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Greetings from Los Angeles

I'm in L.A. for a big design show, NeoCon West, trying to get our membership numbers up and make some good contacts.

It's been a lot of fun so far, although I have had some really crappy service at the Biltmore hotel in downtown L.A. But at the show, I've made lots of friends and all is going well.

I attended a session yesterday called "Good design is good business," which was given by interior designers Barbara Dunn of Gensler, and Jan Belson of the Design Arts Group. Their presentation was focused on the ways design is becoming more integral to business practices. This would impact certainly the spaces in which people work, but further, they discussed ways in which design is making itself felt in the actual processes of business administration and problem solving. Good stuff, based on a lot of Dan Pink and Virginia Postrel, with a lot of emphasis on the importance of creating customer experiences.

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