November’s free webinar series, sponsored by Paintzen, bolsters the ways designers, remodelers and retailers can use technology to enhance their business operations.
By Dianne M. Pogoda
By now, most design and remodeling professionals have learned to integrate smart-home technology into their clients’ projects. But November’s free webinar series explores the ways B2B tech can help. these pros can enhance their own businesses. The series is sponsored by Paintzen, a search tool that simplifies the process of finding and booking professional painters.
Each month, NKBA offers free 60-minute webinars, each featuring a presentation by a specific subject matter expert, delivered via a virtual platform. The sessions offer certified participants 0.1 CEU per event — it’s an easy way for designers to collect the CEUs needed to maintain NKBA certification. Participants must engage in 80 percent of the live sessions to receive CEU credit; registration closes two hours prior to start times. All webinars begin at 12 noon, Eastern Time. Visit www.nkba.org to register.
Starting the month’s programming on Nov. 4, Gilli Cherrin, senior product manager at Houzz, explores “3 Ways Technology Can Help You Manage Your Business in Order to Scale it.” Designers and remodeling pros juggle their craft and their business, often simultaneously. The use of integrated technology is the key to maintaining project timelines, keeping customers happy, staying on budget and ultimately scaling a business. — and it can be an efficient timesaver as well. Cherrin will share three ways to leverage technology for project management, lead management and customer communication. Attendees will learn how automation solutions can help building and renovation businesses to improve project management and client communication; how to leverage technology integrations to automate time-intensive financial activities to achieve greater efficiencies, and about specific software integrations that home design and renovation professionals should consider, from CRM to project management to payroll to accounting.
To register for this webinar, click here.
On Nov. 11, Phillip Gibney, a sales & marketing consultant for Chief Architect Software, discusses how to “Design and Sell using 3D Design Software.” He will illustrate how to better communicate with clients and sell the job using 3D presentations. Gibney will show how using different rendering techniques — like watercolor, technical illustration and photo realistic ray tracing — can provide clients with feedback from design concepts to the final look and feel of the completed project. The latest mobile technologies can be used as a communication tool, change designs, materials and colors on the fly in front of clients and create a satisfying customer experience that will help sell more jobs — and increase referrals.
This session will explore how automated design tools can increase productivity and speed up the design process, and attendees will learn to recognize how home design software increases speed and accuracy in creating floorplans, wall elevations, layouts and more.
To register for this webinar, click here.
On Nov. 17, learn about “Designing a Kitchen with Sketchup” with Betsy Miller, CKD, owner of Betsy Design. Miller will discuss working with Sketchup to design and create simple kitchen layouts. It’s recommended that attendees are generally familiar with how to draw simple shapes in Sketchup; there are some great “how-to”, “getting started with Sketchup” courses on YouTube to get up to speed prior to this session. It should be noted that everything in this webinar can be done without purchasing any paid Sketchup extensions. Attendees should also have familiarity with NKBA Kitchen Design Standards and standard sizes of cabinetry, appliances and fixtures. The session will show how to create a room in Sketchup from dimensions and/or sketch walls, windows, doors, floor and ceiling; place appliances, cabinetry, countertop, backsplash, and other finishing touches in a room using Sketchup Warehouse; Select textures via Sketchuptextureclub.com (free), and transfer drawings to Sketchup Layout.
To register for this webinar, click here.
On Nov. 19, join Meghan Stewart, senior director of B2C at Paintzen, to learn “How Technology is Helping Homeowners Transform Their Homes More Seamlessly than Ever.” Stewart has led Paintzen’s team of Project Advisors for years, helping customers to book painting projects using technology that streamlines the process. She’ll show how the company’s tech-focused tools make for a faster, more convenient painting experience, how color selection has been simplified with digital color tools and remote consultations. She’ll examine the remote quoting process and different technological features of the tool, identify some of the digital color tools available and discuss the growth of the company’s trade program and options available to designers interested in using the platform.
To register for this webinar, click here.
Closing out the series on Nov. 24, learn “Why NOW is the Time to Embrace Guided Design for Your eCommerce Store.” Nizam Yusuf, product marketing manager for DigitalBridge, based. In Manchester, England, will talk about our world of world of “frictionless gratification,” whether it’s summoning an Uber in minutes, 1-hour delivery from Amazon, or asking Siri to play your favorite song right this minute. This shift is driving success and failure at retail — recall, for example, Netflix vs. Blockbuster, or Spotify vs. any defunct music store.
The K&B purchase journey is long, complex and full of friction, too, with dozens of decisions to make, hours of research and expertise required. Yusuf’s company created Guided Design to help consumers start their renovation project at any time on any device and collaborate with a retailer once they’ve brought initial ideas together. Its web-based AI-powered Guided Design tool proactively leads consumers through the design and purchasing journey and reduces friction that holds them back from creating their ideal bathroom and kitchen. This session will show design and remodeling pros and retailers how this software can help their customers in the design process, transform the way consumers buy a bathroom or kitchen online, engage customers earlier in the buying process, and accelerate online revenue.
To register for this webinar, click here.
