I have had a booth a few times. Charlotte's Southern Spring Show twice with CORA and private resort show. Generally I found it a waist of time and money. Staffing a booth for 10 hours a day for 1 to 5 days is a real drain on ones practice. The general public walking a booth line does hire architects this way, AIA or not. The type of person walking booths is not an architect's client.
We did promote good will and are out in the public eye.
Being in the public eye is not what we are known for. The design profession in my opinion tends to hide from the public. The group effort was fun and represented a broad cross section of design professionals, including home designers, AIA architects, RAs, interior designers and landscape architects.
I will say, I met great people who have a need for good design, appreciate good design. Get lots of free advice chatting with you. Get good referrals to the trade partner groups. However, would rarely hire an architect on price. They are not in the demographic group to afford to plan they way an architect is trained too plan.
I will say I have was hired for one 30 minute project, one two hour project this way and now have two happy clients. Both clients now know the difference an architect can bring to the table or I should a say what I can bring to the table. The other 5 architects interviewed turned the work down. The work did not fit through their ivory tower's door.
I have not seen the value of AIA architect to a client over a RA. Most residential architects in Charlotte are not AIA. It never comes up in interviews. It may mean something on a base level. I don't know. I am proud to have AIA after my name. I guess I have made piece that residential architecture is not going to get AIA attention as much the big boys effort to lobby the government to spend money on design and construction.
We compete against, designing builders, home designers, architects, cabinet designers, and do it yourself homeowners. I wish the AIA could clearly distinguish the AIA value. We certainly have had a long enough go at it. I have come to the belief it is not the organization itself as much as the people in the organization. I have not witnessed that an AIA architect preforms to a higher level than RA or a few home designers. Charlotte residential RA's do an excellent job, are well respected and formable competition in an aggressive market place.
I believe the AIA should spend more time promoting client satisfaction by using architects than using AIA architects. Like my examples above. No job is too small to be well planned. That is what I sell. looking back over the course of a year, one would be amazed at how many people value a little design help at $150.00 per hour.
The difference I see between Architects AIA or RA and designers is we sell a relationship that leads to home more than a set of basic shell documents that lead to home. Both business models work by the way. The home design community is frustrated they can't sell the time architects can or have the relationship we have with our clients.
I know several very talented designers who are working hard to do what architects do. They have a hard road climb because their training and business plan has never been about that. Architects have from the get go.
-------------------------------------------
Donald Duffy AIA
Don Duffy Architecture
Charlotte NC
-------------------------------------------