Best of IIDA at NeoCon 2022

Jun 21, 2022 By IIDA HQ

IIDA celebrated changemakers at NeoCon through engaging conversations, celebrations, and an excuse to gather

By IIDA HQ Jun 21, 2022

Published in Articles

IIDA was everywhere at this year’s NeoCon! Hosting the Association’s 28th Annual Meeting at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (MCA) brought together our members to gather, celebrate, and connect in person for the first time in two years. It also served as an opportunity to visit the ongoing exhibition "Nick Cave: Forothermore," a 30-year survey of Nick Cave’s groundbreaking work. The internationally-renowned, Chicago-based artist, alongside his partner, designer Bob Faust, headlined the much-anticipated NeoCon keynote led by IIDA Executive Vice President and CEO Cheryl S. Durst, Hon. FIIDA where they discussed their multidisciplinary collaborative practice in which art and design can foster peace, build power, and create change. Preceding the show IIDA presented the Tarkett EDI Strategy Event and Panel Discussion, where Design Your World Consultant and EDI Facilitator Roni Jackson and a panel of experts identified equity, diversity, and inclusion as key components for organizations seeking long-term success and innovation in design and beyond.

At theMart, IIDA’s first-of-its-kind art installation saw the riverwalk columns wrapped to share our We Make Space campaign. The IIDA Equity Roundtable at NeoCon brought together design leaders in an illuminating conversation that looked at equity through the lens of education, leadership, as well as community and industry partnerships. Focused on education, the Rockfon Panel discussed well-being in relation to a person and their environment–especially looking at school building projects, maximizing the utilization of spaces, and creating safe environments. At the OFS Roundtable at NeoCon, panelists Ciera C. Peyton, Assoc. IIDA, associate designer at Project Interiors and 2021 Design Your World Instructor, and graphic designer Dave Pabellon, assistant professor at Columbia College Chicago and core organizer of Design as Protest (DAP) talked with moderator Maria VanDeman, Ind. IIDA, district sales manager at OFS, about how the BIPOC experience is not a monolith, and that it’s important to consider the whole person and the experiences that make them who they are. To add to this ongoing conversation, during NeoCon’s second day, IIDA Executive Vice President and CEO, Cheryl S. Durst, Hon. FIDA had an intimate morning conversation with Yamilée Toussaint Beach, Founder, and CEO of Stem From Dance, a non-profit organization that empowers female students of color to experience science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) material through dance.

In line with this year’s theme, IIDA celebrated the real Changemakers–the bold, the brave, the resilient, and those who find the power to speak up, rise up, and elevate others. It is by doing all that, that real change happens and we can equitably make space.

Celebrating Changemakers | IIDA'S 28th Annual Meeting

IIDA’s annual meeting was a chance for members to gather, celebrate, and connect before the evening's Revel in Design gala. IIDA CEO and EVP Cheryl S. Durst, Hon. FIIDA was joined by outgoing International Board of Directors President Sascha Wagner, FIIDA, AIA for opening remarks, to welcome newly-inducted President, Angie Lee, IIDA, FAIA, and new President-Elect Ronnie Belizaire, FIIDA, to induct the 2022 IIDA College of Fellows and 2022-23 International Board, and present the IIDA International Honors and Awards to the 2022 Star Awardee Gabrielle Bullock, IIDA, FAIA, NOMAC, the 2022 Educator of the Year Igor Siddiqui, IIDA, ASID, RA,; 2022 Student of the Year Hailey Fuller, Student IIDA, ASID; and 2022 Member of the Year Alexandra Bonner, IIDA. IIDA Foundation Chair Tara Headley, IIDA presented the 2022 Anna Hernandez/Luna Textiles Visionary Award to Christie Porter, IIDA; the IA Diversity in Design Scholarship awardees; and we heard from 2022 John J. Nelson Sr. Legacy Scholarship awardees Rai Savage, Student IIDA, and Katrina Alvarez, Student IIDA.

IIDA also celebrated and announced the unanimous passing of Illinois House Bill 4715 in Illinois, providing stamp and seal provisions for registered interior designers in the state, the addition of Emeritus Status for IIDA members in 2023, and the 25-year anniversary of Cheryl Durst being with us here at IIDA.

Cheryl Durst, Hon. FIIDA and Sascha Wagner, FIIDA present the 2022 Member of the Year award to Alexandra Bonner, IIDA. Photo by Elaine Miller

Tarkett EDI Strategy Roundtable

Equity, diversity, and inclusion are key components for organizations seeking long-term success and innovation in design and beyond. In this two-day event, IIDA and Tarkett joined together to look at ways of executing a successful EDI strategy and implementing real change by hosting a consulting EDI training session followed by two panel discussions facilitated by Executive Vice President and CEO, Cheryl S. Durst, Hon. FIDA. Featuring EDI Facilitator, Roni Jackson, the first half of day one was dedicated to active listening as an overlooked path to diversity and inclusion. Laying the groundwork must always come first and is of critical importance in executing a successful EDI strategy. The second half of the day featured a panel of design leaders providing their insights—from helping one identify their company's strengths and weaknesses, to providing tangible solutions that make an organization a supportive, engaging place to work for everyone. Finally, the attendees had a chance to exchange ideas about strengthening accountability, challenging the status quo, and effectively committing to diversity in the workplace. Day two featured a panel focused on Millennial and Gen Z approaches to EDI, embracing new strategies, and community building—working towards a more equitable design world.

