Laura McKroskey, Amy Carman, Paul Hagen, Kristin Schloemer and Amy Storm at Calia Stone.
It was the evening before the official start of Design Chicago — the Midwest’s largest residential design conference. But just steps away from the conference’s epicenter at The Mart, the celebration was already in full swing at the Calia Stone Boutique. For these superb stone stylists had gathered a collection of bright design community minds — including friends, business partners, journalists and designers. Bubbly was flowing and delicious nibbles circulated throughout the beautifully stone-stocked space, as the crowd chatted excitedly about their plans for the coming days and prepared for the evening’s main event.
Singulart provided conversation-sparking pieces for the event.
Exploring an Essential Relationship at Calia Stone
The evening was billed as “An Evening of Gratitude.” They planned to honor the theme with a featured conversation exploring the essential — but often underappreciated — relationship between designers and vendors. Noted designers Amy Storm, Amy Carman and Laura McKroskey joined the panel to share their points of view on the subject. Meanwhile, Kristine Schloemer offered her unique perspective as a member of the Calia team and Paul Hagen of aspire design and home helped facilitate the conversation.
Guests mingled among Calia’s stunning stone selections.
Their energetic exchanges produced surprising insights — with panelists sharing candidly about some of the best and worst designer/vendor interactions of their careers. First, they agreed that the ultimate friendly vendor — helpfully abbreviated “friendor” — learns how each designer works to save them time and better serve both them and their clients. What’s more, they praised vendors who could be delegated tasks with limited supervision and confidently lead a client through a showroom without stepping on a designer’s toes. And from the story of the evening’s unofficial worst-vendor-ever — dubbed “Karen” for convenience, we learned an important lesson: The worst thing a vendor can do is attempt to go around a designer and undermine them with the client. This last story drew a combination of shocked gasps and knowing laughter from the engaged audience. One can only hope the otherwise unnamed boogeyperson learned their lesson.
The panel laughed and shared stories like old friends.
Looking Ahead After the Calia Stone Kick-Off
Before the discussion finished, one of the event’s organizers Jen McGraw made a special acknowledgment of Singulart — a premier destination for the artfully curious. Their curators provided several striking art pieces arrayed around the space — including a memorable, larger-than-life Louis Vuitton-inspired perfume bottle — that provoked conversation. And Hagen wrapped by inviting audience members to keep the conversation going online by following Storm, Carman, McKroskey, Calia Stone and aspire design and home on Instagram.
The Calia Stone team was on hand to lend support and bonhomie.
The rest of the evening felt further supercharged by the energy of the panel. After the applause, some guests surged toward the panelists to share their own insights and stories. And others compared notes on how they would be filling their Design Chicago schedules while enjoying another round of beverages and comestibles. Overall, the evening was a terrific way to kick-off a conference that was—in many ways—a celebration of what the design community can accomplish by coming together. Or, to paraphrase a certain iconic TV theme song, it sent a message from grateful designers everywhere: “Thank you for being a friendor.”
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