NeoCon’s immersive CEUs deliver insight and practical knowledge for healthcare FMs
April 15, 2024 — NeoCon, the premier event for the commercial interiors industry, offers a comprehensive lineup of more than 50 CEUs accessible exclusively to registered NeoCon attendees and featuring expert speakers from leading associations, universities, architecture and design firms, and top media outlets.
Anchored by the theme “Design Takes Shape,” this year’s edition will provide a platform where diverse perspectives converge to foster enrichment and growth across various topics and disciplines of interest to architects, designers and facility managers (FMs).
NeoCon will offer a wide selection of on-demand sessions starting June 10 through September 13. They will cover various topics and verticals, including DEI, Design Skills, Education, Facilities Management, Healthcare, Hospitality, Industry Directions, Lighting, Public Space, Sustainability, Technology, Wellness and Workplace.
Virtual CEU sessions devoted to healthcare include:
Designing for Low-Income Healthcare Spaces. Heather Jennings, Principal Designer Blackwell & Jennings. Low-income healthcare spaces often have small budgets and complicated design needs. This presentation will provide recommendations on how to apply evidence-based design strategies at a low cost while still achieving their desired effects. An overview of specific design considerations required for low-income healthcare spaces will focus on concrete examples designers can implement to create calm, organized and safe environments that promote healing and help build positive patient-provider relationships.
Equity & Hope and the Healing Power of Place in Healthcare. Lois Wellwood, IIDA, IDC, LID, AAA, Global Interior Design Director, HDR, and Julie Robertson, Regional Interior Design Director, HDR, cover the design processes used to create meaningful, healing places–healthy places that foster the healing process because they welcome and engage people. Inspiring project examples from Lisbon, Portugal, to Detroit, MI, to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and New South Wales, Australia, illustrate how buildings designed with care, compassion and attention to detail support equity and foster trust and confidence between communities and the institutions that serve them.
Healthcare Materials — There’s No Easy Button! Jane Rohde, AIA, FIIDA, ASID, CHID, ACHA, Founder & Principal, JSR Associates, Barbara Dellinger, MA, CHID, FIIDA, EDAC, MDCID, NCIDQ, Principal, Dellinger Consulting, LLC, Shari Solomon, Esq., CIEC, President, CleanHealth Environmental. This expert panel explores the challenges and recommended approaches to making informed decisions when selecting healthcare surface finish materials, including determining performance requirements, minimum testing criteria, and anticipated product service life to inform the owner’s project requirements (OPR). Learn. how the evaluation of existing conditions, operational needs, cleaning, sanitizing, and disinfecting processes determine product durability and longevity. Discover the causes of healthcare performance failures, how to minimize them, and apply those lessons learned to reduce failures.
Resilient and Dignified Design for Behavioral Health Spaces. Sarah Lueck, Associate Principal, isgenuity, Nicole Voss, AIA, LEED AP, WELL AP, Associate Principal, Director of Sustainability, isgenuity, Tracey Weeden, LICSW, Executive Director Boston Medical Center, Nancy Hanright, Senior Director, Real Estate and Capital Planning, Boston Medical Center Health System. Boston Medical Center’s Brockton Behavioral Health Center (BBHC) proves that behavioral healthcare facility design can push the envelope in multiple directions while serving a vulnerable healthcare population with dignity and empathy. The facility’s design prioritizes resilience, flexibility, dignity and safety for both patients and staff. Staff expertise guided every design aspect, yielding an effective treatment environment that improves staff support, retention and well-being. Biophilic, evidence-based interior design elevates user and staff experience. Acknowledging that climate change disproportionately impacts the most disadvantaged communities, BMC minimized the project’s environmental impact: this net-zero-ready facility operates at an industry-leading 46 EUI. Join the project stakeholders as they discuss BBHC’s goals, successes and challenges.
Rethinking the Waiting Experience in Healthcare Environments. Diana Araoz-Fraser, LSSYB, Assoc AIA, IIDA, Vice President, Senior Healthcare Designer, HKS. The Healthcare Design industry needs to create spaces that feel less clinical. How can designers break the mold of a typical waiting area to create more user-oriented spaces? Spaces that welcome new patients, feel more humane, and inspire and enhance well-being? Spaces that push the boundaries and feel more like added amenities to the healthcare experience without increasing the cost of the project? Waiting areas must be designed to protect physical and emotional health, promote calmness, and include positive distractions. Rethinking the user experience in waiting areas and other areas within the healthcare environment is critical to changing the stigma of clinical environments into holistic and supportive spaces that generate positive outcomes for all.
