Women Founders Shaping the Business
of Interior Design
Brought to you by Home Design Guild & Lexington Home Brands
New York City, NY
EVENT DETAILS
Thursday, September 17th, 2026
1:45 pm
NYDC
Lexington Home Brands Showroom | 2nd Floor
200 Lexington Avenue, Suite 212,
New York City, NY 10016
Panel overview
WNWN 2026
Women Founders Shaping Tech in the Business of Interior Design.
Your Technology Roadmap. For most interior designers, those words trigger dread, not direction. That ends here.
What's New, What's Next is built around one question: what's actually moving this industry forward. No panel answers that more directly than this one. A generation of women founders is building the technology this industry actually needs - not work arounds, not software borrowed from adjacent industries, but platforms architected around how designers really work: the project timelines, the client trust cycles, the procurement complexity, and the creative process itself.
This panel puts those founders in one room for a direct conversation about what they built, why they built it, and what interior designers deserve from the technology companies serving them. With a full floor of programming competing for your time, this is the hour that pays you back.
Walk Away With:
What a technology roadmap really is.
How to build one for your firm.
Why investing in technology is no longer optional.
Meet The Founders:
WNWN 2026
Bio
LuAnn Nigara is a business strategist, keynote speaker, and host of A Well-Designed Business, named a Top 10 Interior Design Podcast by Architectural Digest and the most downloaded podcast in its category, with over 1,300 episodes and 9 million downloads. With 40+ years of entrepreneurial experience, she founded LuAnn University and the Boardroom for Creatives, where she coaches interior designers and creative business owners to build profitable, sustainable firms. She is a bestselling author and a frequent keynote speaker at ASID, NKBA, IDS, and High Point Market. As WCAA National President and NKBA Global Connect Advisor, she brings both street-level business credibility and industry-wide perspective to every conversation she leads.
QUOTE
"Technology doesn't threaten an interior designer. It never has and it never will. Designers who know their value understand technology is infrastructure. The best of it is built from the inside out, by people who understand the complexity of this business and the irreplaceable nature of great design." - LuAnn Nigara, Founder & CEO
WNWN 2026
Bio
Liza Graves launched StyleBlueprint in 2009 and has spent 17 years building it without outside capital into a digital lifestyle media company with more than 210,000 opted-in subscribers and a reach of over 11 million monthly. The daughter of entrepreneurs, she built it in the South and is now expanding into new markets.
Home has been part of StyleBlueprint since day one. When Liza saw how consistently that content was over-performing with her core readers – busy women who are renovating, furnishing, moving, and traveling – she gave the category a dedicated vertical. SB Home launches this fall with its own founding editor, newsletter, social presence, and national reach. It's built around a simple observation: her readers were already coming to StyleBlueprint for home inspiration, so she decided to build them an even better resource.
QUOTE
"I'm interested in technology for one reason: does it make something complicated simpler? Every tool has a second price tag, and it isn't the subscription. It's the hours your team spends learning it, managing it, and still not fully getting it. I run a small team across multiple markets. We're creatives and operators, and we can't afford a tool that everyone uses differently or that needs its own manager. If it doesn't remove a step and give you time back, it isn't a solution. It's one more thing on your list." - Liza Graves, Founder & CEO
WNWN 2026
Bio
Mary Beth Chau is the CEO and co-founder of Materio, an interior design project delivery system that brings every detail, decision, deadline, and dollar into one connected workflow, from early estimates and proposals to selections, orders, invoicing, and client communication. It holds every project together so designers don’t have to, and projects finally feel under control. Mary Beth began her career at the architecture firm Grimshaw before moving into product design, UX research, and experience strategy at startups, where she developed a deep ability to transform complex, fragmented processes into thoughtful, human-centered systems.
In 2020, she and her husband Thomas co-founded Materio after a NYC apartment renovation revealed disconnects and inefficiencies in the modern design and construction project delivery experience. Today, Mary Beth leads Materio with a leadership philosophy shaped by both entrepreneurship and motherhood—focused on clarity, empathy, and building tools that support better work and more balanced lives.
