Coming to America  Fresh off having moderating a packed house panel at SXSW, Bobby and Andrew are joined by luxury brand-building powerhouse, and fellow podcast host, Lisa Gralnek.  Recently named the US Managing Director and Global Head of Sustainability & Impact for the prestigious iF DESIGN organization based in Hannover Germany, Lisa drops in for a conversation about everything from the future of design, to pushing boundaries, to the impact of technology on the design industry.  Of...

Introducing the BTE Hotline In a special episode, Producer Rob joins the show to share the first voicemails left at the new Barrier to Entry audience hotline.  On tap are a handful of reflections, aspirations and predictions from previous guests to the show along with reactions and predictions of their own from the gang - as well as a slew of memorable (?) new audio amuse bouches from Producer Rob. Come for the predictions and stick around to be inspired to contribute your own thoughts &...

Making magic at Maison et Objet On the verge of the acclaimed French design show, Maison et Objet, the gang is joined by the fair’s 2024 Designer of the Year, Mathieu Lehanneur.  Mathieu is regularly acclaimed for making ‘magic’ through his blending of design thinking with technology, psychology and beyond.  While no rabbits are pulled from hats, the conversation ranges from the importance of standing behind your creative ideas, the fleeting impressiveness of technology and is highlighted by...

Form follows experiences The gang are excited to welcome a leader who’s made his name bringing public and private sector together to deliver major New York City architecture projects. His firm, ODA, is now spreading their wings internationally as well as into AI, VR and more. Tune in as an icon in the industry, Eran Chen, drops by to share how he uses storytelling to inspire and bring stakeholders together and how technology is changing the way his team delivers those stories. Connect with...

BTE has always been about bringing you innovation stories that we think have the greatest impact on the architecture & design industry, but in 2024 we’re taking this a step further—we want to hear from you! What questions would you like us to answer? Are there talking points in your boardrooms that need the BTE spark? Which AI or Metaverse subjects are keeping you up at night? You can call our hotline at 917-934-2812 or leave send an email at [email protected]. It's a new year and we...

The state of the industry 12/23 To wrap up the year at BTE, the gang welcomes old friend, fellow SURROUND podcast host, and President of ThinkLab, Amanda Scheider.  After getting a sneak preview of  Bobby’s somber New Year’s Eve plans, they dive in to look back on how we say AI, metaverse and other trends unfold and then look forward to the future for trade shows, industry shifts, the ‘tech’ trend of humanity and more.  Make it your early resolution to tune in. Connect with Amanda Schneider...

Technology’s impact on design in 2023 This week, an old friend drops by the podcast to catch up on all that’s happened in 2023, the first full year of Barrier to Entry.  Our first ever guest, Jaime Derringer joins the pod to talk about the evolutions of AI, the metaverse and the blockchain on the design industry in the year that was.  Bobby turns the plug reigns over to Jaime to hear more about her experiences working with AI tech, as well as her new gig helping bring blockchain provenance to...

Design principles meet technology. This week on the pod, we manage to get both practical and technical in a forward-looking conversation with a passionate advocate of the metaverse, wearables, and more - who also happens to be a licensed senior designer at a major firm. Lisbeth Jimenez joins the gang to talk about the potential for inclusivity in digital spaces, why designers should be the ones designing the metaverse, wearables, and even what constitutes a ‘friend of the podcast’. Spoiler...

Immersive design: by Gensler. This week we welcome one of the leaders of a rapidly growing practice area from one of the world’s most noteworthy architecture & design firms, Gensler. In a can’t-miss conversation, Sarah DiLeo, our first guest who can claim to be both a member of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and a licensed pilot, goes deep with the gang into how a leading immersive media practice is thinking about technology, talent, inclusive design, and more. All this while...

Discussing recent announcements in AI and 3D spatial tech and their impact on A&D! This week the gang puts on their party hats and pops a bottle of (non-alcoholic) bubbly to celebrate 25 episodes of BTE. Together, they reflect on the stories of the guests we’ve welcomed in the past year and discuss a series of recent and relevant announcements in 3D spatial design and artificial intelligence and their impacts on the architecture and design industry as well as society at large. Plus,...

This week on BTE - when emerging tech meets city planning… This week we welcome a guest who’s credentials include being everything from an Urban Tech fellow at Cornell University to a multiple time startup founder and advisor to a repeat champion on Jeopardy. Greg Lindsay joins the gang to get into how cities (and by extension large groups of people) deal with technology being thrust upon them and along the way take a trip down memory lane to remember Foursquare, the introduction of Uber, and...

This week, we sit down with David Schwarz, the founder of HUSH, an innovative experience design studio. In a conversation that moves from the philosophical to the practical, we go deep into the challenges and opportunities for both clients and staff of working with a design studio with technology and innovation core, discuss the future of work and the state of sustainability in emerging tech, share thoughts some thoughts on the questionably popular term, ‘phygital’, and even get into a little...

