🎤 Remodeling Is a Team Sport: Why Kitchen Designer Jamie McConnell is Taking the Stage at KBIS 2026 (Twice!)
- Jamie McConnell- The Cabinet Nerd
- Sep 24
- 2 min read
Every February, the kitchen and bath world descends on KBIS — a whirlwind of innovation, inspiration, and a whole lot of cabinetry talk (my happy place, obviously).
This year? I won’t just be attending. I’ll be speaking. Twice.
Out of over 200 submissions, I was selected to present two sessions at KBIS 2026 — and I'm honestly still pinching myself.
Here’s a sneak peek at what I’ll be sharing — and more importantly, why it matters for homeowners, designers, and anyone stuck in the remodel “what now?” fog.
🎤 KBIS Speaker Session 1: From Alone to Empowered: Growing a Profitable Design Business
Co-presented with Certified Kitchen and Bath Designer, Ashleigh Schroeder (@nestkbh), this speaker session is for the kitchen designer trying to do it all — but quietly wondering how long they can keep it up.
We’ll talk about:
The difference between hustling and scaling
Collaborating instead of isolating
Building systems that serve your clients and your peace of mind
This one’s personal. Because we’ve both lived it.
🎤 KBIS Speaker Session 2: Remodeling Is a Team Sport: Help Clients Win
This one’s for the homeowners and the pros.
Remodeling isn’t a perfect process — it's more like a baseball game: wins, strikeouts, rain delays, and maybe the occasional home run.
In this talk, we’ll walk through:
How to frame the remodel journey so clients understand the chaos
What roles each player (designer, GC, trades, client) actually plays
How to reduce friction and increase trust before the first hammer swings
You’ll even get access to a downloadable “Remodel Lineup Card” you can use in real projects — a tool for explaining who’s doing what and when, in plain language.
Why This Matters (Even if You’re Not Going to KBIS 2026)
I don’t speak just to be heard — I speak to build better remodels.
Whether you're planning your own kitchen or working behind the scenes in this wild industry, the insights I’ll be sharing at KBIS are rooted in what I do every day: collaborate, communicate, and reduce confusion through clear kitchen design.
I’ll be bringing what I learn from other kitchen designers at the KBIS stage back to this blog, to my newsletter, and into every client conversation.
And if you have a question you’d love to hear tackled at the KBIS speaker stage — drop it in the comments. This kitchen designer is listening.
Want tools like the Remodel Lineup Card? Join my newsletter here
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