Virtual Programs

November 12, 2024

Some might say your work is only as good as its photography—after all, especially for residential designers and architects, that’s the only way most people see your work. Join a panel of top architecture and interiors photographers who will answer all your questions about shooting projects, from style to budget to usage rights.

September 26, 2024

Whether this is your first Summit or you’re just curious about all that’s to come in Edinburgh, join this call with Meghan Buonocore, the DLN’s Director of Events, to ask your questions about all things Summit, from programming to accommodations to dress code.

September 12, 2024

Following a season of skyrocketing demand post-COVID, the design industry has cooled off in some sectors. How can leaders effectively plan for slower business—and even use it to their advantage? Join your fellow DLN Members for a discussion about successfully planning for and weathering the ebbs and flows of the market.

September 10, 2024

Smart Home Tech has become as much of a buzzword as a useful descriptor of available tools. So, how do you design with technology that helps your clients (and won’t be obsolete in five years)? Join Cecilia E. Ramos, Senior Director of Architectural Markets at Lutron; and Brittany Canniff Kimball, Senior Manager of A&D, North America at Kohler for a smart conversation about Smart Homes.

August 22, 2024

In an industry with an abundance of contract work and a lack of standardized contracts, ascertaining what benefits to provide for employees can feel like a daunting task. Join your peers for a discussion on employee benefits, providers, and management.

July 29, 2024

Join an interactive conversation with hospitality experts to learn more about designing hospitality projects, the creative process, cost planning, securing jobs, sourcing and more.

July 11, 2024

Not every client can be perfect—so how do you take steps to optimize the relationship? Discuss boundary setting, contract details, and communication strategies that make for smooth relationships.

June 24, 2024

Join the DLN team for a dynamic update on what we’re working on, looking towards, and prioritizing right now and for the coming year.

June 20, 2024

Operating a retail store or trade showroom can be a fulfilling creative outlet or a way to diversify your business; but how do you balance it with your design work? Members with shops, showrooms, and e-commerce sites talk about the right way to manage them all.

May 21, 2024

Join an interactive discussion with top design media editors about the state of the industry and what they want now in terms of projects, pitches, and storytelling.

May 14, 2024

Art consultants discuss tools for sourcing for and with clients, commissioning custom work, and shopping fairs, galleries, or auctions.

April 11, 2024

Learn from each other in managing inflated materials costs, renegotiating budgets, and otherwise adjusting business to the current cost of construction.

March 19, 2024

Your brand is your business. Join a team of branding professionals to discuss best practices for marketing your company through visual, written, and stylistic branding, from printed materials to social media presence, logo design, and more.

Register Here

March 14, 2024

What does responsible growth look like? When is the right time to hire, to open a new outpost, to reorganize? What should a scalable business look like? Join in a discussion on all these and more, with leaders from firms of all sizes.

Register Here

March 07, 2024

Our community comprises several professionals who are partners in business and life. Get together to discuss effective teamwork, setting work/life boundaries, office dynamics, and more.

Register Here

February 20, 2024

Come armed with your legal queries and save a few billable hours in this live session with law professionals who specialize in design and creative businesses.

Register Here

February 08, 2024

How do you manage working with creative partners on a project? Set divisions of labor? Joint contracts? A Responsibility matrix? What about crediting when it comes to press? Get perspective from fellow professionals.

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February 08, 2024

Held on a Tuesday afternoon each month, Office Hours are drop-in style sessions where disciplinary experts—in finance, law, social media, and more—are on hand to answer your burning questions, which can be asked live or submitted ahead of time. Whether you save a few billable hours, find your next consultant, or simply find some direction with an unresolved question, you will leave Office Hours with concrete, actionable insights about the way forward.  

A more intimate version of the DLN’s Community Calls, Community Roundtables—held on a Thursday afternoon each month—convene group conservations about a diverse range of subjects, with all attendees invited to participate. In addition to tackling big topics, Community Roundtables foster discussion among smaller affinity groups within the DLN: women architects, couples in life and business, regional cohorts, and more.

November 09, 2023

When it comes to setting your firm up for success (even beyond your own tenure), there’s no more important consideration than hiring. The right people enable your office to run smoothly and allow you to focus on priorities. In this session, Interior Talent founder Ken Roberts and Dechert lawyer Amy Ufberg share key considerations for hiring, training, and setting the right team up for success.

September 14, 2023

How can you make the most of the fall trade fair season? With some of our favorite markets just around the corner, we tapped some experts to offer their best advice for navigating trade fairs and making the most of your time there, whether that means shopping, networking, education, or inspiration. Our panelists tackled important questions including when to go, how to shop, whether to bring clients, and how to manage shipping.

