3.3.08 | To some, “BIFMA” is just a funny way to spell boring, but this year’s Annual Leadership Conference (our first) in St. Petersburg, FL, was anything but. Not only were the presentations at this annual retreat of executives of the Business and Institutional Furniture Manufacturers Association fit for an audience of designers, facilities managers (or just about anyone else), but, indeed, designers were there to make some of the presentations, and Michael Alin, Executive Director of ASID, was there to represent his organization, as were Mark Strauss, Publisher of Interior Design magazine, and John Rouse, Publisher of Contract. We definitely need much more of this cross-pollination and collaboration, but it is a start.

3.3.08 | The interaction of design and human behavior is of fundamental importance. In the words of Winston Churchill: “We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us.” Substitute “environments” for “buildings” and we have a thoroughly modern conception of what we are about in creating the built environment. The relationship between humans and their environment, however, is anything but simple, and certainly not as linear or sequential as the quotation may suggest.

2.25.08 | Two weeks ago we brought you the Teknion sponsored presentation about working with the generations that have recently entered the workplace, or are now entering the workplace: Generations X and Y and the Millennials. (officeinsight 2.11.08, Teknion’s Gen X and Y) Now that our readers have a general idea of the psychology of those constituting these generations and what they are thinking, we thought we could facilitate intergenerational communications by compiling a short list of some of the vocabulary commonly in use by these generations.

2.11.08 | January 17^th was a cold day in Boston. It had recently snowed and officeinsight's reason for the trip to the city was two-fold. We were invited to preview Teknion's new Boston showroom to be unveiled at a grand opening party on April 3^rd  and to attend a Teknion-sponsored lecture event at the Museum of Fine Art that same evening. The showroom itself was worth the trip, a thoughtfully designed space by Baker Design Group that embodies everything Teknion is: effortlessly chic, forward thinking yet undeniably timeless.

2.11.08 | I understand the need to study my generation (Gen Y). I know there are workplace puzzles to be solved and gobs of disposable income to be snatched up. I know that there are 76 million of us. But I have to be honest about the nagging annoyance that took over as who I am was summarized into several short bullet points on January 17^th at Teknion's Boston presentation of Gen X and Gen Y Trends.