In June, LRS Architects’ Amalia Mohr and Trisha Plass traveled to the MART in Chicago for NeoCon 2023, to get a first look at the emerging trends and innovative new products setting the stage for the future of commercial design! NeoCon is one of our favorite annual events, and our interiors team always returns home feeling inspired and energized. This year, Amalia and Trisha trekked nearly 70,000 steps between them through NeoCon’s 1 million square foot exhibition space. Below are a few highlights and top takeaways from this year’s expo:

We Design “Togetherness” Together

We loved this theme for NeoCon 2023, which speaks on so many levels to the camaraderie of the industry and all our efforts to make design a welcoming, inclusive, and collaborative undertaking. NeoCon is a showcase of products, experiences, and ideas, but it is also a remarkable gathering of the international design community. It is an immersive social environment with great networking and an abundance of opportunities to discover talented new industry leaders and meet icons we admire (like the brilliant textile designer Sina Pearson, pictured).

Hybrid Work is Here to Stay

The rise of hybrid work and its influence on how we design office and workplace environments loomed large at NeoCon this year. Three years out from the COVID-19 pandemic, the industry has left behind our old assumptions about how to design office spaces, and NeoCon 2023 showcased a new set of emerging best practices: workstations with pivot points that can be moved and customized to meet hybrid collaboration needs are the future (we especially loved the Compose Echo Workspace collection); cube farms and desks arranged along long, inflexible spines are replaced by more flexible arrangements oriented around lounge and collaboration spaces; conference rooms shift to a landscape format, bringing in-person meeting attendees closer to the screen and giving virtual attendees a clearer view of the room (as seen in the new Microsoft x Steelcase collaboration); and the rise of beautiful, sustainable furniture with components that are easy to maintain and can be recycled and upcycled. Our team came away from the expo with a fresh appreciation for the importance of designing work environments that make employees happy, and new ideas to support hybrid work and remove barriers to collaboration in all formats.

Continuing Education, Extended

In addition to the expo, NeoCon also offers an expansive selection of continuing education sessions that are available during and after the event through their CEU Programming Hub. A favorite for 2023 was “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly; A Frank Conversation About Our Planet and Saving It,” presented by Jon Strassner of the American Society of Interior Designers, Joey Shimoda of Shimoda Design Group, and Perkins & Will’s David Cordell. This session focused on asking hard questions, and the challenges designers often face when seeking to implement meaningful, impactful sustainable design strategies. NeoCon offers virtual registration and access to over 40 online sessions with CEU credits, available through August 15. Check them out at this link.

Couldn’t make it to NeoCon? Looking to connect with expo attendees? Ask us anything! The LRS team is excited to keep up the momentum and the inspiring conversations sparked by the 2023 expo – reach out to Amalia Mohr and Trisha Plass if you’d like to connect.