Soft Skills for Architects and Designers

*This event is occurring as a live webinar. Registrants will be emailed a link to access the program.*

Successful practice requires the cultivation of a diverse set of skills. This program will focus on the importance of “soft skills” that propel effective architects and designers, encompassing communications, marketing, networking, and interpersonal relations.

Audience members will have the opportunity to pose questions to panelists at the end of the program.

Speakers:
Evelyn Lee, AIA, Senior Experience Designer at Slack Technologies; Design Strategist; Treasurer, AIA National Board
Andrea Kahn, Founding Principal, designCONTENT; Professor of Site Thinking in Research and Practice, Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet, SLU, Alnarp/Malmo, Sweden
Danielle Rago, Cofounder and Principal, THIS X THAT
Honora Shea, Cofounder and Principal, THIS X THAT

Moderators:
Kavitha Mathew, AIA, LEED AP, Director, Leadership and Engagement Initiatives, AIA New York
Erin Conti, AIAS, President of the American Institute of Architecture Students

Evelyn Lee, AIA, is the first-ever Senior Experience Designer at Slack Technologies. Lee seamlessly integrates her business and architecture background with a qualitative and quantitative focus to build a better workplace experience for Slack Employees, visitors, and guests. She is widely published, wrote a monthly column for Contract magazine for over three years, and now is a frequent contributor to Architect Magazine. Lee has received numerous industry awards including the 2016 40 Under 40 award for Building Design + Construction and the 2014 AIA National Young Architects Award. She currently serves as the first-ever female Treasurer to the AIA National Board in 2020-2021.

Andrea Kahn is an internationally recognized educator and scholar. She founded designCONTENT in 2006, to support leading design researchers, professionals, and their clients in their shared quest for quality project outcomes. A strategic thinker about multiple scales of design and forms of design communication, Kahn brings a special interest in collaborative processes to her work. In addition to consulting, she teaches planning and design in the US and abroad, and also lectures publicly on contemporary issues in urban design and urban landscape transformation. A widely published author and respected editor, her works include Constellations: Constructing Urban Design Practices (2007), Site Matters: Design Concepts, Histories and Strategies (with Carol Burns, 2005 & 2020, forthcoming) and Drawing/ Building/ Text: Essays in Architectural Theory (1991).

Danielle Rago and Honora Shea are the founders and principals of THIS X THAT, an agency representing progressive architects. THIS X THAT is dedicated to bringing architecture and design to broader audiences, and endeavors to initiate, develop, and realize publicly accessible projects at the intersection of architecture, art, and culture. For those looking for design talent, THIS X THAT will help to find the right architect, at scales ranging from site-specific installations and public art to interior architecture to ground-up buildings. For architects, THIS X THAT offers business development, PR and communications, and advisory services, with an eye towards helping emerging practices identify and connect with the right partners.