Beyond Networking: Creating Thought-Provoking Conversations in the Design Industry
From meaningful professional connections to curating the conversations that shape architecture, design, and the built environment.
What makes an industry event truly worth our time?
Not the number of introductions or business cards exchanged, but the quality of the conversations, the perspectives we discover, and the ideas that continue to develop long after the event ends.
I recently had the pleasure of joining LuAnn Nigara on A Well-Designed Business®, alongside Faigy Chaskelson, for Episode 1233, How to Make Industry Events Worth Your Time.
Our discussion explored how designers can approach industry events with greater intention, build meaningful professional relationships, and recognize opportunities that extend beyond the event itself.
One idea is particularly important to me: we cannot meet everyone, nor should we try to. The real value comes from being intentional about where we invest our attention while remaining open to unexpected connections.
For me, the most thought-provoking conversations often happen when disciplines intersect — when architecture meets construction, technology challenges established practices, or a client's perspective reshapes the way we approach design.
These exchanges are more than networking opportunities. They invite us to question assumptions, broaden our understanding, and discover new ways of thinking.
Choosing Conversations Over Contacts
In the design industry, it is easy to equate a successful event with a full calendar and a long list of new contacts. Yet the most meaningful professional encounters rarely fit that metric.
I am less interested in how many people I meet and more interested in what we can explore together.
Which conversations invite us to think more clearly about the built environment? Which questions reveal something meaningful about how projects are conceived, delivered, and experienced? Which perspectives challenge our assumptions in a productive way?
Intentional networking is not simply about visibility. It is about recognizing the people, ideas, and exchanges that can genuinely enrich our work.
Sometimes, the most valuable connection is the one we did not anticipate.
When Disciplines Intersect, Perspectives Shift
Architecture and interior design do not exist in isolation.
Every project is shaped by construction methods, regulatory frameworks, technological systems, economic realities, and the people who ultimately experience the space.
Throughout my international career in architecture, construction, and design consulting, I have seen how essential these different perspectives are to the design process.
A contractor may challenge the feasibility of an architectural ambition. A technology specialist may introduce new ways to understand a building's performance. A client may redefine the priorities of a project through an entirely different understanding of value.
The most interesting conversations do not always produce immediate answers. Sometimes, their greatest value is in helping us ask better questions.
These exchanges encourage us to look beyond our own discipline and reconsider how we approach projects, collaboration, and the built environment.
Design is not simply about creating an object or a space. It is also about understanding the complex relationships that make it possible.
From Conversation to Curation: Shaping DXAS 2026
This philosophy is at the heart of the conference program Faigy Chaskelson and I are curating for DXAS 2026.
Rather than approaching the program as a collection of independent presentations, we are thinking carefully about the conversations we want to create and the perspectives we want to bring together.
Our ambition is to go beyond a series of talks — bringing together distinct voices, unexpected perspectives, and thought-provoking conversations that challenge how we think about design, architecture, technology, and the future of our industry.
We are approaching the program as a design problem in its own right: being deliberate about the voices we invite to the stage, the questions we raise, and the dialogue we hope to encourage.
The objective is not necessarily to reach easy consensus. It is to create space for different approaches, thoughtful disagreement, genuine curiosity, and new possibilities.
Ideally, these conversations will not end when the sessions do. They will continue between participants, across disciplines, and beyond the event itself.
DXAS 2026 — December 1, 2026
American Dream, New Jersey
Presented by Powwow Events.
More to reveal soon about the speakers and sessions we're curating. Some exciting conversations are taking shape.
Continuing the Dialogue
Our conversation with LuAnn Nigara was an opportunity to reflect on something that extends beyond networking itself: the importance of being intentional about where we invest our time, attention, and professional curiosity.
For me, this raises a broader question:
How can we create industry gatherings that do more than bring people together — gatherings that genuinely challenge and advance the way we think?
It is a question that continues to guide my approach to DXAS 2026 and, more broadly, my perspective on architecture and design.
A special thank you to LuAnn Nigara for welcoming us to A Well-Designed Business®, and to Faigy Chaskelson for sharing this conversation and the experience of shaping the upcoming conference program.
I invite you to listen to the episode — and perhaps reconsider what makes an industry conversation truly valuable.
Listen to the Conversation
A Well-Designed Business® — Episode 1233
Chana-Rivka Thierman & Faigy Chaskelson:
How to Make Industry Events Worth Your Time
About the Conversation
LuAnn Nigara is the host of A Well-Designed Business®, a podcast exploring the business of interior design through conversations with industry professionals and entrepreneurs.
Faigy Chaskelson is an interior designer, founder of Styles Design, and co-curator of the DXAS 2026 conference program.
About the Author
Chana-Rivka Thierman is a French-registered architect and Founder & CEO of Thierman Design & Consulting, with international experience across architecture, construction, workplace strategy, and interior design. She is a co-curator of the DXAS 2026 conference program, bringing together distinct voices and thought-provoking perspectives across architecture, design, technology, and business.
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