LAS VEGAS Panelists at a Hospitality Design (HD) 2001 seminar, held March 29, called “What Hotel Owners Want: Are Designers Meeting The Needs Of Developers?” said that interior designers need to “get up to speed when it comes to technology.”
Alan Benjamin, Benjamin West LLC; Mark Hemmeter, The Hemmeter Companies; John Cooper, Stormont Hospitality; and Ferd Belz, Dakotah Ridge Development said that because the technology involved in doing business has changed so much, it s crucial for designers to be able to communicate electronically with developers and turn designs around faster. Otherwise, they concurred, it slows down the development process.
For Hemmeter, this key issue has translated into a qualification process when it comes to hiring an interior design firm. “It s becoming a hiring question, because we would find out too late that the design firm [didn t have the technological ability we needed]. Now we ask, What s your tech plan? in addition to looking at projects.”
The bottom line, according to Belz, is that interior designers need to be “cutting edge” when it comes to technology because developers don t have time to waste.
As far as marketing themselves to developers, technology, again, is key. Hemmeter said that a simple e-mail with a web link that he could save is much better than receiving promotional mailings. He also noted that, “If an interior designer comes to me with a deal, my ears go up.” Benjamin added, “That means create your own demand.” (3/30/01) Barbara Capella Loehr