There's no place like home (shows)
By Carole Sloan -- Furniture Today, November 11, 2001
If anything showed that consumers nowadays are interested in their homes and in things for their homes, it was the Home Design Show in New York City, sponsored by Merchandise Mart Properties Inc. and Architectural Digest magazine.
The show at the Javits Center, which finished its second annual run earlier this month, showcased some 70 diverse home furnishings sources, with many marquee names in all product lines. Seminars and culinary demonstrations were popular.
Consumers, by the way, paid $20 apiece for admission, and while this year's attendance hasn't been announced, there were 22,000 at last year's debut event.
Particularly interesting was the popularity of the half-hour, free consultations offered with some 30 area interior designers. Over the three-day event, more than 400 consumers took advantage of the service, and some signed on with designers for projects.
On Saturday, the last day of the event, "we were so busy we had to turn away people who wanted appointments with the designers," said Lisa Goodwin, director of marketing for MMPI's Architects & Designers Building in New York.
A number of exhibitors from the interior design community also had staff designers on hand to assist people who shopped their stands.
One notable aspect of the show was the variety of channels of distribution. Retailers like the Kreiss Collection, interior designer showrooms like Baker, Kravet, Scalamandre and Stark, and manufacturers like Viking, Wood-Mode Cabinetry and Steinway all were present.
As John Brennan II, executive vice president of MMPI, explained it, "We're able to push business wherever the exhibitors and consumers want it. This year's show was up another notch from last year, and next year we'd like to expand to another day if we can get the hall. It's definitely something that works and it provides a stimulus to the industry."
All this without no-no-no.
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