2017 CET Designer, User and Developer Conference

So if you don’t have the opportunity to travel often but wish you were able to, I would have to say that Canter offered me the opportunity to head out of town for a few days and nights to attend an annual conference that was for our new rendering tool, CET Designer. Now, when I first was offered the opportunity, I was excited but was not sure what to expect. Our General Manager, Michele, provided me with the dates of the conference and said that it was going to be held at the Venetian-Palazzo resort and conference center in Las Vegas, Nevada. At that point, I was not only excited to be granted the opportunity to attend the conference, but to also get to go out of state and experience a new place. If I had an exuberant amount of money, I can assure you that I would have a permanent travel bug. New places entice me when it comes to their culture, art, architecture, people, and food.

Now for the important details and a re-introduction to CET Designer: The software is meant for contract furniture dealerships, A&D Designers, dealer IT professionals, office-furniture dealer management and facilities managers. It is an all-in-one software that allows for the configuration and planning of products for spaces – also allowing for installation document creation, move-add-change implementation, rendering, and so much more. Since our Design team has just recently been introduced to the program, we utilize it currently as a rendering tool and will work to utilize the program at a higher capacity when we become more familiarized.

The event was held from November 8th and 9th and was broken down into a variety of classes to choose from depending on how you use the program and your level of experience (beginner, expert, etc). I personally attended the following courses with an intent to focus on classes that catered to my level of experience and how our Design team currently utilizes the software:

Wednesday – November 8, 2017:

• Rendering 101 – Understanding Photo Lab – Discussion of materials, lighting, rendering, post processing, photo setup, tools and alternatives, the render accelerator extension and 3D view capabilities
• Intro to CET Designer – Discussion of simple commands, purpose of various icons, smart symbols, key command shortcuts, rendering and paper view/space
• Putting the Plans Together – Discussion of phasing, power, electrical, panels, installation packages reusable file types and their benefit, creating titleblocks, more key shortcut commands, chaining dimensions, part tagging and phasing and benefit of having smart symbols
• Keynote Speaker – Suzette Subance Ferrier was recently named Designer of the Year by Contract Magazine – she shared her life story and how her perspective on her childhood years growing up in New York has shifted now that she is an adult and embraces motherhood and work equally. She shared some of her projects such as Time, Inc and FCB with us and indicated what the ‘drivers for change’ were for each individual client and how that, in turn, allowed her to provide each of her clients with the most applicable and sensible solutions for their spaces. Most importantly, Suzette expressed the importance of LISTENING to your clients. One solution that works well for one client will not always work for another. As she went on, she went in depth on the drivers for change that she deeply researched with each client before, during and throughout the process of her design and her intent. It is within three of the previously listed drivers that company’s stress more than others. This again, allows her to categorize and properly inform herself on the way she should propose her designs. The number one investment in a company is the people. The second highest investment in a company is the real estate. If you are able to leverage that real estate for a company, you will transform their culture, perspective and their brand with your design. As Designers, this is our prime time to influence the spaces that people work in for most of their daily lives. We can educate our clients and users and provide them with solutions that will truly benefit everyone within a given space.
• Intro to Edit Graphics – Discussion regarding customization – edit tools, shrink/stretch, cut planes, revert, splitting and fusing mesh and custom shape tool.
• Steps to Transition – This class was meant to communicate how people utilize CET, what percentage of the program people utilize and why and ways to incorporate the software into your daily routine to become 100% CET efficient. The steps that our speaker provided were narrowed down to (1) Set a goal, (2) Make a plan, (3) Get to Work, (4) Stick to it and (5) Reach your goal! She also discussed that utilizing CAD in addition to CET is recommended for a number of reasons and that a full transition from utilizing 0% of the program to 100% of the program can take upwards of 4 to 5 years, depending on the level of consistency and dedication provided by the CET user/designer within the software.

Aside from all of the classes that I attended throughout the duration of the conference, there were also opportunities for people to win awards based on their submissions to specific categories. Take a look at some of the categories and winners here to see what kind of capabilities and visuals the program offers at a number of experience levels with categories broken down as shown below:

Kitchen:
The CET Designer – User and Developer Conference was a great event and I feel like the more our team vamps up on our experience within the program, both of Canter’s Designers can attend next year and try to win our team some prizes by entering some of the contests!

Looks like next year the Conference will be held at Devos Place in Grand Rapids, MI on October 17th and 18th for 2018. We hope to attend and see some more talented CET users!