The Design Board

What if the most beautifully designed space, product, or building was still built for the wrong person? In this episode of The Design Board, host Caroline Schillaci sits down with Moji Akinde, founder of Fadéké Strategic Consulting, to unpack what it really means to design with cultural intelligence. Drawing on a career that spans philanthropy, private equity, and hospitality, Moji challenges the design industry to move beyond box-checking and ask a harder question: who's not in the room when...

Recorded live from the floor at NeoCon 2026, this special episode of The Design Board gets into one of the most pressing conversations in the industry right now: what does it take to earn the trust of a generation that experiences work and the workplace completely differently than the one before it? Host Caroline Schillaci is joined by Sarah Terzic, President of UpSpring, and Amanda Schneider, founder of ThinkLab and author of the newly released book Work for What's Next: Why Workplace Cultur...

What does it take to design a destination that people travel across the world to experience and leave wanting to return? In this episode of The Design Board, host Caroline Schillaci sits down with Scott LaMont, CEO of EDSA, to explore the craft and strategy behind some of the world's most celebrated luxury hospitality projects. With over 25 years of experience working with brands like Four Seasons, Ritz-Carlton, and St. Regis, Scott brings a landscape architect's perspective to the big questi...

We spend so much time talking about how buildings look and function. But what about what’s happening behind the walls? Host Caroline Schillaci sits down with Missy Cain, Environmental Planning Principal at HGA, to dive into the often overlooked systems that quietly shape building health, with a focus on water management and its real-world consequences. From adaptive reuse to healthcare environments, we explore how early decisions can either prevent risk or create it and why collaboratio...

Sustainability used to be a differentiator. Now, it’s expected. In this episode of The Design Board, host Caroline Schillaci sits down with Arathi Gowda a Principal at ZGF Architects to explore what happens when sustainability is no longer the headline, but the starting point. As new standards, client expectations, and cost pressures reshape the industry, firms are being forced to rethink how sustainability actually shows up in their work. The conversation looks at the gap between ambition an...