Let’s begin with the most exciting news and that is with Herman Miller receiving high honors in 5 categories. Running through the list we begin with the award for Showroom and Booth Design and Herman Miller captured both of the Best of Competition and Large Showroom Winner! Below are the other high achievements received:

Awards for Herman Miller

Entering the Herman Miller showroom at this year’s NeoCon had a buzz of energy around something very new. Researched and developed over the course of the last 4 years, Herman Miller captured the attention of many with the launch of the Living Office concept. An excerpt from Brian Walker, CEO of Herman Miller, explains that the “Living Office is a wonderful, multi-dimensional response to all the changes we see happening around us. I’m deeply excited about it because it reaffirms one of our fundamental values – people are at the center of everything we do.”

Living Office helps people customize their methods, tools, and places of work to express and enable shared character and purpose. It is based on what is fundamental to all humans and evolves continuously in response to change. It is a more natural and desirable workplace that fosters greater connection, creativity, productivity, and ultimately, greater prosperity for all.

An Engine of Prosperity: In the new landscape of work, a dynamic equilibrium of shared passion and profit delivers greater performance and value for both individuals and organizations. Living Office generates this mutually reinforcing engine of prosperity.

Expect to see more in the future on this workplace transformation from Herman Miller!

Up next is a look at DIRTT Environmental Solutions and how they wowed visitors at DIRTT Chicago 2013 with a look from all angles in healthcare, residential, education, and technology. Here’s a clip from their website in how DIRTT describes what they do:

“At DIRTT we don’t make products, we build projects. While our components are best in class, it is the way you use them that makes them special. You tailor them to your needs and they are built quickly in a protected, clean factory ready for installing in your space.”

At Intereum, our Green Learning Center is full of ideas on how to create and define your own space. So if you weren’t able to attend Chicago this year and explore offerings from DIRTT (or from any manufacturer for that reason!), please stop in to Intereum and we’ll show you around.

]]> http://betterwaystowork.com/2013/06/17/come-along-with-us-neocon-2013/feed/ 0 intereum NeoCon Awards for Herman Miller prosperity chicagoHealthcare003 http://betterwaystowork.com/2013/06/07/intereum-employee-spotlight-on-mary-ryan-and-her-retirement/ http://betterwaystowork.com/2013/06/07/intereum-employee-spotlight-on-mary-ryan-and-her-retirement/#comments Fri, 07 Jun 2013 14:30:32 +0000 Intereum http://betterwaystowork.com/?p=3747 ]]> Last week Intereum threw a great party to celebrate the retirement of Mary Ryan, one of our Architectural Products team members.  Mary Ryan had dedicated over 5 years of her career to Intereum and specialized not only on architectural products, but also on flooring, the DIRTT team, and she was the client services contact for all Life Time Fitness clubs.  This woman wore many hats around this place!

Mary Ryan as she ‘graduates’ with her Life Time Fitness team.

Mary Ryan got her start in the industry 30 years ago once her children were old enough and she could go back to work.  Before coming to Intereum, Mary worked in all different facets of the industry including paint, carpet, and the hardware store she and her husband owned.

Mary Ryan and her husband Jon

When Mary first started working at Intereum she felt very fortunate to find a place that really felt like a family, spurred great energy, was a beautiful place to work, and provided such a healthy environment to work in. Becoming a member of the DIRTT team gave Mary a true appreciation for being part of the small unit because everyone’s strengths brought such a value to the whole DIRTT team.  When Patrick joined the group late last year, she found that his experience and fun natured self brought a whole new level to the group, and it was a blast to be a part of.  One major account and role Mary had was servicing the Life Time Fitness clubs and upon reflecting on her responsibilities, the best aspect was being able to work on an account and with a company that cultivated creativity, innovation and cutting edge designs.

Mary Ryan with her DIRTT boss Patrick

In her retirement, Mary has the best intentions of enjoying each and every moment of it!  She loves to golf, garden, camp, downhill ski, snowmobile, and boat.  No doubt there will be plenty of visits with her 10 grandchildren! Mary also wants to spend more time volunteering at her church and at a hospital or nursing home to provide friendship to people that may not have family to come visit them.

Mary Ryan getting ready to head off for retirement!

Mary brought joy, kindness, perseverance, humor, and a depth of understanding to each level of her job here at Intereum. We are thankful to have been part of her career-family and we are sad to see her go, but are so excited for her as she enters this new chapter in her life!  Congratulations, Mary, on your retirement and best wishes every day!

