Deliberate efforts to promote and develop local designers, talents and local content in the interior design industry were the focus at the just concluded Interior Designers Association of Nigeria (IDAN) Guide Interior & Product Design Expo 2021.
IDAN, through its Continuous Professional Developments (CPDs) programme, introduced seminars, workshops and symposiums at the expo to educate interior local designers and bring them up to world-class standards.
Speaking during the IDAN Guide expo 2021 at the Federal Palace Hotel, Lagos, Omon Anenih-Mordi, the national president IDAN said IDAN has been running the exhibition for a number of years now and in 2017 the association organised an Arts and Culture exhibition which ran as two separate events.
Anenih-Mordi said this year these events have been fused into one with the aim of promoting local designers and talents.
“We are very big on professionalism and on education and continual professional development of our members. The third element of this year’s Guide exhibition which also is a standalone is the education part of it.
“During the course of the two days, we brought a seminar session and daily there are three or four different sessions where we brought experts to talk during workshops, panel discussions, seminars and that is all about promoting development and education for our members. The education and CPDs, in terms of the arts and culture and the design and product manufacturing all come together in the 2021 Guide,” she explained.
The IDAN president said some of IDAN members who had traditionally considered themselves competitors in the industry have collaborated this year, as majority of the booths at the expo is a fusion of different brands collaborating and working together to create an experience that is more impactful.
Titilope Fowora, Principal Inu Design and a committee member of the Continuous Professional Developments (CPDs) for IDAN said the CPD is part of the efforts of the association to improve education for interior designers professionals in Nigeria and to bring them up to world class standards.
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Fowora hinted that the expo will give a lot of exposure for design products and services that interior designers provide, adding that IDAN is very mindful to include a lot of education on the schedule for the two Expo days.
“We expect that people that come and engage in the exhibition will leave with a lot more exposure and professional insights into interior designs, especially as it concerns Nigeria. When we do the CPDs, there is always room for questions and answers so that way we understand what is on people’s minds and we engage so that people don’t just come to lecture, we have a lot of engagements.
“The exhibitors have one-on-one contact with either potential customers or other interior designers as well because collaboration is also a big thing for IDAN,” she said.
Also speaking at the event, Adetoke Benson-Awoyinka, special adviser to governor on Housing expressed her satisfaction with the works showcased by local interior designers at the expo.
“Today I feel proud to be a Nigerian and a Lagosian because I have seen so much work that is being locally done, which a lot of us don’t know about. We have two key ministries trying to get our indigenous people to get into Arts and craft and various kinds of developments in all sectors.
“Lagos State has a ministry of wealth creation that constantly trains people. We will look at how we can partner with a lot of the developers here in crafts and all sorts of things I have seen at the expo.
“We also have the ministry of women affairs trying to train Lagosians on how to get into industries like this. We will be partnering with them. I have identified the number of companies that we are going to be speaking to and I will invite them to the annual real estate show in December so that we can all network and Lagosians will have a one-stop shop for housing and their needs in the industry,” she said.
