The economics of design are changing, and the consequences reach far beyond the balance sheet. As costs rise and margins tighten, architects and designers are rethinking how projects are priced, scaled and delivered. This candid conversation explores the disappearing middle between attainable and luxury housing, the fine line between smart refinement and destructive value engineering, developer-driven decisions, and the new revenue models emerging in response. Bring questions about your own numbers.

Leave with Language for pricing your work in a market that has lost its middle.

This conversation explores the intersection of artificial intelligence, biomimicry and the science of the home, from algorithms inspired by nature to homes designed around circadian light, airflow and material choice. If AI can solve the complexity, what becomes the uniquely human role of the designer? Come with the question your clients are already asking.

Leave with Ideas for using AI and modern technology to make the home more performative and functional.

Across Los Angeles, new community-led organizations are changing how people in design connect, build relationships, and create opportunities. Leaders from AAPI Design Alliance, ALMA, and The Golden Hour Society will discuss why they created their communities, what was missing from traditional industry networks, and how connection can lead to mentorship, collaboration, referrals, visibility, and professional growth.

Drawing from their positions at the intersection of designers, makers, showrooms, brands, and clients, the panel will explore how community can become meaningful professional infrastructure—and how distinct organizations can work together to shape a more connected and influential design ecosystem in Los Angeles.

RISING DESIGN is WestEdge’s new platform for discovering and elevating the next generation of interior design talent, and this hour is where the season pays off. Meet the designers, hear the stories behind their spaces, and see what happens when emerging talent is given the opportunity, and the pressure, to create something extraordinary.

Leave with Six designers on your radar before anyone else has them.

Every designer has been there: the budget gets cut, the scope shrinks, and suddenly the project you envisioned is no longer the project you are being asked to deliver. This candid conversation gets into the decisions made behind the scenes. How to tell strategic compromise from destructive value engineering, how to defend design value in terms a client will actually hear, which substitutions preserve intent, and how experienced practitioners know when to fight for the work and when to walk away. Expect disagreement. That is the point.

Leave with Tools for protecting your vision when budgets get cut.

Aging in place is no longer a niche consideration. The homes we build today may need to serve us through decades of changing bodies, abilities, families and circumstances. This panel looks past grab bars and compliance checklists to how great design anticipates mobility, cognition, independence and multigenerational living without ever announcing that it has done so. Useful whether you are specifying for a client or thinking about your own parents.

Leave with A design vocabulary for longevity that never has to say the word accessible.

Wellness has moved from the spa and the amenity deck into the architecture of everyday life. Air, water, light, acoustics, materials and biophilia are all part of the conversation now, but what actually works? This panel cuts through the buzzwords to examine what is measurable, what is marketing, and whether design can genuinely influence how we feel, sleep, think and live. Bring your skepticism.

Leave with Measurable wellness ideas for mind, body and behavior.

Design moves fast. Too fast, some would argue. In an industry shaped by Instagram, TikTok and the pressure to constantly produce something new, how do we create spaces with staying power? This conversation takes on the difference between a fleeting trend and a meaningful shift, the role of craftsmanship and material intelligence, and the discipline required to know what is worth embracing and what is better left behind. Come ready to disagree.

Leave with A sharper filter for which trends are worth putting in front of a client.

Three of Hollywood’s most accomplished Set Decorators discuss creating spaces that reveal character before a single line of dialog is spoken. Exploring history, culture, architecture, fashion, politics, psychology, and travel, Set Decorators harness their skills at research, observation, empathy, and instinct to transform sets into environments that are authentic and characters who are nuanced. This is the creative journey that is shared with Interior Designers and all artists: the desire to preserve the human quality in the creative process, especially in the current age of technological pressures.

Leave with An inside look at Story and Character through Set Decoration.

Los Angeles has rebuilt before, more than once. What can those recoveries teach us now? This timely conversation looks at the lessons of past disasters, where the current recovery genuinely stands, and what rebuilding means for the homeowners, designers, architects and builders helping impacted communities move forward. The permitting, the timelines, the obstacles nobody advertises, and the specific ways this industry can help right now.

Leave with A clear picture of where the rebuild stands, and where you can be useful.