation plan for the next five years.

8.11.08 | On Thursday, July 24^th, the W Tuscany on 39^th Street in New York City was the venue for IIDA New York Hospitality Forum, which focused on “The New Age of Hospitality & Retail Design. A Hospitality Forum record 175 guests were in attendance. The event was co-chaired by Nancy Jackson, President of Architectural Systems, Inc. and Christine McGinnis, IIDA, Director, Visual Communications of aloft and element hotels while the W Tuscany provided attendees with an intimate lounge-like setting.

7.21.08 | The new Haworth showroom in New York was filled to capacity on Thursday, June 26, for the Fourth Annual Lester Dundes Interior Design Competition Awards, hosted by the IIDA NY (New York Chapter of the International Interior Design Association).

7.7.08 | IDLNY (Interior Designers for Legislation in NY) has for the 3^rd consecutive time in the past few years succeeded in obtaining the unanimous approval of both houses of the NY State Legislature of a bill (Senate Bill S3659) that would restrict the use of the title of Interior Designer.

6.30.08 | After fighting the Merchandise Mart’'s first floor NeoCon crowds, becoming lost in an east stairwell and finally catching the correct elevator, I found myself in the sanctuary of IIDA’'s new 5^th Floor Headquarters. IIDA Executive Vice President and CEO, Cheryl Durst, herself, was there to welcome me into the new LEED-CI Gold space designed by Kendall Wilson, principal of Washington D.C. based firm Envison.

6.30.08 | The IIDA celebrated five outstanding projects at it's annual awards banquet, COOL. These projects were chosen for recognition out of over three hundred submissions, –and the firms represented in the top five really put the “international” in IIDA.