Traces of Trust: Trust Determinants in the Built Environment. Amy M Huber, NCIDQ, EDAC, ASID, LEED AP BD +C, Associate Professor, Florida State University, Dept. of Interior Architecture and Design. Medical trust, a significant factor shaping individuals’ healthcare-seeking behaviors and posing a notable barrier for women’s primary healthcare, takes center stage in this presentation. It summarizes the findings of two large-scale studies investigating the intricate relationship between the physical environment of medical waiting rooms and the establishment of medical trust. Insights from over 1,500 interviews and surveys offer valuable guidance for healthcare stakeholders seeking to enhance waiting room environments, positively influencing medical trust and ultimately improving women’s healthcare outcomes.
The McMorrow Reports + FMLink team will attend NeoCon, and Founder and Editor-in-Chief Eileen McMorrow will manage the Best of NeoCon awards program for the 33rd year. The editorial team recommends the following onsite CEUs related to healthcare design and facility management:
20 Things That Neuroscientists Know that Designers Need to Know. (Monday, June 10, 2024, 9:00 AM CDT) Sally Augustin, PhD. What have neuroscientists learned about humans that’s useful to designers? Plenty, when study findings are discussed in everyday language and practical terms, not as isolated, cryptic soundbites. This session provides insights to inform tough design decisions, not to dictate how to resolve them. Topics reviewed range from the design-related ramifications of sensory experiences (such as colors seen and textures felt) to the consequences of individual factors (for example, personality and neurodiversity) and social ones (like the language users speak) for designed outcomes and, perhaps most importantly, how to tackle design elements in a coordinated way in the real world.
Recommitting to Worker Satisfaction: Furniture in All Spaces. (Monday, June 10, 2024, 1:00 PM CDT) Steve Kooy, Director, Health and Sustainability, BIFMA; Lauren Gant, PhD, CPE, WELL AP Senior Workplace Advisory Manager, HNI. This session will explain how ergonomic considerations integrate into a human-centered design process. By integrating the science of fitting furniture to the worker, designers and their clients can promote healthy workstyles that enhance safety, wellness and satisfaction in any work environment.
Body and Mind: How Neurodiversity is Expanding Our Approach to Inclusive Design. (Monday, June 10, 2024, 3:00 PM CDT) Amie Keener, RID, IIDA, LEED AP, Design Manager, Gensler; Meaghan Beever, DDes, LEED AP ID+C, Design Strategist, Gensler; Kirima Isler, CPABE L1, Design Strategist, Gensler (Canada). It is undeniable that our world is made up of people with different sizes, shapes, levels of mobility, sensory needs, variations in cognitive processing and communication styles, as well as cultural backgrounds and practice. Yet, as an industry, we have only recently begun to ramp up our efforts to design for these underserved populations more meaningfully within our public and workspaces through Inclusive Design efforts.
Embracing Sustainable Interiors: A Responsible Design Legacy. (Tuesday, June 11, 2024, 2:00 PM CDT) Florencia Kratsman, ASID, NCIDQ, LEED AP, Director of Interior Architecture, FXCollaborative Architects, LLP. In a world where the environmental impact of our choices has never been more pronounced, it’s time for enterprises to rethink their approach to interior design. The prevailing paradigm of “style” for interiors has, by definition, favored ephemeral trends, but in the face of climate change and dwindling resources, the need for a more sustainable and heritage-based approach is becoming increasingly evident. This paradigm shift prioritizes sustainable materials, embracing timeless designs and ultimately ensuring the longevity of our planet.
Rebuilding Communities with Data-Driven Wellness Strategies. (Tuesday, June 11, 2024 4:00 PM CDT) Valerie Jardon, Strategy Director, IA Interior Architects. The commercial building landscape is in crisis mode, with 1 billion square feet sitting empty. But our buildings were already experiencing an existential quandary even before the pandemic-induced vacancy uptick, with end users unmotivated to engage with spaces that don’t serve our needs. Aging infrastructure, stressful commutes, inflexible interiors, and one-size-fits-all spaces designed for the majority are hardly wellness-inducing — nor welcoming to minority communities, from neurodivergent individuals to those affected by physical disabilities.
CEU programs and workshops are $45 per session ($40 if purchasing five or more). Show registration, keynotes and featured presentations are complimentary. To register and explore the complete listing of 2024 programming, including both onsite and virtual CEU-approved programs, workshops, featured presentations and keynotes, head to NeoCon.