On September 13 and 14, Business of Home invited more than 450 interior designers and trade professionals to New York City’s Metropolitan Pavilion to discuss one looming, macro question: What is the future of home? Over two days and 27 programming sessions, attendees enjoyed presentations, panel discussions, fireside chats and Q&A’s with 42 speakers, moderated by BOH’s Kaitlin Petersen, Fred Nicolaus, Sophie Donelson and Dennis Scully. 

Day 2 of the Future of Home conference kicked off with a presentation by Jared Weiner, a leader of The Future Hunters, one of the world’s top futurist consulting firms. Next, Brad Hargreaves, founder and CEO of the co-living company Common, and Ebbie Wisecarver, vice president and global head of design at WeWork, joined Nicolaus for a discussion about shared space in the wake of COVID-19. The BOH executive editor then sat down with Fireclay Tile CEO Eric Edelson and Christopher Marquis, author of Better Business: How the B Corp Movement Is Remaking Capitalism, for a fascinating conversation about B Corporations (copies of Marquis’s book were later made available for a signing, courtesy of Edelson). Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams CEO Allison O’Connor joined Petersen to talk about modernizing the iconic brand, after which former White House social secretary Deesha Dyer joined the BOH editor in chief to discuss the importance of design decisions during her time in the Obama administration.

For an introduction to the world of blockchain, NFTs and the metaverse at large, Nicolaus engaged in discussion with Janine Yorio, head of Republic Realm, an investment fund for virtual real estate, and Noah Davis, a postwar and contemporary art specialist at Christie’s and head of sales for the department’s online-only First Open auctions. Next came a presentation from Michael Beneville, also tackling the topic of the metaverse. After that, Donelson sat down with Pinterest’s Jeremy Jankowski for a conversation about the platform’s new Idea Pins feature, and later joined CB2’s Samie Barr and Andrea Ehrman to discuss what’s next for their company. In the conference’s final designer case study, Petersen sat down with Everick Brown and Lisa Walker Brown of Everick Brown Design to discuss changes to their business and how they increased their ROI.

The afternoon programming kicked off with a bang: Crate & Barrel’s Sebastian Brauer welcomed surprise guest Kate Berry of Domino for the first-ever reveal of the brand-new Domino x Crate & Kids collaboration, which launched online and in stores the following day. After that, Kohler Co.’s Seth Stevens discussed a unique collaboration of his own: uniting four brands—Ann Sacks, Kallista, Kohler and Robern—into one curated bath collection. Next, in a video presentation, Ingrid Fetell Lee described how she identified eight different personality types and how they help determine what motivates homeowners to decorate—and how designers can use this knowledge to create meaningful spaces. The conference closed out with a raucous conversation between Donelson and iconic fashion designer Christian Siriano, who recently launched his own design firm and product line. 

While listening to programming in the theater, guests enjoyed two stylized vignettes by Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams—one featured items from the brand’s first designer collection in collaboration with Brigette Romanek, and the other included pieces from the new Fall 2021 collection. Outside the theater, additional lounge seating was outfitted with pieces by Flor, Currey & Company and Annie Selke. 

Images by Kevin Lau for Business of Home.