The Keynote Address The Keynote address will be given this year by acclaimed architect Eric Corey Freed, with the topic being “How the Connection between Designers, Fabricators and Architects is Evolving .” In a world of CAD, BIM, laser cutters, CNC machines and rapid prototyping, the relationship between designers and fabricators must also change. Learn about the new tools and materials designers are using to create surfaces and how fabricators fit into that future. You’ll learn ways to market yourself, offer new services and better utilize your existing staff and equipment. Through a “creative collaboration,” you can work side by side with architects and designers and be more integral to the process. Eric Corey Freed, author of Green Building & Remodeling for Dummies and is Executive Director of Urban Re:Vision and Principal of organicARCHITECT, an architecture and consulting firm in San Francisco, with nearly 20 years of experience in green building. Eric teaches the Sustainable Design program he developed at the Academy of Art University and University of California Berkeley Extension. He is on the boards of Architects, Designers & Planners for Social Responsibility (ADPSR), Green Home Guide and West Coast Green, as well as the advisory boards of nearly a dozen other organizations. He was the founding Chair of Architecture for The San Francisco Design Museum and one of the founders of ecoTECTURE: The Online Journal of Ecological Design. His column at GreenerBuildings.com is syndicated to more than a dozen other publications. His quarterly column in Luxe Magazine is seen by thousands around the country. Eric lectures around the country at 40+ conferences a year, and his work has been featured in Dwell, Metropolis, Town & Country, Natural Home and Newsweek. He has been seen on television on HGTV, The Sundance Channel and PBS.
has made it to the trade show, Eric Lindroth of Pierce Laminated Products plans to attend ICE this year. He enjoys the opportunity to “get out and away from things, gain product knowledge, learn through the seminars and talk over the issues with other fabricators.” Layton Day of Bangor Wholesale Laminates has attended every ISFA-sponsored trade show since 1998. He explained his reasons
for attending: “Networking and being around successful people helps me grow as a business owner. We all have the same problems, and when we share ideas, we get the help we need to solve them.” Oscar Valdes has attended the industry trade show since its early days, and joined ISFA shortly after he founded Countertop Solutions LLC. He is firm believer in a strong association and the concept that the industry should support it through membership and attending the trade show. According to Valdes, “If I learn and apply just one thing, or I make one new business contact it is worth going to the show. It’s about making a commitment and supporting the industry.”
ISFA and attends ICE because, “It is the only organization around strictly for the countertop industry. It is a great tool.” Keith Underwood of Solid Surface Fabrications, Ltd. said “networking with other fabricators and finding new tools and suppliers” are the most important reasons he plans to attend ICE. Whatever your reason, it truly is all about the bottom line. ICE gives you the tools, knowledge and contacts you need to make improvements to the bottom line. Your part is to take advantage of the opportunity. Or, as Layton Day of Bangor Wholesale Laminates said, “Go to ICE.”
Jim Maziarz of New England Counter joined International Surface Fabricators Association • Vol. 4, Issue 2, 2011 • 33