The most talked about event in the industry, NeoCon, will be underway in Chicago from June 8 – 12. Herman Miller is making their exciting debut of the Mirra 2 chair and the new Living Office. If you don’t plan to attend – no worries – we will have a full recap to follow.

Reverting back to MN for the next event in June is the MNCAR “10th Ever” Golf Tournament (bring back memories?). The tournament will be held at The Legends Golf Course on Tuesday, June 25th with the tee-off scheduled for 11:30. An Intereum crew will be there so be sure to visit with us at hole #16!

For those that are involved more on the healthcare side of work (whether as a designer, architect, facilities manager, student, etc), we want to invite you to our Healthcare CEU featuring Planetree’s story of healing environments that are centered on patient care. This is also on Tuesday, June 25th, beginning at 4:00 here at Intereum. Light appetizers and refreshments will be served. Please RSVP to Jen Zeller if you’re interested in attending: JZeller@intereum.com

July will be sprinkled with various outings and events so be sure to follow our Facebook and Twitter accounts to see what summer happenings we’ll be up to.

August will get a running start with MinneCon on Thursday, August 1st at the Depot. Intereum will be exhibiting alongside Herman Miller for the day. There will be a great CEU from Herman Miller presented by Betty Hase on the topic of “Context for Creativity“. Betty will explore how the physical environment can facilitate or inhibit behaviors linked to creative function and innovation.  Also at MinneCon is the all-day event for students called Pique. This provides students with invaluable insight into the world of commercial design.

The lineup for September and the following months will be chalk-full of great events, too. But for now, enjoy the long weekend as we remember and honor those who have served our country.

Herman Miller’s healthcare focus and goals are centered on creating healing environments that customize the needs of patients.  This ensures the people using their designs best interests will always be at the center.  Planetree’s focus is to personalize, humanize, and demystify healthcare, beginning and ending with the patient in mind.  With those core values at the heart, Herman Miller is proud to have found someone with the same vision to partner with to focus on their healing environments.  This partnership aims to draw on their collective research and design to encourage creating patient-centered healing spaces.

Coming June 25th, Intereum and Herman Miller Healthcare will host a CEU focused on the story of Planetree, the healing environment, and patient-centered care. This presentation will focus on what’s become top-of-mind for many healthcare organizations, the patient experience, and it will also address the measurable outcomes with Planetree’s successes and its relation to the creation of environments. The CEU kicks off at 4:00 at Intereum. Contact Jen Zeller if you’re interested in attending!

Rollie and her husband Ben

Outside of work Rollie has many passions and hobbies that keep her busy and active.  Her most obvious love is for her “little man,” Bode, a two and a half year old boxer.  She fell in love with the breed over 11 years ago and has owned one ever since.  Her first boxer was named Tai and with Tai, Rollie discovered the sport of dog agility!  She and Bode stay busy with agility and obedience training where they are able to foster their teamwork skills and then take principles learned there and apply them outside the classroom.  What Rollie particularly loves about agility training with Bode is that it builds such an amazing canine-human relationship and it teaches Bode to watch Rollie and be more connected to her as well.

Rollie and Bode

Rollie also volunteers at the Ronald McDonald house serving 8-9 meals a year through their “Cooks for Kids” program.  During any one of the meals there can be upwards of 90 people to provide meals and community to.  Rollie has done this for so many years; she has her recipes and serving down like clockwork!  All people being served are families that have children with life threatening illnesses.  The Ronald McDonald house provides food and shelter for these families while their children are in treatment.

Kisses from Bode

Rollie is also a self-proclaimed “Frustrated Photographer.”  As a kid, she and her sister had a darkroom in their basement where they had equipment used to develop photos.  They were savvy enough kids that they bought the equipment from a teacher at their school (Sidebar: It wasn’t until Rollie was an adult that she realized this teacher didn’t actually own that equipment and therefore it wasn’t his to sell!).  Turns out that they had had hot developing equipment all those years!

Picture of Bode taken by Rollie

Rollie also loves to travel!  Her favorite and most memorable vacations have been centered around beautiful mountain views in Banff, Jasper, Lake Louise, Yosemite, Yellow Stone, and Alaska.  She just loves being outside – going for long walks and hikes in the woods and taking in the majestic views of the mountains and breathing in the fresh air!

