Humans and Business: A Zoomtable Discussion with Marquardt+

President of SBID and founder of Chicago-based design practice marquardt+, Tom Marquardt kicks off the SpeakEasy series of digital discussions with an m+ consulting team video conference; bringing his team of professionals across the design industry together to address the present and future state of design and business during the pandemic.

Discussing how the ongoing pandemic is imposing on the design industry, some of the immediate implications of this and how that starts to impact on the human value of companies, the m+ consulting team Zoomtable discussion features expert views from Reva Revis, architecture & design industry publicist, Reva Revis Consulting; Mark Nestler, president, Nestler Strategies; Vince Gammino, design and project management director, Vince Gammino Design; Jennifer J. Fondrevay, founder & chief humanity officer, Day1 Ready; Kaitlyn Daniluk, interior design student, Columbia College of Chicago and James Wild, principal & founder, Gridwerk Architecture.

Jennifer Fondrevay, founder & chief humanity officer, Day1 Ready comments on the importance of empathy and compassion and understanding what people bring to a business, “What my hope is that will happen in the future, is the human piece of business will come to the forefront … In many industries, we’re just so driven by the revenue and the growth aspect that the people pieces have been forgotten.” From seeing a more human-centric approach to business in the future to how this will this drive our need for social connectivity.

Mark Nestler, president, Nestler Strategies shares his views on remote working as “Those trends of remote, hotelling, hot-desking are going to accelerate – people are going to see that remote working is working very nicely and is very efficient – but I’m not going to say by any suggestion that it’s eliminating the need for personal one on one or group conferences”. He explains his thoughts on how these trends, alongside the wide-ranging implications of Covid-19, may impact on commercial space and real estate.