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June 11, 2013 - 2:11pmLineup also includes BIFMA Board President and izzy+ CEO Chuck Saylor and presenters from Haworth, Steelcase and other manufacturers and dealerships
GRAND RAPIDS, MICH., USA—June 11, 2013—Configura, maker of CET Designer software, announces the keynote speaker and other lead presenters for the 6th annual CET Designer User Conference being held Oct 9-10 at DeVos Place in Grand Rapids, Mich. Conference registration is now open at www.configura.com/userconference/.The lineup:KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Irene Etzkorn
Simple: Conquering the Crisis of Complexity
Irene Etzkorn is one of the world’s foremost authorities on how to simplify. She is the executive director of leadership and simplification at Siegel + Gale in New York City where she consults to Fortune 500 companies and recently co-authored the book Simple: Conquering the Crisis of Complexity. She shows how having empathy, striving for clarity and distilling one’s message can reduce the distance between company and customer.
“Having explored simplicity's applicability to graphic and product design, I am delighted to have the opportunity to discuss how the tenets of simplicity can also be applied to aspects of physical design,” Etzkorn said. “Any task and any communication can be simplified. I welcome the chance to address an audience that is embracing the concept of simplicity and applying it as a corporate mindset.”
Chuck Saylor
State of the Furniture and Design Industry
Chuck Saylor is the founder and CEO of izzy+ in Spring Lake, Michigan. With four decades of diverse experiences in the industry, Saylor currently serves as president of the board of directors for the Business and Institutional Furniture Manufacturers Association (BIFMA). Author of People Power, Saylor holds more than 20 patents and earned numerous design and marketing awards. In 1976, Saylor, Dick Haworth and Harold Wilson were responsible for the design and development of the first pre-wired steel panel system in the office furniture industry. Saylor’s work has been shown at New York's Museum of Modern Art and the Chicago Anthenaeum.Beth Hulst
CET Designer in the Sales Process
Beth Hulst has been a user and proponent of CET Designer for more than three years. She has worked as a designer for furniture dealerships in California and Michigan, and currently works at Interphase Interiors in Grand Rapids, Michigan. At Interphase, Beth creates sales proposal templates and bid packages with the help of CET Designer. Beth will share the tips and tricks that have helped her to take projects in CET Designer from an initial client meeting to an innovative and order-ready solution.
Cate Sword
Tips and Hints with CET Designer
Cate Sword, IIDA, based in Jenison, Michigan, has provided architects, interior designers and furniture dealership design centers with quality software training since 1989. A certified trainer for CET Designer, AutoCAD, 20-20 and ProjectMatrix, Cate focuses on reducing both the learning curves and the time it takes to produce first-class results. With a fun and interactive teaching style, Cate shares her easy tips and hints in CET DesignerLorna Marcuzzo
CET Designer as a Presentation Tool
Lorna Marcuzzo is a federal designer and analytical consultant at A. Pomerantz & Company in Philadelphia. She was an early adopter of CET Designer and uses the program daily to generate sales for her dealership. Employing video fly-throughs and other CET Designer features, Lorna works with customers to modernize their workspaces. Lorna will share her experience of using CET Designer not just for specification but also as a tool to get customers excited about the potential for their designed workspace.
Emily Siegel
Dealer Process Change with CET Designer
Emily Siegel is a designer and process lead at McCoy-Rockford Business Interiors in Austin, Texas. With a background in business and design, Emily quickly embraced the advanced technology of CET Designer. She champions integration of the tool into the sales process as a key component of closing deals quickly. Committed to efficient delivery of excellent products and services, her design team credits CET Designer with reducing specification errors and heightening the ability to produce high-quality visuals and swiftly turnaround projects.
Kari Anderson
Jason Lund
CET Designer and the Office of the Future
Kari Anderson is the design lead at Target Commercial Interiors in Minneapolis. She’s used CET Designer for more than five years and presented at the CET Designer User Conference in Las Vegas in 2010. She advocates for implementing process changes with CET Designer to simplify design and business activities.
