The Hutton Hotel Lobby

Consultants Convene at the Hutton Hotel

As Studio Designer’s cloud service Account Manager, I attended Studio Designer’s Consultants Conference in Nashville, Tennessee that took place at the Hutton Hotel and would love to share some highlights. Studio Designer chose to hold our event in Nashville primarily for its accessibility since our consultant network operates nationwide. Moreover, the rich history and world-renowned music scene of Nashville reflected our desire to offer an appreciation to our consultants for the high quality of support they provide Studio Designer users year after year. CEO Keith Granet kicked off the conference with a speech about the upcoming 2.0 platform, upcoming features, roundtable discussions about future development goals, and community building initiatives. Afterwards, CTO spoke about the updates to the group about the core elements of our service and details about support, development, and migration.

CTO speaks to the consultants about the Studio Designer’s development and new details about Version 2.0.

Support

Studio Designer now has an in-house support team and for Version 2.0, they will provide up-to-date training videos, live training classes, a brand-new user guide, and focused support to ease users in the migration.

Development

In the near future, the platform will have additional import options as well as an address import. More things to come include updates to the vendor portal, activities section and time tracker, mood boards, mobile app, accounting, design contracts, and client budgets.

Consultants got a sneak peek at the new version’s design that improves upon the current interface. Users can have their own profile page and customize their dashboard. They can even customize the look of the home upon login. I’m confident that our users will find Version 2.0 visually more intuitive and our developers have been attentive to user feedback with changes being made accordingly. Additionally, Patrick discussed the development strategy and explained that there would be product releases every two weeks; a significant improvement to our current update schedule.

Testing and Migration

There are now a select group of users pilot testing Studio Designer 2.0 to ensure the new platform is in tip-top shape prior to release. In the fall, the migration process will begin to transfer accounts to the new platform. Each account will receive an email with information and instruction on this process.

Community

Studio Designer has listened to your feedback and it is agreed that our users need an online community. An online forum is coming your way very soon and we are excited about it. The online community will benefit Studio Designer users as well as our network of consultants.

A Conversation with Ray Booth

One of the aspects I enjoyed most about the conference was a special presentation featuring Keith Granet in a conversation with Ray Booth of McAlpine House. Ray is a nationally recognized designer and architect who resides in Nashville; he spoke about his personal journey in the design world, how he got started, and where he is today. Ray is a strong believer in the essential functions of the back end of an office that ties to a design firm’s success, and he trusts no other software but Studio Designer. In addition to Ray’s prolific client base, he recently published his first design book Evocative Interiors.

Studio Designers’ Network of Consultants

The conference was a great opportunity for me to reconnect with Studio Designer’s vast network of outside consultants, some of whom have relationships with Studio Designer dating back over 20 years! These consultants never cease to amaze with their robust foundation of knowledge of our software platform and their commitment to keeping us honest with an open dialogue. I appreciate their candor, dedication, and willingness to collaborate with Studio Designer to better support all of our users.

The conference ended with some parting thoughts from CEO Keith Granet. He discussed the future of Studio Designer and spoke about how far the company has come as well as what exciting future developments are in the pipeline. The Nashville Consultants Conference was a great success, I look forward to the next and what the near future holds for the Studio Designer platform.

About the Author

Sarah Thorn-Walsh is Studio Designer’s Customer Account Manager. She has a B.A. in Interior Design from California State University, Chico. Sarah then moved to Los Angeles to pursue her dream of working in the design industry. She has over a decade of experience in sales, customer service, and working with the premier design firms in Los Angeles.