July 12, 2023

In this Expert Access session, we talk to Members and Partners who have shared staff with other firms, retained small firms as contractors, or “loaned” out staff to other firms between projects.

May 18, 2023

DEIB expert Jessica Bantom presents on cultural competence for design firms from her book “Design for Identity.” Join the webinar, pre-order the book, and engage in breakout sessions.

May 16, 2023

What will happen to your firm when you retire? It’s something Members Ankie Barnes of BarnesVanze Architects and Eric Groft of Oehme van Sweden have been thinking about for over a decade. Last week, the two offered insight into their own models for succession, achieved after years of strategic planning, smart hiring, and thoughtful reflection on the markets of success for a multi-generational firm and its leaders.

March 23, 2023

Showhouses: When done right, they’re opportunities to grow your reach, push your creative limits, and reach new clients. When not done right, they can be high drama money pits—or worse. On March 23, three DLN Members who have created showhouse rooms in both pre-and post-COVID share their experiences, including dos, don’ts, and tips for making the most of a showhouse in today’s design world.

October 06, 2022

A design-industry consultant, two interior designers, and one architect discuss how DLN Members can create formidable contracts that facilitate success.

August 18, 2022

Three design-industry strategists tell DLN Members and Partners what they need to know to keep up on swiftly-changing social platforms.

April 14, 2022

Watch the webinar with special guests Noah Horowitz, SVP, Worldwide Head of Gallery & Private Dealer Services at Sotheby’s, and Brendan Dugan, founder of Karma Gallery in NYC, as they discuss emerging trends, hot artists, and how to advise and buy for clients today.

February 03, 2022

Watch the webinar of the Expert Access – The Second Generation: Rising to Lead a Firm.

November 18, 2021

Finding great people to staff your firm is always a challenge and it’s even harder when business is strong, and everyone is hiring. Join recruiting professionals Nadia Roberts, founder of Interior Talent, Billy Clark and Clayton Apgar from Billy Clark Creative Management, and Jennifer Slavinsky, Human Resources Business Partner at Waterworks, to discuss how they find suitable candidates and get them hired. Our panelists bring multiple perspectives ranging from an outside agency, regional experience, in-house approaches, sourcing candidates to increase diversity, and experience with both design firms and brands. Sign up to improve how you approach this critical part of running your firm.

Thursday, November 18 – 12:00 EST

June 17, 2021

Join DLN’s Rebecca Birdwell and Cumming Corp, vice president, Daniel Pomfrett for an in depth look at design and construction budgeting within the high-end residential sectors…

May 20, 2021

Join the DLN as we look at design through the lens of two native New Yorkers who capture and direct the worlds of fashion, art, interiors and architecture. Listen and watch as Douglas Friedman and Robert Rufino discuss the photoshoot process, choosing the right images and ensuring each shot creates a narrative…

April 22, 2021

2020 saw exponential growth and movement in income and relocation from large metropolitan markets out to suburban and rural neighborhoods. If you missed this expert access, watch the webinar in our archive or listen to our podcast with Bill Fulton, director of Rice University’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research in partnership with Chubb dove deep into the migration of wealth, housing booms, new construction and how this effects the business of architecture and design across the country…

March 18, 2021

If you missed our discussion on web design trends for professional practices click below to watch the webinar. We covered the look and feel of sites being built today, navigation, images management, storytelling tools, backend platforms, and interactive experiences for prospective clients, among other topics…

February 25, 2021

Brian Sawyer hosted Landscape Designer and environmental activist, Edwina von Gal to discuss the Perfect Earth Project and 2/3 for the Birds.

In case you missed the discussion, click here to watch.

January 22, 2021

Set your firm up for success in 2021! Yotam Kedem, partner at Precise, a financial management services company for Architectural, Design, and Engineering firms in the US, took DLN members and partners through the financial metrics, tools, and objectives needed to ensure your firms see increased profits in the new year and beyond.

In case you missed the discussion, click here to watch.

November 13, 2020

Diversity and inclusion are no longer a nice idea, but a must have goal within your firms in 2020. The DLN heard from Simone Morris, an award-winning diversity and inclusion leader, to understand and learn how to take concrete steps to building more diversity and inclusion within your firm.

October 30, 2020

Elle Decor’s new Editor in Chief, Asad Syrkett joined us for an in-depth conversation around his vision for the established publication, and the path that led him to this new leadership role. DLN Members connected with Asad and learned about his background, his plans for the future and how to work more closely with Asad and his team.

