This event is all about industry relationships
Michael Knell, Canadian Correspondent -- Furniture Today, February 12, 2007
Ours is an industry built on relationships. I know very few retailers who do business on an ongoing basis with resources whose representatives — whether it's the road warrior they see every few weeks or the senior management team — they don't like and trust.
In many ways, this makes the furniture industry unusual, if not unique. For example, a close friend is a purchasing agent for a large metal fabricator. If a job needs steel of a particular grade, his job is to secure the required amount at the lowest possible price. He sends out a query, gets bids back and buys.
There's no negotiation. In fact, there's no personal interaction at all.
Connections West, the new trade event created by Furniture West, is built on the premise that our industry's relationships are worth preserving and strengthening.
It also recognizes there's a danger that "market fatigue" may become a widespread malady.
For years, people throughout the industry have said there are too many markets. In addition to the Canadian Home Furnishings Market in Toronto each January, there are two major markets per year in both High Point and Las Vegas. On top of that, retailers get invitations to two more in Tupelo, and for Paris, Birmingham, Cologne and Milan in Europe ... and the list goes on.
I read somewhere that with the possible exception of the week between Christmas and New Year's Day, there's a furniture industry event of some kind going on somewhere in the world every week of the year.
All of these events have a prevailing measure of success for exhibitors: How many orders did they book?
Connections West wants to turn this notion on its head. This two-day event — June 18–19 at the Round-Up Center in Calgary, Alberta — isn't about the order book. It's a forum where senior executives from factories, importing companies and other suppliers can come together with independent retailers and talk about product, programs, ideas — anything and everything that produces stronger ties between them.
This event was created because Furniture West, in the person of its longtime president, Joe Malko, talked to retailers in their stores about what they wanted out of a trade event. It seems retailers want relationships.
In my 20-plus years of writing about this industry, I've rarely, if ever, endorsed anything. This event is worth supporting. It's a new approach. Executed properly, it will be the start of something great.
I encourage everyone, whether you're a supplier or a retailer, to find out more by e-mailing Malko at info@furniturewest.ca.
I'll see you in Calgary!
