Configura Announces Lineup for 8th Annual CET Designer User Conference
Configura announces the speaker lineup for the 8th annual CET Designer User Conference being held at the Renaissance Orlando at SeaWorld Oct. 28-29, with a pre-conference welcome event the evening of Oct. 27. The conference is expected to draw several hundred design professionals, dealers and office furniture manufacturers.
The speaker lineup:
Debbie Millman will deliver the keynote presentation, Design Matters. Millman is founder and host of Design Matters, the world’s first podcast about design, which has garnered millions of downloads and a Cooper Hewitt National Design Award. She is also president of Sterling Brands where she has worked on redesign projects for more than 200 global brands, including P&G, Colgate, Nestle, Kraft and Pepsi. Graphic Design USA named Millman one of the most influential designers working today. She has authored six books, including two collections of interviews that extend the ethos and editorial vision of Design Matters to the printed page: How to Think Like a Great Graphic Designer and Brand Thinking and Other Noble Pursuits.
ASID President Randy Fiser will speak on Designing Wellness. Fiser leads the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) as chief executive officer, overseeing the strategic planning, financial management and national operations for the Society´s more than 25,000 members who work across all sectors of residential and commercial interior design. He leads the network of 48 ASID chapters throughout the United States and Canada to advance the profession and to communicate the impact of interior design on the human experience.
Atmosphere Commercial Interior’s Jason Lund will present CET Designer & Virtual Reality – The Future is Here! Lund, the IT manager at Minneapolis-based Atmosphere, is a self-proclaimed technology geek. He’ll talk about the emerging virtual reality technologies impacting dealerships – technologies that are changing dealerships’ sales and design processes by letting dealers focus on an engaging customer experience and not just the product. Conference attendees will be able to try the new Virtual Reality for CET Designer tool.
Lund will also present Hardware, Hardware, Hardware. The right hardware is essential to a good CET Designer experience. Lund will address such questions as: What kinds of computers and graphics cards optimize the user experience? How does virtual reality impact hardware choices? Lund will discuss why purchasing the right hardware is a solid investment that yields good returns.
Chad Bewley will speak on Redefining the Designer Role. Bewley has worked for Business Interiors of Idaho for 18 years where, in his role as design manager, he’s responsible for coordination among the sales and design departments. Bewley uses CET Designer to build relationships and teamwork internally, and externally with customers by helping them to visualize their space and collaborate during the design process.
Amy Helm of Hannaher’s in North Dakota will present Efficiency Tips with CET Designer. As an interior designer, Helm has been using the software for several years and has developed a number of time-saving tips and tricks – including unique ideas for how to use the software to interactively present design concepts to customers.
Amy Wright will present CET Designer: Breaking all the Rules in the Dealership World. Wright is responsible for design, specification and project management of large-scale projects at Encompas in Kansas City, Missouri. With her technical and creative skills, she produces highly functional, aesthetically appealing spaces for her clients – and she also uses these skills to “break the rules” and design outside the box. In a management role, she oversees such accounts as Cerner Corporation and American Century Investments. She holds a master’s degree in interior architecture and product design from Kansas State University.
Configura Business Development Manager Brooke Snow will present CET Designer + Catalogues. Catalogues is a solution in CET Designer where manufacturers can quickly and easily add products into the program. Conference participants will learn how this tool works so they can, in turn, show the manufacturers they represent how they, too, can get their products into CET Designer.
Snow will also speak on CET Designer and Process Change. Change can be hard, but Configura has written a guidebook to make implementing CET Designer at dealerships a streamlined process. Snow will review the steps for a successful switch to CET Designer.
Dan Iwema will lead the Steelcase SmartTools Breakout Session. Iwema – part of the SmartTools team at Steelcase – will present tips that are specific to designing with Steelcase products and the Steelcase SmartTools Extension.
Steven Dunn of OFS will lead the OFS Breakout Session. OFS is a new partner with Configura and will soon launch its own CET Designer Extension. In this breakout session, Dunn – an e-tools developer at OFS – will help attendees to learn more about the OFS products and the Extension that will soon be available in CET Designer.
Rob Detrick of ProjectMatrix will lead the ProjectSymbols Breakout Session. Detrick will share best practices and participants will learn more about the new and upcoming features in the ProjectSymbols Extension to CET Designer.
CET Designer trainer Cate Sword will present Advanced Tips & Tricks in CET Designer. Users will learn “outside the box” tips from Sword, a CET Designer expert who has trained users in the solution for nearly a decade. With a fun and interactive teaching style, Sword will share clever tips that help users to design more productively with the software.
Sword also will present Computers 101. This session is designed for technology novices and anyone who wants to competently converse with IT departments and tech-savvy customers. Sword will talk about how networks and computers work, providing a basic foundation of tech knowledge for participants.
Configura’s Tim Deemter will lead Scrum 101. Configura uses a methodology called Scrum that provides an agile framework for completing complex projects. Although Scrum was originally created for software development, it works for managing all kinds of projects and processes. Deemter is Configura’s production team leader for all North American-based CET Designer partner projects. Participants will learn from Deemter how to implement Scrum strategies in their own organizations.
