cultivating relationships
Amber Liebe IIDA Service: INTERVIEW
Interior Designer, Amber Liebe: I am Amber Liebe and I’m a part of IIDA [International Interior Design Association], which is a professional organization for interior designers. We have statewide chapters and local chapters. I’m part of the Columbia chapter. We hold different events and do different things for the interior designers in the area.
I am a part of the Steering Committee, which basically means that I work with a team of people to kind of organize and do all the things we need to do to keep the chapter up and going.
As far as titles go, there’s two people that oversee the chapter and they’re the Co-Directors. They meet with the steering committee and that’s what the team is made of.
Marketing Coordinator, Hannah MacDonald: And how did you become involved with IIDA?
AL: I first learned about it a little bit in school. There are two organizations geared for interior designers: IIDA and ASID. In school, for whatever reason, our school was focused with ASID. So, I knew about the IIDA, but I didn’t really know too much about it until after I graduated.
IIDA is geared more towards commercial [interiors], whereas the other is more residential. I learned about it through, I think, mostly coworkers. You get emails about different events going on and obviously you want to stay connected to people that are in your field for networking opportunities and as a way to get to know other people.
So yeah, I think I just learned about it through work and then I got involved on the Steering Committee mainly because I heard reps talking about it, since reps can also be a part of it. I heard them talking about needing more people on the Steering Committee, and I thought it was interesting to be able to go behind the scenes and be more involved in it.
HM: So, you said you would receive emails about events and things like that? What kind of programming or events does IIDA offer?
AL: Yeah! So, normally twice a year we do a CEU event, which normally is either one or two CEUs per each event. That gives us Continuing Education courses that we need to maintain as a standing member of IIDA and it’s also just a way to get updates like what’s new in the industry or see new research that is going on. It provides opportunities to address any kind of problem area or sustainability concerns. Basically, anything that you can learn more about, you generally have something geared toward it.
We do two of those a year and then we do philanthropic events, which is just a way that we give back to or help the Community in some way. That could be a variety of things. In the past, we’ve done Harvest Hope and have helped package food pantry items. This year, I think we’re going to be volunteering at an animal shelter, so it just kind of depends on what we choose to do.
And then we have a summer social and that’s just a time for IIDA members to just come together and hang out, network with local designers and reps, just a time of getting together.
We also do a membership drive, which is trying to get more members involved and connect those who maybe haven’t heard about IIDA or don’t really know what it’s about. We’re just trying to show them what it is and why you should join.
Every other year we do Design Works, which is a design competition, and we’ll help be a part of that. On the years that we’re not doing that; we hold a Christmas party. Those are the main events throughout the year.
Recently, our chapter specifically, has started a monthly “Espresso Yourself” event which is an informal get-together for members to meet at a coffee place and then chat about whatever. Sometimes we don’t have a planned topic, and people can come and bring things that they might need help figuring out. They can bring, you know, whatever it is to the table and just get other people’s opinions. Other times we do have a topic. For example, we’ve talked about the NCIDQ process. Our next one is going to be about the tariffs and we’re not coming necessarily with specific questions or anything, but people being able to bring their experiences or their questions or what they’ve seen in the industry. And again, since it’s members, it can be designers or reps. So, you get a lot of variation with who’s speaking about it.
HM: Yeah, that’s amazing! An abundance of networking opportunities, professional development, things like that. Those are obviously super beneficial. Are there any other benefits that you personally have gotten from joining IIDA in addition to those that you just mentioned?
AL: Yeah, I think networking, which is what you mentioned, it’s a big one. Especially just to know who’s out there and what they do, because each firm does different things. So I think it’s really cool to see the different projects that are going on and know what people are working on.
For our chapter, specifically within our Steering Committee at least, we’re such a small group so, we’ve been kind of proactive with, for example, if I have a question on something at my job. If I have a question on what I should use and this is a new area for me, I’ve emailed a couple of people in the organization and they’ve helped me navigate which products are best and vice versa.
So it’s huge networking and huge learning tool. It’s like having kind of informal mentors.
And then outside of that, if you’re an IIDA member, you have access to study materials. They host an NCIDQ prep course which is a weekend long event. That is a huge opportunity to get prepared for the NCIDQ. They go through all the codes and things you need to know, and that was super helpful with starting the exam process and kicking off my studying, knowing what to study, and how to find the information. So that was a pretty valuable experience, and it was completely free because I was a member.
