The Iowa Chapter of the American Institute of Architects is holding its annual convention in Des Moines. Spokesperson, Daniel Herman, says the key message of the convention is getting back to their core.
“Over the last few years we’ve focused alot on things that have been affecting us externally, technology changes the economy. And so we ware taking a step back so we can think about how all those things affect how we work on a day-to-day basis, and how we can better posture ourselves for moving forward,” Herman says.
The internal changes are impacted by the type of people who enter the profession. She says the profession is trying to grow more diverse as the state grows more diverse, and they are trying to get more women into the profession too. The downturn in the economy has had an impact on businesses that use the service of architects, but Herman thinks they have weathered the slowdown.
“I feel like we’ve stayed fairly consistent, our profession hasn’t really grown, but we’ve kind of rode through the economic turbulence on a fairly flat line, and I fell like we are going to be on the uptick moving forward,” according to Herman. A new feature of this year’s convention is a lecture that’s open to the public.
That lecture is today at 3:30 at the Community Choice Credit Union Convention Center in Des Moines.