The monthly webinar series offers CEUs to maintain certification and Specialty Badge status. By Deborah Mayberry
Keeping up with the latest business strategies, design trends, industry advancements and cutting-edge technology that’s permeating kitchen and bath design and remodeling is the way industry pros can set themselves apart from the competition.
To help professionals stay ahead of the game, NKBA offers free monthly webinars on key themes. The webinars qualify for Continuing Education Units, which are necessary to maintain NKBA design certification, as well as benefitting Specialty Badge holders, who need to accrue CEUs to maintain their badge credentials.
These 60-minute webinars each feature a presentation by an expert about a specific subject, delivered via a virtual platform. The sessions offer NKBA-certified designers 0.1 CEU per event. Certified participants must engage in 80 percent of the sessions to receive credit. Registration takes just a few clicks at store.nkba.org and is available until two hours prior to the webinar’s start time. Details on dates and times are available on the website as well.
In 2020, the Association will continue to offer four webinars per month. Here’s a summary of the topics for 2020.
January: Business and Marketing
To start the new year, this month’s webinars focus on business and marketing strategies for a kitchen and bath business. The focus will be on conducting proper discovery with prospects, building a team for your business, staying in front of customers digitally and the key drivers for brand and business success.
February: Smart-Home Technology
Smart-home technology continues to grow rapidly, adding an element of complexity to the work that designers perform and consumers desire. This month’s webinars will discuss the five levels of a smart home, how smart technology assists clients as they age in their homes, wellness/biophilia as it applies to smart technology and what’s trending for kitchens of the future.
March: Outdoor Spaces
Outdoor spaces are fast becoming extensions of the indoors. March webinars will offer ways to refresh outdoor living designs, how to work with a client’s space and budget, the future of outdoor kitchens and landscaping ideas.
April: Sustainable Living and Design
While sustainability has been a buzzword in materials and sourcing in recent years, it’s becoming more prominent in the design and architectural world as well. This month’s series explores the basics of good sustainable design, wholistic and wellness features of various products, remodeling and building practices and a virtual walk through a Seattle home that’s a template for sustainable building design.
May: Modern Lighting
Light is one of the most important elements in design, providing function, beauty and ambience in any space. May webinars feature the basics of lighting, trends, how to utilize lighting in various interior settings and how lighting affects and improves wellness.
June: Color and Style Trends — Sponsored by Amerock
Color has a major influence on a home’s design and on the people who live there. June sessions will cover how color affects and aids in universal and wellness design, the ways color can be coordinated with appliances, techniques for using it in design and which colors are trending for the year. June webinars are sponsored by Amerock Hardware.
July: Small Spaces Design — Sponsored by Blum Inc.
These sessions will discuss small space design and how to understand industry research and consumer habits and needs, making the most of square footage and functionality and small-space solutions for open floor plans. July webinars are sponsored by Blum Inc.
August: Surfaces and Design
Surface areas in kitchens and baths attract a lot of attention. August webinars will discuss the art of mixing materials, explore innovative natural stone designs, how to evaluate the surfaces and specify the right materials for many rooms in the home.
September: Living In Place
The population around the globe is aging at a rapid pace, with most people wanting to stay in their own homes as long as safely possible. September sessions will illustrate how designers can improve homes for safety, accommodate a wide range of lifestyles and how components like functional hardware can meet clients’ ergonomic needs.
October: Storage Design Trends
Most people can never have enough storage — the trick is to make it look good while it hides a lot of stuff. October sessions will cover how to increase profits and satisfy customers’ needs with interior storage, offer innovative storage solutions and use different hardware to improve functional storage. Creating a wine storage system is also on the agenda.
November: Design Software
Improve your designs by utilizing computer-aided software and stay up-to-date with this valuable technology. This month’s sessions will focus on using 3D design software to increase productivity and speed up the design process, the importance of guided design and how to create a profitable business model and manage projects.
December: Architecture and Design
What’s trending in architectural renovation and design? December sessions focus on home and renovation trends, designing a Millennial-friendly kitchen and bath showroom, six pathways to unlock your designs and appliance technology advancements in the industry.
For more information and to register for the webinars, visit https://store.nkba.org and view the featured collections. For sponsorship opportunities, contact Alan Dove, National Sales Manager, at adove@nkba.org.
