4 Apr 2025

Ontario Summit and ARIDO AGM 2025 Recap

ARIDO Ontario

Last week we spent two amazing days during the Ontario Summit and ARIDO AGM on March 27th and 28th, 2025! And this year, the in-person venue on Day 2 took place in Ottawa, at the Canadian Museum of Nature, which made this portion of the event truly special.

Day 1: March 27th (virtual)

On Thursday, we hosted two well attended, informative and engaging virtual sessions.

The first session was the first of a three-part series presented by Erin Jenner, ARIDO, titled “Advocating for social justice within the spatial realm”, designed to deep-dive into the crucial role of social justice in transforming the landscape of design and architecture. Over three dynamic sessions, participants will unlock the potential of social justice to drive advocacy, foster collaboration, and ignite innovation in the industry.

Part 1 of this series delved into the foundations of knowledge about Social Justice in the Spatial Realm: Defining of Social Justice, Historical context and evolution, and Key principles and concepts.

Screen shot - Erin Jenner held a virtual session during the Ontario Summit on March 27th, titled “Advocating for social justice within the spatial realm”

The second session of the day was called Examination Alternative Project – An Equity-Centered Solution with Sharon Portelli, ARIDO Executive Director, and it shared the human experiences by pilot candidates and assessors outlining the journey of the new alternative.

The Examination Alternative Project, also known as the EAP, was a project aimed at developing an alternative assessment option to the current examination requirement for qualifying as a Registered Interior Designer in Ontario. An equity-centered assessment is an approach to evaluating qualifications, skills, or learning outcomes that prioritizes fairness, inclusivity, and cultural responsiveness.

Screen shot - Sharon Portelli held a virtual session during the Ontario Summit on March 27th, titled Examination Alternative Project – An Equity-Centered Solution

Day 2: March 28th (Hybrid)

Day 2 was a hybrid event, with the in-person portion taking place in Ottawa, the home town of ARIDO’s new president, Jeremy Cheff, ARIDO.

The day started off with guests and members arriving at the beautiful and unique setting in the Canadian Museum of Nature, where we hosted the Member Townhall, Credentials Matter Photo Booth for Registered members, Student BID Portfolio reviews, which were followed by the ARIDO Annual General meeting. The evening concluded with a fun Networking Reception in the Fossil Gallery, where members could mingle and chat over refreshing drinks and wine, tasty hors d’oeuvres and music, surrounded by dinosaurs and greenery.

ARIDO members had an opportunity to get many exciting updates during the member Townhall, including the newest updates on RIDA, Registered Interior Designer Assessment, previously known as the EAP, updates on the Association’s work and developments over the past year.

The AGM provided more exciting news, like the official appointment of the new ARIDO President, Jeremy Cheff, as Sabrina Carinci completed her amazing 2-year term as ARIDO’s president.

Congratulations to the new president of ARIDO, as we look toward this exciting next chapter!

Another important update during the AGM was the signing of the official Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA) between ARIDO and Association professionnelle des designers d’intérieur du Québec (APDIQ) which further elevates the already strong relationship between the two associations, and represents solidarity and standing shoulder to shoulder with each other.

NOTE: Recordings of the member Townhall and ARIDO AGM presentations are available in ARIDOAccess, on the Ontario Summit & ARIDO AGM page.

A big thank you to everyone who joined us virtually and in-person, and made this event possible, the members, student volunteers, portfolio reviewers and all the students who participated in the BID Portfolio Review activation, ARIDO staff.

We would like to thank all the 3rd and 4th year students who participated in the BID Portfolio Reviews:
Jordan Canning, Nadia Lefebvre, Krystel Julien, Amelie Bender-Olivas, Kiseki Ryan-Sato, Adam Spencer, Lindsay Klimchuk, Molpichpanha Heng, Monika Stoskute, Dania Abdulla, Haelli Jeffries, Wencheng Zhou, Farid Badran, Thao Le, Djeneba Gbanet, Amanda Pike, Chenting (Nikki) Jin, Jessy Choueiri, Sarah Crepeault

A huge thank you to the portfolio reviewers for lending their expertise during the activation:
Bryan Wiens, ARIDO, David Gibbons, ARIDO, Adriana Mot, ARIDO, Hillary Tippett, ARIDO, Merissa Reed, ARIDO, Dorothy Stern, ARIDO

Thank you to all our student volunteers for all their help during the event:
Nadia Lefebvre, Amelie Bender-Olivas, Amanda Pike, Farid Badran, Thao Le, Molpichpanha Heng, Haelli Jeffries, Djeneba Gbanet, Wencheng Zhou

A special thank you to all our sponsors and partners:

Event Partners