New Year Update - Jan 2012

Dear Members & Friends of the Institute,

As a non-profit organization who just celebrated our 50th year, we continue to adapt our offer, to connect, educate and inspire our members. 

As our profession continues to lift the retail Industry out of the recession, I’m conscious of how fortunate the Retail Design Institute is, to represent such a diverse range of disciplines within one organization. One of our core strengths, is this breadth and depth of skills that we are able to offer and the creative means through which we have sought to differentiate ourselves, to deliver new retail solutions to the market.

As a member of the RDI, you are part of an incredibly resourceful team of professional individuals with an increasingly diverse range of benefits at your disposal that can enable you to succeed in the business of design. There are a host of initiatives underway which will directly benefit you over the coming year, from signature events with key speakers, to opportunities that will promote your business or personal portfolio, supported by a new website that promises to be far more relevant, intuitive to use and will serve as a platform for you to engage with the industry at large.

While the Institute has been busy both across North America and overseas with several new initiatives led by our International President, I wanted to take this opportunity to briefly reflect on some of our local Chapter activities during 2011. 

A number of our members supported and attended a seminar for the Student forum at Globalshop last year, which was a great opportunity for those students who participated. Shortly thereafter, we went on to establish a student committee referred to as ‘NextGen’, who have been actively recruiting students both on-campus and through regular postings on their own blog site as follows: http://nextgenrdi.blogspot.com/

Later, in October NextGen hosted their first event in Long Beach, teaming up several students with professional mentors for a 1 day design competition to create branded pop-up solutions for the department store environment. The designs were judged in an open forum that same evening, at an event which successfully showcased the talent of local California Students while exposing professionals to fresh perspectives and future employees. The event was extremely popular with not only the students, but the professionals who so generously donated their time to participate.

We plan to build on this format next year with an emphasis on ‘High End Accessories’ retail, which is the brief for this year’s International Student Design Competition. It’s important therefor to note the following new benefit available to our members: 

All qualifying entries submitted for the International Student Design Competition by those entrants within Southern California and the Southwest region, will be eligible to have their work featured at this annual Chapter event!

Our intent is to extend this idea into a local professional awards event, featuring local firms who have submitted entries to the International Store Design Competition. Our hope is that both will serve to showcase local talent while encouraging those in our Chapter to enter the awards and promote our local businesses on an International stage. You’ve already put in the hard work – now let us help you get the message out to local professionals, retailers, suppliers and students!

In order to create this award winning work, it’s also important to lift our heads up on a regular basis and be aware of the trends that are influencing our customers elsewhere around the globe. So in August, Alison Embrey Medina the editor of DDI Magazine presented her insights to us on several trends in Retail, as part of a sponsored roadshow around the country arranged by the International Board of the RDI. We can expect to benefit from more events of this nature during 2012 with perhaps the ‘Masters of Design’ forum, which made a debut last year in Toronto.

While we recognize that attendance at Southern California events presents significant challenges for some due to traffic and distances (putting it mildly!), I know that many of you who have attended find it to be an extremely valuable opportunity for you to network with the industry at large and nurture existing relationships, while establishing new ones! We hosted one such social event at ‘Royal T’ in Culver City, which provided an informal setting for members and friends of the Institute to re-connect and voice their thoughts on the Chapter in an open forum. 

Over the past year, the Southern California Chapter board has listened to this input and along with the support of several other members, sponsors and friends of the Institute, we set out to prioritize a number of actionable goals and establish a framework through which we could deliver on these objectives.

Several members of the board have been reaching out to you recently to not only take the pulse of our Chapter and find out what we can do for you, but to discover new ways in which you can elevate your involvement with the chapter and capitalize on the benefits of your membership. I spoke with a number of you and your reactions underscored my earlier point regarding the diversity of our skills and interests. 

The outcome of these calls included (but certainly wasn’t limited to) connecting a member to our overseas contacts, as they were looking to expand their business overseas; a member offering a student summer placement; a member offering their support in seeking sponsorship; a member expressing an interest in starting a future Chapter and connecting us to a new college where he lectures...the list goes on!

At the same time, we recognized that we could be doing more to support those in our industry who are suffering the most as a result of the recession. To that end, our Chapter is implementing a new initiative to sponsor the membership fee of a limited number of professionals who are currently unemployed:

If you are a member in good standing, who knows of a lapsed member or another qualified colleague in the industry who would benefit from a 1 year sponsored membership to the Institute, then please contact one of our Chapter membership committee for more details.

Over the coming year, our goal is to arrange 4 key signature events along with several satellite mixers, the latter enabled by your own initiatives through the increased functionality of the new website (due for launch Feb). 

The board are building closer relationships with other industry groups such as ACRE, ICSC and the Set Decorators Society of America as well as other disciplines currently under represented in our chapter, such as the AIGA of Orange County and digital or social media groups to name a few. We’re also fostering relationships in South East Asia, to better enable the growth of our businesses internationally and to benefit from in-bound opportunities to the West Coast.

In summary I believe we’ve achieved some significant progress this year and with your help the Chapter will grow from strength to strength. Send us an e-mail or give us a call if you’re interested to play a more active role in our Chapter’s growth. In turn, we’ll continue to improve the quality and frequency of our events while communicating with you on a more regular basis. 

Your active participation in the Chapter will be the catalyst that broadens our capabilities  while ensuring you get the most out of your membership.

Lastly, the board would like to say thank you. For being such agents of change for our profession by developing new channels, formats and approaches to our craft and delivering products and services to suit the consumers’ ever changing needs. For being such a positive influence on our ability to strengthen the economy. For building California’s reputation as an incubator for innovative business and as a hot-bed for creative talent. For mentoring the next generation of professionals. For your continued support of the Institute and our Chapter.

We hope you had a happy holiday season and wish you a great start to the New Year. If we don’t see you in New York for the International Store Design Awards Gala, we’ll look forward to seeing you at one of our local events in 2012!

Sincerely,

James Farnell, RDI, LEED GA

President, Retail Design Institute

Southern California *

caswpres@retaildesigninstitute.org

c/o Little, 1901 Newport Blvd, Suite 300, Costa Mesa CA 92627

*Southern California, Southwest (Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico) & Hawaii