Jason Lund is the director of information technology for Target Commercial Interiors. His team is responsible for the operation of Target’s enterprise technology portfolio including a data center, nine office locations in the U.S. and India, and numerous home-office users. His team has supported the early adoption of many leading-edge technologies including private cloud computing, HD video webcasting and CET Designer. Jason continues to research and promote standardized, cost-effective end-user hardware options that benefit his designers and their clients.Brian DeRoo
Jennifer Newton
SmartTools Tips and Hints
Brian DeRoo is the IT program manager for the CET Designer SmartTools Extension at Steelcase Inc., leading a team in the development and support of the Extension. Based at Steelcase’s headquarters in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Brian has more than 20 years of experience in information technology. For the past 15 years, he has worked to provide design and specification solutions and integration of the solutions into the business systems used by Steelcase and its dealers.
Jennifer Newton is a senior designer at NBS Commercial Interiors, a Steelcase dealership in Troy, Michigan. As a CET Designer user for more than five years, she pushed the boundaries of CET Designer early on to determine that it truly is the best software for design and specification. She has worked closely with the Steelcase and Configura teams to provide valuable feedback for improvement of the software. Jennifer has worked all sizes of projects, with large projects being her specialty. She uses CET Designer in collaboration with her customers to help them visualize and even participate in designing their environment.
Keith Driesenga
CANVAS Tips and Hints
Keith Driesenga has been the e-marketing specialist for three years at Haworth based in Holland, Michigan, where he responsible for planning and testing the CET Designer CANVAS Extension. His combined interior design and business degrees allow him to understand dealer processes as they relate to design and specification.
Joe Danzer
ProjectSymbols Tips and Hints
Joe Danzer is the product alliance manager at ProjectMatrix in Cincinnati, Ohio. He'll present tips, tricks and best practices when using CET Designer's ProjectSymbols Extension. He'll also discuss current and future enhancements for the software and conclude with a Q&A session.
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June 4, 2013 - 9:43am
GRAND RAPIDS, MICH., USA—May 2013—Configura, maker of award-winning CET Designer® software used by Haworth, Inscape, KI, Steelcase, Teknion and others, will be at the NeoCon World’s Trade Fair June 10-12, at the Merchandise Mart in Chicago. It’s the 12th year in a row the company has exhibited at the show.
Visit Configura at Booth 7-7046 – dealers can sign up for free virtual training
Highlights include demos of CET Designer 4.0 (media: see the CET Designer 4.0 press release for detailed information at www.configura.com/newsroom/neocon/). Visitors will experience renderings so real they look like photos. Big-screen, high-definition TVs will display Configura’s CET Designer software in action, including fly-thru videos. The exhibition space is reflective of Swedish design. In the booth, dealers can sign up for free virtual CET Designer training for up to six new users. Seats are limited.
NeoCon contest – trip to 6th annual CET Designer User Conference
Configura invites CET Designer users to stop by our NeoCon booth on June 10-11 to register for the chance to win a free trip to the 6th annual CET Designer User Conference. The winner will be drawn June 12 at 10:45 a.m. in Configura’s booth. The winner does not need to be present to win.
NeoCon showroom party
NeoCon attendees are invited to mingle with Swedish software super-geeks, fashionable designers and office-furniture aficionados at Configura's annual NeoCon Party on Monday, June 10, from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. in Merchandise Mart space 7-7046. Join Configura for signature Swedish cocktails and more!
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June 3, 2013 - 12:36pmGRAND RAPIDS, MICH., USA—May 31, 2013—Configura, maker of CET Designer software, announces free June webinars:Special June WebinarCreating Installation Documents in CET Designer with CET Designer 4.0June 4, 11 a.m. ETJune 18, 2 p.m. ETJune 24, 2 p.m. ETGetting Started with CET DesignerJune 6, 11 a.m. ETJune 24, 11 a.m. ETRendering in CET DesignerJune 18, 11 a.m. ETJune 20, 2 p.m. ETThe free webinars are for anyone, whether a Beginner or Advanced CET Designer user. Please call 877-568-4106 and use code 671-407-662 and join by clicking on “Join Webinar Now” at www.configura.com/cet/training. To contact Configura directly with any questions or suggestions, call 877-238-0808. View Configura’s CET Designer 2013 training calendars at www.configura.com/calendar.