QUOTE
"Technology should only exist to remove the burden from certain parts of our lives so we have room for what actually matters, and that's the role I believe it should play in the design industry. Designers don't get into design to chase invoices or client approvals. They get into it to solve problems and make people feel at home in their spaces. The technology we're building should give them back the time to do what only they can do, and what they care about most. That's what great technology feels like: freedom. Where far fewer things stand between you and the spaces you set out to create." - Mary Beth Chau, Co-Founder & CEO
WNWN 2026
Bio
Jenna Gaidusek, founder of AI for Interior Designers™ and a leading voice in design technology, who helps creative professionals adopt AI with confidence, clarity, and curiosity. In 2025, two years after teaching her first AI for Interior Designers™ class, she launched the AI for Interior Designers™ Certificate Program and the AI App Studio, a CEU-infused certification path paired with a growing suite of practical, design-specific AI tools, all built on her belief that designers should stay at the center of the creative process while AI expands imagination rather than replacing it.
A longtime advocate for ethical, transparent AI, Jenna partners with industry groups and design publications on responsible tech adoption, drawing on experience that includes building a successful design firm and launching eDesign Tribe and eDesign U, both acquired by Mydoma Studio in 2022; and she continues shaping how the design industry adopts technology for the next era of design.
QUOTE
"Technology should feel invisible. It should take the tasks we find monotonous and make them simple and streamlined, so you can focus on the parts of your business that actually need you." - Jenna Gaidusek, Founder, Designer, Educator, Speaker, & Podcast Host
WNWN 2026
Bio
Jennifer Smiga is the CEO of Ultraviolet Agency, a digital marketing agency serving the home industry and based in Holmdel, NJ. With more than two decades of expertise in strategic marketing, events and creative development, she has shaped campaigns for iconic brands including Aveda, Goldman Sachs, and the NY Yankees.
She recently launched UltraCollective, a platform streamlining collaboration between professionals and brands in the home space. A recognized industry thought leader, Jennifer speaks regularly at High Point Market, Business of Home, Science in Design Conference, and the Vacation Rental Designers Summit.
QUOTE
"Technology is changing how interior designers get discovered, and the biggest opportunity right now is AI search. At Ultraviolet, we’re focused on helping designers build a clear, consistent digital presence so AI understands who they are, what they’re known for, and when to recommend them. We’re moving from a world of simply ranking on Google to one where being understood and recommended by AI matters just as much." - Jennifer Smiga, President & CEO
WNWN 2026
Bio
Jackie Paulsen Jackie Paulsen is a marketing communications executive, entrepreneur, and educator with more than 25 years of leadership experience across the home furnishings, design, and consumer lifestyle industries. Beginning Fall 2026, she joins the University of Alabama's College of Communication & Information Sciences as an Instructor of Advertising & Public Relations. Over her career, Jackie has delivered award-winning work for iconic brands including Harley-Davidson, Weber Grills, and SC Johnson.
It was her work on the legendary "got milk?" campaign that planted the seed for Home Design Guild. Watching a single, simple insight transform how an entire category connected with consumers, she saw the same opportunity in interior design — an industry full of talented professionals and willing homeowners, missing only the right connection point. She founded Home Design Guild, a curated platform matching homeowners with interior designers, and continues to lead HDG while consulting for national and global brands.
QUOTE
"The value of technology isn't in what it automates - it's in what it protects. For interior designers, that means protecting the relationship, the process, and the time to do the work well. Any tool that doesn't serve those three things is a distraction wearing a dashboard." - Jackie Paulsen, Founder
WNWN 2026
Our host
We'd like to extend our sincere thanks to Lexington Home Brands for generously hosting this event and providing such a welcoming space for our community to connect and learn together. Their support made it possible for our panel to gather in a beautiful setting, network with fellow professionals, and engage in the meaningful conversations that make this event special. We're deeply grateful for their partnership and their continued commitment to bringing our design community together.
Showroom Managers: scott prentiss & Patricia Rogers (212)-532-2750
ABout
Lexington Home Brands is a global leader in the deisign, sourcing, manufacturing and marketing of upscale home furnishings. The company's award-winning product line of casegoods, upholstery and outdoor living designs encompass the industry's most diverse range of styling, featuring recognized brands like Lexington, Tommy Bahama Home, Tommy Bahama Outdoor Living, Artistica Home, Barclay Butera, and Sligh. The Lexington Home Brands showroom at the NYDC is 10,000 s.f. and located on the 2nd floor of the building in Suite 212.
Mingle & Mix:
Complimentary food and beverages will be provided for all attendees throughout the WNWN 2026 event.
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