We are so back! The news is officially out there that the Connected Design brand is re-entering the chat. I can’t even begin to tell you how much all the positive feedback and affirmations have meant to myself and the crew we’re quickly building here as we look to revitalize and reshape this platform. But truthfully, the work is only just beginning. There’s so much we plan to do and hope to do that it can, at times, feel a little overwhelming. But we’ll look to take just one step and have one conversation at a time as we start down this brand-new path.
While it’s been exciting to get reacquainted with this old friend of ours, there’s certainly a lot of trepidation, anxiousness, and maybe even a little skepticism as to why we’d take this leap. How’s it going to be different? What’s the point of trying in an industry that appears to be sputtering? And those are just the questions I’m asking myself.
Maybe in an attempt at some self-therapy, I want to try to address it all here. While one editorial-style article isn’t going to solve the world—or even this industry’s—problems, maybe it’ll help make some sense of the ‘why and ‘how’ as it relates to Connected Design. Baby steps.
Why Do This Now?
The answer here is obvious to me, perhaps to a fault. I love what I do, and I love who I get to do it with. To provide a little more context to that statement: I love communicating, storytelling, writing, ideating, researching, informing, being a journalist, and, of course, podcasting. And I love getting to do all that alongside and on behalf of the collection of people (you there, reading this) who make up this interesting and innovative industry.
There are SO many stories that not only need to be told in this channel but deserve to be told. You do incredible work. You’ve got incredible teams supporting you and around you. You have incredible partnerships that you’ve built over the years. All of that deserves a spotlight. It also ought to be shared with others who, believe it or not, can learn from the paths you’ve carved.
Someone once told me that the best way a leader can position their organization for success is by surrounding themselves with people who are much smarter than they are. I think that same concept can apply here. I enjoy getting together with you incredibly brilliant minds and learning from what it is you’re doing. And, beyond that, I love trying to help you connect the dots with others in this channel and beyond as we look to grow our industry.
How Are We Going to Accomplish This?
Which brings me to the ‘how’ of all of this. Let me start by explaining how we won’t be conducting ourselves as a platform. We won’t follow the traditional norms of “trade media.” I know that’s been said before. It’s borderline cliché at this point to talk about trying something new and different—not only as trade media, but media in general. But where I believe we stand apart is in our ability to be a truly independent platform that’s built by industry insiders.
Connected Design doesn’t answer to some big corporate conglomerate. Connected Design doesn’t operate in the world of pay-for-play. And Connected Design doesn’t intend on being just another surface-level news platform.
If you want to read a simple rewrite of a press release, there are outlets for that. You can get your product news from a manufacturer or some other RSS style feed. We’re not here for that. What we are here for is creating content that constructive and conversational. It’s 2026 for cryin’ out loud. (Says the guy typing this.)
Look for this to be a very visual medium. Those who know me know that I like to get behind a mic and in front of a camera. We’re planning to do lots of that as we share the stories of this channel. You’ll have your long-form interviews, your bite-sized social clips, and everything in between.
We want this to be a shared platform for our channel—a space where we can safely and comfortably have an opinion and engage in respectful dialogue with one another. Whether that’s one integrator to another, a homebuilder to a manufacturer, you name it. We want to showcase the good, the bad, and the ugly—and then figure out how to fix it.
The key word in all of that, though, is ‘engage.’ If there’s a single ask in all of this it’s that you engage with us. Share an opinion. Jump on a podcast. Submit a project. Attend one of our live roundtable discussions. Comment on an article. Participate in a survey. Engage with Connected Design so we can grow this into a platform that pushes this channel forward.
That might sound very lofty and up-in-the-clouds of us. But we wouldn’t be attempting to do this if we didn’t believe in this channel. There’s a need for it (we’ve heard you). Our partners are willing to support it. And we think the time is right for a truly different and unique platform that showcases this industry in new and exciting ways.
So, let’s go do it and have some fun along the way!
