UBR Spotlight: Architect Dina Griffin’s Blueprint for Success

This week on The Urban Business Roundtable, UBR Contributor Renita Young sits down with leading architect Dina A. Griffin, President of Interactive Design/Eight Architects (IDEA). With over 15 years of experience in architecture and design, Griffin explains how she is making her mark in a male-dominated field.

Griffin started out in the facilities department of a major retail chain, before launching out on her own with Interactive Design. Since then, her firm has worked on major projects, including Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo and the Modern Wing of the Art Institute of Chicago. Under Griffin’s leadership, Interactive Design has earned numerous prestigious awards, including The Distinguished Builders Award and The Merit Award for New Construction of the Chicago IP Business Congress. Griffin sits down with Young to share how her talent and passion helped her to become a formidable leader in architecture.

Also, UBR Contributor Samantha Pass talks with Exavier Pope, the principal owner of The Pope Firm, a boutique firm specializing in sports and entertainment law. Pope’s firm provides comprehensive advisory, contract negotiation and financial services. With more than 15 years as a highly sought-after motivational speaker, Pope shares his expertise and opinion in his business and law blog on ChicagoNow.com.

In addition, in my “Alfred’s Notepad” segment, I share some tips on how not to network. These is my list things that entrepreneurs should never do if they want to build the kinds of relationships necessary to grow their businesses. As is often said by Black Enterprise Founder and Chairman Earl Graves Sr., “Business is about relationships. Whoever builds the best relationships wins.” Sometimes knowing what not to do wrong can be more important than knowing what to do right. This advice will come in handy when the 2012 Black Enterprise Entrepreneurs Conference hits the Windy City at the Hilton Chicago, May 23 thru 26. You’ll want to bring your A Game when more than 1,500 entrepreneurs come to Chi-town to not just talk about business, but to do business.

And finally, every week on UBR, you’ll get motivation and inspiration from author and entrepreneurial icon Farrah Gray, a weekly wrap-up of business news from USA Today business correspondent Charisse Jones, our Patient Investor Report from Ariel Investments and key economic intelligence for small business owners from our UBR economists Derrick Collins and Rasheed Carter.

If you have a question you want answered or a topic you want addressed on The Urban Business Roundtable, connect with me at BE Insider, the social media network for people who are serious about Black Enterprise. You can also find me on Twitter and Facebook.

Alfred Edmond Jr. is the senior VP/editor-at-large of Black Enterprise and the host of the Urban Business Roundtable, a weekly radio show, sponsored by Ariel Investments, airing CST Wednesdays at 8:30 a.m., Thursdays at 6:30 p.m. and Saturdays at 9:30 a.m. on WVON-AM 1690, the Talk of Chicago. You can also listen live online at WVON.com. Check back each week for UBR Spotlight, which features additional resources, advice and information from and about the topics, entrepreneurs and experts featured on the show.