Rollie’s love for animals, people, the arts, and the outdoors makes her an extremely compassionate and driven person.  Those are the values that transcend into her everyday work life here at Intereum.  We are lucky to have her on our team and even more lucky to call her friend.

Michael Maharam stated,”Much as we’ve struggled with this decision, our philosophical kinship with Herman Miller helped make this difficult step a far easier one. Beyond our shared objectives in design leadership, we consider Herman Miller to be an esteemed organization intent on doing well by its staff, clientele and the community. We believe they have the complementary intellect and resources to ensure Maharam a bright future while valuing our spirit and ways, and permitting the continued evolution of our unique approach. Herman Miller’s potential to provide the wherewithal to pursue important new initiatives, as well as an established reach into both retail and international markets and the greatest possible strength of association, offers a powerful lever in achieving our design-centered strategic vision.”

Circles Fabric by Charles and Ray Eames

Herman Miller’s CEO, Brian Walker, is also excited about the acquisition and stated, “The combination of Herman Miller and Maharam is a natural and complementary union anchored in our shared values and built on years of business cooperation and personal friendship. Our respective and combined operational strengths and resources provide immediate, mutual strategic leverage.”

Dot Fabric by Charles and Ray Eames

The synergy between the furniture company and textile company is a natural one that will enable the two to thrive as one.  We’re thrilled for them both with this exciting opportunity. Here is to many years of creativity and success!

What does the future hold in store for us regarding our web presence and web design, and how do we get there? That’s exactly what we all sat tight to hear.

Opening up the evening for us was RJ Stelter (@RJStelter) and Anna Olson (@AnnaOlson20) with Herman Miller SMB. They provided our audience with an overview to Herman Miller, Thrive, and the benefits of the Small and Medium Business program.

Moving along into the core of the evening, StepStoneGroup took the floor, which was composed of Kevin (President), Paul (Sr. Web Developer), Alex (Graphic Designer), and Stephen (SEO Guru), by providing us with a tech overview that was informative and easy to absorb without feeling lost on this dense topic.

We all know how websites look and function for the most part but it’s not often we go back in time to pull up what Yahoo’s site from 1995 was like now do we. Taking the walk down the path of where web has been to where it is now (and going) was very intriguing. Web 1.0 was your basic, table layout page that had little to next and ran on a dial-up modem (insert old dial-up modem sound here).

Remember this?

Web 2.0 took a migration to more dynamic content and interactivity with the use of more flash and social capabilities. Biggest trends that have come from this phase of Web 2.0 are still commonly used today: Top navigation, rotating banner images, and website footers which serve as the toolbox for the bottom site. Overall, content is the frame and the design is frameless.

Shifting to today and turning the page for a glimpse into where the future trends lie, web design is being categorized as needing to have “responsive design.” Broken down, this means that there needs to be UX elements (one environment for all technology platforms: mobile, desktop, etc). Becoming more popular is the one page, one element look with full screen graphics for a clean layout. It’s best to keep in mind that your web presence should be compatible on mobile technology. Why? Because research indicates that by 2014, 15% of commerce will be done on mobile devices. And think of all of the searching and information we pull from these gadgets!

Digital real estate is paramount this day in age and over the last three years there has been a dramatic shift in web design. Always a good rule of thumb is to remember that content is king, your copy and text is still very important as the makeup of your digital real estate.

A big thanks to our attendees, sponsors, speakers and helpers! If you attended this event, we’d love to hear what you took away from the evening, simply message us @Intereum.

Nemo Bar and Trellis, photo courtesy of izzyplus.com

The Nemo Bar creates a great place for people to collaborate and connect around. Being at standing height helps support the idea of people constantly being on the move and moving from one thing to the next.  The Nemo Bar has power options to bring technologies into your meetings and a plethora of flavor materials that can be applied for any aesthetic. Pull up a stool or just yourself; the Nemo Bar is a great addition to the working environment.

Nemo Bar, photo courtesy of izzyplus.com

As a complimentary or standalone piece, the Nemo Trellis provides a beautiful architectural element that defines space as an inviting, gathering hub.  It has a balance of enclosure for a certain amount of privacy as well as openness that welcomes people in.

Nemo Trellis, photo courtesy of izzyplus.com

Both the Nemo Bar and Trellis won Gold at NeoCon in 2012 for their amazing ability to house and support people coming together and creating.  For more information about the design inspiration, check out this quick video. One look from the fresh designs and materials from izzy+ and you’ll be thinking spring, too!