HM: Yeah, that is an awesome resource for sure! You’ve touched it a few times already, but the board… or, you said there’s a Steering Committee and chairs of your chapter. What is that like? If you have a more in-depth explanation for that.
AL: So, you have Chapters, like we have a Carolinas Chapter and that covers North Carolina– parts of North Carolina and parts of South Carolina, I believe. And then we have City Centers. So, Columbia is a City Center, and then there are two directors over that. They’re the ones who are actively doing the work and overseeing everything. From there you have a Steering Committee to your chapter. That’s what I’m on and anyone can do it. But we fill in the different roles, so that the two directors do not have to do everything. When we meet, we’re talking about what want to do for the events. How do we want to do it? Every chapter will do some kind of membership drive. Every chapter will do some kind of philanthropic event. It’s up to the City Center to determine what we’re going to do for that event. As part of the Steering Committee, we help decide that.
It’s basically just a giant brainstorming time of, what are the events? How are we going to do them? What needs to be executed? And then we’ll divide and conquer what to execute so that we don’t only leave it up to two people who have full-time jobs to do it.
HM: That kind of leads into the next thing I was going to ask. And you’re probably not gonna know off the top of your head, so no worries, but you were talking about how there’s a national level and there’s regional and then there’s local.
Do you know or have an estimate of how many members that are just in the local region?
AL: That is a good question, and I know we have access to it. I can get the numbers for you. I want to say that I feel like the last time I heard, it was that technically we have 50 members in Columbia, but I don’t know that all of them are active.
HM: Well, that’s still sizable! So, at these like programs and events and you have, do you have a decent turn out? Does it feel very resourceful?
AL: Yeah, it depends. I would say a good average is about twenty-ish people. So for the CEU events and the philanthropic events, those normally hit around the twenty-person mark just because they’re during the daytime. And then I think some of our social ones reach a little bit more because those tend to be after work hours and a lot of reps especially will join the social ones.
HM: I see.
AL: And actually a better clarification for the social events is that we try to partner with other organizations because Columbia is so small. We’re such a small community that like, why would we not network with other industry partners? So a lot of times, for the social events we have– it depends on the event and like who’s available and what’s going on– but we’ve partnered with AIA in the past, which are architects. We’ve partnered with CREW, which is a marketing group. We’ve partnered with NAWIC, which is for women in construction. There might be a couple others we’ve partnered with. But that’s why the social events tend to be larger because we’ll also partner with other people. Then you have architects coming, reps coming, you have tons of people coming to that. So that can reach even higher amounts of people.
HM: Wow, okay. Well, that’s great! What advice would you give someone entering the industry?
AL: Gosh. In relation to IIDA or as a whole?
HM: Why not both?
AL: I think in regard to IIDA, I would say join sooner rather than later. Not all firms, but a lot of firms do pay for your membership. So it’s always a good question to ask. Not only is it beneficial and can help you grow as a designer, I think mainly just the networking opportunity that is there. To just know other people that are in the industry that you may not constantly be talking to but now you have an opportunity to learn from someone else or even just to be able to contact them. Like, I’ve reached out to people to see if they know of anyone that needs a job since we’re hiring. To have other people to reach out to, whereas if I wasn’t in this, I would just be on my island here at this firm.
HM: Right.
AL: So getting involved and then actually go to the events. It’s easy to sign up and be a member and not go to the events, but I would definitely recommend going. Again, that huge networking opportunity and it’s a good way to also build relationships, not just with designers, but with reps, which comes in handy.
As a whole like outside of IIDA, advice I would give would be to not be afraid to ask questions. And seek out mentorship, even if it’s not something that’s standardized at your firm. Don’t be afraid to ask if there’s someone more seasoned and take the opportunity to ask them why they’re doing something. Find the little opportunities throughout your day to learn and grow.
HM: All right that is great advice! Lastly, is there anything else you want to add about IIDA, your service or interior design as a whole?
AL: Hmm. We’d always love more people on the Steering Committee in Columbia! And it’s always open. You can always come and see what it’s like, right? You don’t have to sign up and commit to a million things. You can just come. It’s very informal and you can see what it’s like and then choose to join or not join. So yeah, I would recommend checking out what it means to be involved in the steering committee. I feel like it sounds a lot more daunting than it actually is.
