Event Schedule
Lightovation Design + Build Day

Start the day with a welcome breakfast as part of Design + Build Day, hosted by Hubbardton Forge. This morning gathering offers an opportunity to connect with fellow designers, builders, and industry professionals over coffee and light fare.

 

Late decisions (or those made in a silo) can create expensive corrections and compromise the vision of a custom home. This panel—an architect, a builder-developer, and a lighting designer—draws on multiple projects to show where collaboration succeeds and where gaps in coordination and communication create costly mistakes. The conversation explores what each discipline needs from the others early in the process, how standard workflows can fail, and how intentional alignment across architecture, construction, and design improves budget, client experience, and project outcome. Panelists will share honest stories of successes and missteps, offering lessons that apply to architects, builders, and designers of all stripes.

 

 

This CEU panel offers a practical look at the integration of design and construction within the design-build model, and the impact of early collaboration on project outcomes. Panelists will discuss strategies for aligning project budgets with design intent, evaluating material selections based on performance and durability, and guiding clients through informed decision-making. The session will also address communication frameworks that establish clear expectations, reduce scope changes, and support a cohesive project experience from initial planning through final execution. Complimentary lunch for the first 40 people, provided by Buster + Punch.

 

-Mae Reedy, GC + Principal Designer, Mae Reedy Build + Design

-Sue Berk, President, Berk + Walters Homes

-Jen Stevens, Founder & Principal, Fonde Interiors

 

-Nikki Watson, Founder, The Design Quad

While designers and builders often approach projects from different perspectives, both are ultimately working toward the same goal: bringing the client’s vision for their home to life. Yet the designer–builder relationship is often marked by tension and misalignment. The good news? It doesn't have to be that way. Business of Home editor in chief Kaitlin Petersen moderates a discussion with designers Corey Damen Jenkins, Alison Giese and Erin Sander on how to work more effectively alongside contractors. Drawing on their collective experience, they unpack how builders think, where friction tends to arise and how to anticipate and navigate those moments with greater clarity and confidence. Attendees will also gain practical strategies for improving communication, aligning expectations and timelines, identifying common challenges before they escalate, and making more confident, informed decisions in real time—so both sides can collaborate more seamlessly in service of a stronger final outcome.

 

-Alison Giese, Owner & Creative Director, Alison Giese Interiors

-Corey Damen Jenkins, Principal & Chief Executive Officer, Corey Damen Jenkins & Associates, LLC

-Erin Sander, Owner & Principal, Erin Sander Design

 

-Kaitlin Petersen, Editor in Chief, Business of Home

 

Join us for the Design + Build Day Closing Reception, featuring a special meet & greet and book signing with Corey Damon Jenkins. Enjoy beer, wine and specialty margaritas at the bar, music, and passed hors d’oeuvres while connecting with fellow designers, builders, and industry professionals.

 

This one-hour panel offers a preview of four presentations that are scheduled for ArchLIGHT Summit 2026. These speakers will challenge conventional thinking about lighting practice, from recommended light levels to the role of visibility in design. This discussion will introduce emerging ideas, practical lessons, and real-world questions shaping the future of lighting design.

 

- Craig A. Bernecker

- Jason Livingston LC, IES, IALD, Principal, Studio T+L, LLC

- Julia M. Gordon IALD, CLD, IES, Senior Lighting Designer, Schuler Shook

- Leigh Gice, Senior Lighting Designer

 

- C. Webster Marsh, Director of Education and Programming, ArchLIGHT Summit