IIDA and Rockfon Panel

Cultural well-being in the workplace sets the tone for the ways people will engage with a design or built environment. The IIDA and Rockfon Panel led by Jon Otis, IIDA, featuring Angie Scott, Ronald C. Anderson, Warren Dudding, and Jessica Figenholtz, focused on how we can design healthy learning environments through education, diversity, and inclusion. These designers and architects tackled the importance of well-being in relation to the individual and their environment. While looking at some of their school building projects, panelists discussed how maximizing the utilization of spaces can create safe environments. By collecting and identifying the needs of students, educators and designers can work together to design for engaging users of a particular space. With design thinking, panelists shared the importance of transforming the design community through educational tools like webinars, roundtables, and panels like this one.

Angie Scott, Ronald C. Anderson, Warren Dudding, and Jessica Figenholtz. Photo by Christopher Dilts

NeoCon Keynote Presentation

In this much-anticipated keynote, IIDA Executive Vice President and CEO Cheryl S. Durst, Hon FIDA moderated a dynamic conversation with Chicago-based artists Nick Cave and Bob Faust, Principal and Creative Director of Faust at theMart. Blurring the lines between art and design, the powerhouse creative duo talked about the art of collaboration, their hybrid practice, and the design of life at large. Cave has been creating ground-breaking work at the intersection of sculpture, installation, sound, performance, and film to address pressing societal issues related to race, gender, sexuality, and class. Faust, his partner in work and in life, leads the namesake Chicago-based art and design studio creating visual, visceral, and contextual art experiences that inspire and/or instigate action. Together, they have launched Facility—a multi-disciplinary, multi-use collaborative space in Chicago, where art and design can foster peace, build power, and create change. In light of this year’s NeoCon, they discuss community activation, the importance of allyship, and of course, Chicago.

Nick Cave and Bob Faust, photo by Christopher Dilts

IIDA Equity Council Roundtable

Led by IIDA Executive Vice President and CEO, Cheryl S. Durst, Hon. FIIDA and IIDA Director of Member Services, Monae Redmond, this roundtable discussion brought together leading voices from the IIDA Equity Council to discuss bringing EDI to life, including how to have open conversations, create actionable goals, and implement real change at work and personally. Together with Council Co-Chairs Ronnie Belizaire, FIIDA, Vice President, JLL, Jon Otis, IIDA, Founder and Principal, O|A (Object Agency), Amy Storek, Ind. IIDA, CEO of the Americas, Arper, urged council members and the audience to rethink and discuss equity from the lens of education, leadership, as well as community and industry partnership. This illuminating conversation spanned mentorship, diversity at the C-suite level, loneliness as a barrier beyond race, gender, and ethnicity, confidence, allyship, and the importance of taking a step forward no matter how small.

IIDA Equity Roundtable, Photo by Christopher Dilts

OFS and IIDA Student Roundtable

The 2022 IIDA Student Roundtable, sponsored by OFS, addressed developing a design career that encompasses art, design, and activism. Moderator Maria Vandeman, Ind. IIDA, of OFS, spoke with panelists Ciera C. Peyton, Assoc. IIDA, associate designer at Project Interiors and 2021 Design Your World Instructor, and graphic designer Dave Pabellon, assistant professor at Columbia College Chicago and core organizer of Design as Protest (DAP). They talked about how the BIPOC experience is not a monolith, and that it’s important to consider the whole person. Pabellon spoke on the importance of considering all of your passions and experiences and how they inform your work—that by bridging that gap, your portfolio can better represent who you are, rather than the sum of projects. With DAP, Pabellon challenges designers to realize their responsibility to “break down systems of oppression, and to illuminate the ways that design can achieve justice by overcoming these systems.” Peyton discussed her experience teaching the 2021 Design Your World program and highlighted the need for students to be exposed to different careers, and different people in these careers—exposure matters. It’s important that students and emerging designers know that within their workplace and careers “you can have a voice, and that voice does matter.” Not only that, but as a young person it’s important to explore your identity and career possibilities—no one path is the only path or the right path. Vandeman says, “When doors open you have to have the confidence to walk through them, even if it seems scary.”

Maria Vandeman, Ind. IIDA, of OFS, Dave Pabellon, and Ciera C. Peyton, Assoc. IIDA. Photoby Christopher Dilts

KI Coffee With Cheryl

In this intimate morning conversation at the KI showroom, IIDA Executive Vice President and CEO, Cheryl S. Durst, Hon. FIDA sits down with Yamilée Toussaint Beach, Founder and CEO of Stem From Dance, a non-profit organization that empowers female students of color to experience science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) material through dance. Toussaint Beach, whose organization turns 10 this year, is set to change the lives of her students one dance move or coding session at a time–that’s right, her teaching method involves a 50/50 allocation of each. Young women in STEM make up less than one-third of that workforce category with Black and Latina women representing just 4% of this group. Toussaint Beach is here to change that. Stressing the importance of representation in building confidence and succeeding in life she built the after-school and summer program to empower young women to become the best version of themselves.