October 16, 2020

Vogue editor and fashion historian Hamish Bowles gave us an intimate look into the life and career of the subject of his new book, Federico Forquet. A contemporary of Valentino, Forquet modernized Italian fashion in the 1960s to worldwide acclaim. He then left fashion behind to create interiors and gardens for a host of Italy’s most prominent aristocrats…

September 23, 2020

The DLN audience was joined by Megan Kleban and Conor Ryan from Pinterest for an informative Expert Access about the platform’s newest feature Story Pins. For a written recap of the details from this discussion, as well as key resources to get set up with Story Pins…

July 29, 2020

Pinterest’s Head of Strategic Partnerships, Creators and Content, Vikram Bhaskaran hosted an exclusive sneak preview of a variety of new Pinterest tools developed specifically for design professionals and other creative communities…

July 23, 2020

Dana Kalczak and Todd-Avery Lenahan hosted a hospitality design briefing where they discussed design in the hospitality industry. Dana and Todd discussed their detailed design process from the top down at each new property, how hospitality will change in a post-COVID world and why trusted luxury brands may be the hallmark of travel experiences. In case you missed the conversation, please click here to watch.

July 15, 2020

Whether for a client presentation, your website, your Instagram feed, or your Pinterest board, strong imagery of your work is crucial. In this talk, Robert Rufino, a legendary stylist who has worked at both Elle Decor and Architectural Digest, and is now Style Director at House Beautiful, shared tips on how to make your rooms look as beautiful as possible through the camera lens.

July 01, 2020

DLN Member Tim Slattery, Hart Howerton Partner, hosted a discussion around American Suburbia. For those of you who missed it, click here to listen in as he dissects the creation and migration to suburbia, how it has changed over the years, and from 2020 what the future of suburbia will look like.

June 25, 2020

Architect Thomas A. Kligerman discussed the extraordinary life of newspaper publisher James Gordon Bennett, Jr. and his role in the development of the architecture of Newport, Rhode Island. In case you missed this fascinating discussion, click here to watch.

June 18, 2020

Barry Sunshine, acclaimed accounting expert with strong design and architecture industry addressed the latest changes to the PPP program and helped DLN Members gain maximum financial advantage prior to the conclusion of the program. In case you missed this informative discussion, click here to watch.

June 17, 2020

June 10, 2020

DLN Member Brad Ford and Sheila Bridges hosted an open and honest conversation for the DLN Community about race in America. In case you missed the conversation, please click here to listen, learn and change our industry.

May 27, 2020

Sean Kelly, NYC gallerist and famous podcast host of Collect Wisely, and Robert Stilin, wise art collector and AD100 designer, discussed buying art in the time of COVID-19. Click here for the full discussion.

May 20, 2020

With companies having laid-off or furloughed many employees, what does hiring look like when things open back up? How do you hang on to your key employees, let go of your underperforming ones and acknowledge what new talent you will need to hire in order to effectively adjust to our new normal? Click here to find out. 

May 19, 2020

Leonard Steinberg shed light on the outlook for luxury real estate around the country including urban, suburban, and resort markets as we all imagine a recovery and help to orient us to be in the right places when that happens. In case you missed the discussion, click here to watch. 

May 14, 2020

Both Kravet and Waterworks are planning for their own offices and showroom openings as well as working with the Design Centers International Board to plan to for the re-opening of design centers… In case you missed the discussion, click here to watch.

May 13, 2020

DLN Members, Kate Verner and Laurie Salmore shared ideas and recent experiences working across a wide spectrum of design firms, manufacturers and showrooms, while asking “what did you do during the Great Pause to secure your future and enhance our industry”? In case you missed the conversation, click here to watch.

May 07, 2020

Domino Style Director Benjamin Reynaert joined Michael Boodro for an informative discussion on using social media and other platforms to increase awareness of your work… Benjamin shared insights into how to improve your social media presence and response, and utilize digital media to showcase your work to a larger audience. In case you missed the conversation, click here to watch.

May 06, 2020

Learn how to harness the power of Choice in these chaotic times. Everything we do and everything that happens to us is filtered through our own mind and thinking. During this unique environment our lens has a significant impact on how we process the chaos, changes and opportunities in front of us…

May 05, 2020

Alexander, who prepared the much-valued DLN White Paper on contracts, advised on stresses that even the strongest contract could undergo in the face of the economic slowdown caused by the corona crisis. He focused on various issues—from delayed deliveries and extended timelines to attempted cancelations. In case you missed the discussion, click here to watch. 

April 30, 2020

James, whose clients include Target, 3M, Spotify, and numerous retail and fashion brands, advised participants on how best to reach out to your staff, clients, and workrooms and vendors to reassure them without overpromising, inspire confidence, and instill motivation. In case you missed the conversation, click here to watch.

April 29, 2020

Our experts are developing new approaches and working to ensure projects continue, while keeping workers and visitors safe. In case you missed the conversation, click here to watch.

April 28, 2020

If you are thinking of making travel plans for business or pleasure for the balance of 2020 and you missed the conversation, click here to watch.