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Conference insights can give business a boost

David Perry -- Furniture Today, May 26, 2011

David Perry Executive editorFurniture/Today's sixth annual Bedding Conference, our biggest bedding event to date, wrapped up earlier this month, but its lessons will live on in a number of ways.

Several attendees said they would be taking away important insights that can help them improve their businesses - and themselves.

One attendee said he learned that for peak performance, he shouldn't be working out first thing in the morning. Another was reminded that retailers should seek to grow their business at all price points, and that they should focus on helping their salespeople become more effective. A third attendee said he will be paying more attention to meeting the needs of the female consumers who drive the mattress purchase process.

Mattress Firm executive Craig McAndrews, who sparked those comments at his conference wrap-up, reminded us that there are many things we all know, but that the challenge is to act upon them. Those aren't really great ideas, he noted, until they are backed with activity. And that's a key takeaway from the Bedding Conference, it seems to me. Once again our speakers presented a long list of business-building ideas. But how many of those ideas will spark changes in our business?

Last year we stressed the importance of focusing on women in our marketing and hiring practices. But the room this year was once again largely filled with men. It takes time to make changes, but is our industry really trying to bring more women into our companies?

Next week we will present a comprehensive package of stories on the conference, and we hope everyone will study those stories carefully, looking for good ideas. We like to say that one good actionable idea makes one of our conferences a success for any individual attendee.

The Bedding Conference will also live on in our video reports from the conference, which you can find on our bedding homepage. And we will write about key issues that emerged at the conference in the months to come.

Thanks to everyone who helped make the conference a big success, including our impressive list of sponsors: Hickory Springs, Paramount Sleep, Comfort Solutions, Serta, Simmons, Wells Fargo, Therapedic, Leggett & Platt, Protect-A-Bed, Natura, Englander, Kingsdown, Fabrictech, Restonic, Aireloom, DreamFit, Protect-All, DSI Delivery, Sealy, Human Touch, Guardmaster, Wright, Reverie, Spring Air, Storis, BiOH, Ashley-Sleep and Naturepedic. Now let's put some of those ideas to work and sell more mattresses this year.

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