Nicklas Dagersten will present Configura and CET Designer Update: What’s New and Upcoming. Dagersten is chief product officer at Configura, with 17 years of experience that includes working with such companies as Kinnarps, DeLaval and Steelcase. Dagersten has worked in consultancy and R&D on both the Configura and CET Designer platforms. His main responsibility is to ensure that the right software features are released at the right time, and with high quality. At the user conference, Dagersten will talk about features coming in future CET Designer releases.
Configura’s Kendra Steinhaus will lead an Edit Graphics Session. Edit Graphics in CET Designer can be intimidating – it involves cut planes, work planes, meshes and more. But Edit Graphics is one of the most powerful tools in CET Designer; users can create “specials” and much more. Learn from Configura Training and Support Specialist / Interior Designer Kendra Steinhaus the many creative features that Edit Graphics offers.
Configura’s Andreas Ekbom will present Remarkable Renderings. Learn from Configura´s expert renderer and R&D developer on how to most effectively use lighting, the Material Lab and Photo Lab functions in CET Designer to create incredible, photorealistic renderings. Ekbom will cover best practices and settings to help users create beautiful renderings with every project.
Johan Lindholm will lead a Chat with Programmers. Lindholm is a solutions manager at Configura with more than 18 years of experience, having worked on the CET Designer Extensions for Haworth, Spacesaver, KI and Midmark. Lindholm will discuss and present new features, and will welcome talking about feature requests and suggestions for improving the program.
Kelsey DeBruin will talk about the CET Designer + Universities Program. A member of the Support and Training team at Configura, DeBruin leads an initiative to bring CET Designer to colleges and universities with CIDA-accredited interior design programs. Hear about Configura’s plans to get CET Designer into the curricula of design schools across the country – and how dealerships can get involved in educating future designers in their region.
DeBruin will also present CET Designer + Other Programs. Get inspired with new ideas on how to efficiently use programs with CET Designer – including AutoCAD, SketchUp, Excel, PowerPoint and MovieMaker – in order to maximize CET Designer output in processes and presentations.
Configura’s Peter Brandinger will present How Internal Processes and Roles Maximize the Benefits of CET Designer. Brandinger – vice president of business development in charge of North American operations at Configura – will discuss how dealerships can change internal processes and roles in order to maximize the benefits of CET Designer.
Configura Co-Founder Göran Rydqvist will talk about Parametric Graphical Configuration (PGC) – the Principles and Motivation Behind CET Designer. Rydqvist – vice president of research and development and a co-owner of Configura – is the creative mind and inventor of the technological philosophy Parametrical Graphical Configuration (PGC), the programming language CM, and the Configura and CET Designer platforms. He created the first prototype in 1989 and continues to actively develop software. Everything Rydqvist and the programming team produces is based on PGC – it’s the foundation for Configura as a company and what sets Configura’s software apart. Hear first hand from Rydqvist his ongoing mission to bring PGC to organizations around the globe.
The conference schedule:
Tuesday, Oct. 27
5:30 p.m.
Pre-Conference Welcome Event
Wednesday, Oct. 28
8 a.m. – 5 p.m.
General and Breakout Sessions
6 p.m.
Halloween-Themed Reception
Thursday, Oct. 29
8 a.m. – 12 p.m.
General and Breakout Sessions
12:30 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.
Best of CET Designer Awards Ceremony, Lunch and Closing of CET Designer User Conference
Free subscription to CET Designer
Configura is offering a free, one-year new subscription to CET Designer for each dealer that sends a user to the conference, a value of $1,000. (Extensions not included; offer applies to additional, new subscriptions only, not renewals. Limit of one free subscription per dealership.)
About Configura
Configura creates intelligent space-planning software for manufacturers, dealers and designers in the Contract Furniture, Kitchen and Bath, Material Handling, Industrial Machinery, and Laboratory and Healthcare industries. The company’s software products, including CET Designer®, are used by more than 10,000 people around the world. Configura Sverige AB, the parent company, is headquartered in Linköping, Sweden, with commercial operations in Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA, and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Founded in 1990, Configura is privately owned with more than 90 employees worldwide and annual sales of more than $10 million USD. More information at www.configura.com.
About CET Designer®
Based on technology created by Configura, CET Designer® is intelligent, highly visual and intuitive space-planning software that simplifies specifying and selling of products in a variety of industries. It’s a complete solution that quickly and accurately handles every step of the sales and order process. In CET Designer®, components that represent manufacturers’ products look and behave like actual products. Users drag and drop components into 2D and 3D virtual environments; behind the scenes, the software tracks components, calculates pricing and prevents user errors. Users can create and generate layouts, quotes, photorealistic renderings, movies, installation drawings, reconfigurations and bills of materials – in other words, everything needed to propose on work and place orders. CET Designer® is the future of space planning. More information at www.configura.com/cet.