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May 21, 2013 - 1:55pm
GRAND RAPIDS, MICH., USA—May 20, 2013—Configura, maker of CET Designer software, launched CET Designer 4.0 on May 20.CET Designer 4.0 includes such design improvements as the ability to create custom shapes and worksurfaces, and rendering improvements that include the ability to make walls transparent or partially transparent. Additionally, a Material Lab with product materials is included in 4.0.CET Designer 4.0 lets users work with even larger drawings. Component blocks, another feature, allows users to quickly replicate and edit blocks of components independent of panels. Improved type styles let designers change fonts and color on text.Highly visual CET Designer helps interior designers to specify manufacturers’ contract furniture products in 2D and 3D space. Changes are applied instantly. CET Designer is a smart, rules-based parametric tool that is fast and easy to use. The all-in-one tool enables users to create layouts, quotes, photorealistic renderings, installation drawings, movies and reconfigurations.In a survey of dealerships using CET Designer, users estimated 65 percent more value-added output with CET Designer as opposed to other software products.Jennifer Newton, a designer with NBS, a Steelcase dealer in Michigan, used CET Designer to win a project consisting of 450 workstations. According to Newton, CET Designer was 100 percent accurate on the project. She estimates she is at least 50 percent faster in her work using CET Designer.Paul Riches, a designer for Heritage Office Furnishings, a Steelcase dealer in Vancouver, is working on an 850-workstation project using CET Designer. “I can’t imagine completing this job through manual specifications or CAD-based tools,” he said. “We’ve cut our production time up to one-half.”More about how CET Designer saves users time and money - http://configura.com/casestudies. -
April 11, 2013 - 2:31pm
GRAND RAPIDS, MICH., USA—March 28, 2013—Configura, maker of CET Designer software, prepares to release CET Designer 4.0 in May.
CET Designer 4.0 includes such design improvements as the ability to create custom shapes and worksurfaces, and rendering improvements that include the ability to make walls transparent or partially transparent. Additionally, a Material Lab with product materials will be included in 4.0.
CET Designer 4.0 will let users work with even larger drawings. Component blocks, another feature, will allow users to quickly replicate and edit blocks of components independent of panels. Improved type styles will let designers change fonts and color on text.
Highly visual CET Designer helps interior designers to specify manufacturers’ contract furniture products in 2D and 3D space. Changes are applied instantly. CET Designer is a smart, rules-based parametric tool that is fast and easy to use. The all-in-one tool enables users to create layouts, quotes, photorealistic renderings, installation drawings, movies and reconfigurations.
In a survey of dealerships using CET Designer, users estimated 65 percent more value-added output with CET Designer as opposed to other software products.
Jennifer Newton, a designer with NBS, a Steelcase dealer in Michigan, used CET Designer to win a project consisting of 450 workstations. According to Newton, CET Designer was 100 percent accurate on the project. She estimates she is at least 50 percent faster in her work using CET Designer.
Paul Riches, a designer for Heritage Office Furnishings, a Steelcase dealer in Vancouver, is working on an 850-workstation project using CET Designer. “I can’t imagine completing this job through manual specifications or CAD-based tools,” he said. “We’ve cut our production time up to one-half.”
More about how CET Designer saves users time and money - http://configura.com/casestudies.
###About the companyConfigura’s mission is to set the industry standard in software tools for automating, simplifying and speeding sales and order processes. The company’s software products, including CET Designer®, are used by more than 9,000 people in companies around the world. Well-known European office furniture manufacturers, including Kinnarps and Martela, use Configura software, as do North and South American companies Haworth, Steelcase, Teknion, ProjectMatrix, Spacefile, Spacesaver, Borroughs, TAB, Carvajal Espacios, KI, Inscape, Aurora Storage Products and Solinoff. Configura Inc., based in Grand Rapids, Mich., USA, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Configura Sverige AB, with global headquarters in Sweden and an additional office in Malaysia. More information at www.configura.com.
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