This week, the gang is joined in-person in New York by a classically-trained, multidisciplinary designer who is always pushing the envelope and finding new ways at his shop, RADS Studios, to blend the traditional with the digital. Rodolfo Agrella stops by to share stories from his classical architecture and design training in Caracas and Milan, how he used technology to create a cookie at Salone del Mobile, the lesson we were all asked to learn from COVID, and how he’s integrating technology...

This week on the pod, the gang receives a masterclass in embedding innovation into a business from the Director of Innovation at S/L/A/M Collaborative, Keith Fine. Keith took a moment of necessity to create a virtual workflow at the onset of COVID and has used it to chart a path to redefine how the firm is now using 3D Spatial and AI technology to work both with its clients and internally. Tune in for a can’t-miss conversation as we talk about sourcing and inspiring talent, create a new...

We’re keeping it in the (SANDOW) family this week as we welcome the Editor-in-Chief of Metropolis Magazine, and leading thinker on industry sustainability, Avi Rajagopal. Buckle up as the team nerds out with Avi on everything from how blockchain technology can impact supply chain, to judging the first Interior Design Metaverse Architecture & Design Awards, to what Indigenous culture is teaching us about how how to use AI. If you’ve ever thought that your Alexa might need a hug from time...

The summer of BTE continues as the pod travels to Chicago for Design Week where we sit down with Karli Slocum, the Vice President of Product and Marketing at 3Form, live from the SnapCab podcast studio at NeoCon (is that enough plugs for you??). Kicking off talking about the company’s roots in Utah, Karli shares insights from a number of signature initiatives including her transformative partnership with Interior Design to create the 'DesignScene' showroom at the Merchandise Mart at...

This week on the pod, while Bobby is away, Tess and Andrew hold down the fort and welcome a Global powerhouse in the world of trends. Patti Carpenter, the Global Trend Ambassador for Maison et Objet, joins us for a far-reaching conversation that touches on how metaverse and other emerging technologies are becoming trends, the pandemic's impact on the fashion and design industries, and her work in developing countries helping to create equity and opportunity through design. A conversation you...

In a NYCxDESIGN special, the pod squad assembles live at the Audo Copenhagen showroom in Tribeca for an in-person conversation with 3rd generation member of the founding family, Joachim Kornbek Engell-Hansen. In this wide-ranging conversation in front of a live audience, we get into the evolution of the Audo brand, the many ways in which design innovation is achieved through collaboration with different kinds of partners, and the impetus for the re-branding of MENU and by Lassen to Audo...

This week on the pod, we welcome a true icon in the world of 3D spatial design, Philip Rosedale. Philip is the co-founder of High Fidelity, a company committed to connecting people through superior digital audio, but he’s probably best known as the brain behind Second Life—a pioneering virtual world launched wayyyy back in 2003. If you’re a long-time listener, you’ve definitely heard us mention Second Life on BTE before, and this week we dive into it with one of the OG’s of the metaverse and...

Today on the pod the gang welcomes a leader in innovation at one of our industry’s most renowned firms, Perkins & Will. While Yehia Madkour currently resides in Vancouver, allowing Tess and Andrew to claim him as a ‘Canadian’, he hails from one of the world’s most bustling and populous cities, Cairo, Egypt, where his appreciation for architecture, technology, and transportation systems was first forged. Today he leads a global innovation network that’s experimenting with bleeding edge...

On the latest episode of Barriers to Entry, we sit down with an early leader at one of the most publicized and possibly most criticized of the ‘metaverse’ worlds, Decentaland. Sam Hamilton came to the Decentraland Foundation through a journey stemming from art and music that intersected with technology in the early days of the rise of cryptocurrency and NFTs. Today, he oversees the direction of a digital world that has made global headlines with its Metaverse Fashion Week but is still largely...

In this special Bonus Pod episode, we welcome the Founder of Architecture Hunter, Amanda Ferber. While Bobby gets the day off, Andrew and Tess get into it with Amanda about the rise of her Global brand from a collection of images in folders on her university computer, then Tess and Amanda discuss their impressions of being judges for the inaugural Interior Design Metaverse Architecture & Design (MAD) Awards and the implications of the metaverse on the future of design. Connect with...

This week, the gang is joined by an A&D leader fresh off appearances on stage at CES and SXSW, two of the world’s most prominent tech conferences. Lighting Environments and Elevated Environments CEO, Erin McDannald, joins the pod to talk about learnings from their company’s industry-leading office digital twin, the impacts of technology on talent, and how the metaverse has the potential to eliminate… PowerPoint. A practical conversation filled with first-hand insights that you won’t want...

This week the gang welcomes German-born innovator and Founder of the notable A&D digital publisher Architizer and New York-based HWKN Architecture, Matthias Hollwich, for a wide-ranging discussion on business, innovation, Web 3.0, designing in the Metaverse and more. From how broken legs make you more social to handing our future over to (hopefully) intelligent machines, you won’t want to miss this one. Connect with Matthias Hollwich on LinkedIn! Moments to check out:  Designing your...