The Power of the In-Between: Why the Middle Matters More Than Ever (Available Live + On Demand)

This 50-minute session explores how active involvement in professional associations can transform careers, create leadership opportunities, and accelerate long-term growth within the design and building industries.

Through real-world experiences spanning remodeling, kitchen & bath design, manufacturing, sales leadership, and association leadership roles, attendees will learn how participation in organizations such as NKBA, IDS, AIA, and ASID can expand professional visibility, strengthen relationships, develop leadership skills, and create opportunities that may never emerge through traditional career paths alone.

This session will provide practical strategies for becoming more involved, maximizing association participation, building meaningful industry relationships, and leveraging volunteer leadership into personal and professional advancement.

Attendees will leave with actionable ideas for building stronger industry connections, elevating their professional presence, and creating long-term career momentum through active engagement within the design community.

Surface finish decisions are often driven by aesthetics, yet they can significantly impact durability, maintenance requirements, occupant health, sustainability outcomes, and long-term project success. In kitchen and bath environments, where surfaces are exposed to moisture, wear, cleaning chemicals, and daily use, selecting the right finish requires balancing multiple competing priorities.

This highly interactive workshop introduces a Surface Finish Decision Framework that designers can use to evaluate finish options and make more informed specification decisions. Working in small groups, participants will apply the framework to a series of real-world kitchen and bath project scenarios, considering factors such as environmental conditions, performance requirements, maintenance expectations, sustainability goals, budget constraints, and aesthetic intent.

Through collaborative exercises and facilitated discussion, attendees will compare approaches, explore trade-offs, and discover how different priorities can lead to different finish recommendations. Participants will leave with a practical decision-making tool that can be immediately applied to future projects.

Tariffs. Interest rates. Inflation. Global instability. The headlines have been relentless—and so has their effect on homeowner confidence.

Whether they were planning to buy their first home, move up to a larger one, or finally tackle the kitchen or master bath they have been putting off, millions of homeowners have pressed pause. But how long is that pause, really? And what would it take to end it?  This session presents original research, debuted at KBIS, on the psychology of the delayed homeowner.

We go beyond measuring hesitation to understand it: which specific economic conditions are doing the most damage, how homeowners are thinking about the future, and, most critically, which signals they are watching for that would give them the confidence to move forward. We also look at how professionals on the ground are reading this moment and maintaining relationships with clients who are not ready to pull the trigger today but will be. The findings offer a clear-eyed picture of where demand is going and how industry professionals can position themselves to capture it when the window reopens.