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Glen Raven, leader's to be Honored

Nicole Crews -- Furniture Today, January 23, 2012

Leader’s Casual Furniture’s Newton family, from left, Tami, Jerry, Linda, Tim and Ashley.HIGH POINT - The upcoming inaugural Casual Living Conference (Feb. 22-24 at the Ritz-Carlton in Sarasota, Fla.) has released the honorees of its first awards ceremony, which will pay tribute to those who take their company and the industry as a whole to a new level through creativity, innovation and decisive and bold actions.
     Glen Raven Custom Fabrics will be honored as Supplier of the Year and Leader's Casual Furniture, the Florida-based 19-store retailer, will receive the Retailer of the Year award.
     The conference's agenda, entitled "The Sky's the Limit," includes keynote speaker Bob Davies of High Performance Training. Davies is the author of "The Sky is Not the Limit - You Are," and is a former college football coach and sought-after motivational speaker.
     Sphere Trending founder and CEO Maxine Lauer will tackle the topics of life stage demographics and the changing consumer. Jim Jansen of Pew Research will be on hand to break down how consumers shop online and Gallery Furniture's Robert Williams will discuss successful social media strategies.
     Financial analyst Jerry Epperson of Mann, Armistead & Epperson will share the latest industry facts and figures and Tiffany Vasilchik of Material ConneXion will offer an insider's view of one of the world's largest collections of advanced, innovative and sustainable materials.
     An All-Star Retail Panel of four of the nation's leading home furnishings retailers (Bernard Sensale of Fortunoff Backyard Stores, Doug Sanicola of Outdoor Elegance, Keith Koenig of City Furniture and Kyle Johansen of HOM Furniture) will reveal their success strategies. Industry icons Steve Lowsky of Pride Family Brands, Doug Pepp ler of Agio, The 2012-2013 releases from Sunbrella, the outdoor fabric brand of Glen Raven Custom Fabrics.Ashley Nolen of Leader's Casual Furniture and Petey Fleischut of Casual Marketplace make up The Sky's the Limit: Issues and Answers panel and will weigh in on issues challenging the industry including early buys, price hikes, quick-ships, credit, brick versus click and more.
     A Category Growth Panel features Mary Fruehauf of Fruehauf's Patio & Garden Center, Ajay Gupta of Housewarmings Outdoor, Greg Martin of Kolo Collection and Bill Bacon of Bacon's Furniture - retailers who have padded their profit by mixing it up in-store with lighting, grills, seasonal, accessories, designer services and more.
     The event is sponsored by Sunbrella, Agio, Merchandise Mart Properties Inc., Treasure Garden, AmericasMart, TUUCI, Pride Family Brands, the International Casual Furnishings Assn., Telescope Casual Furniture, Gensun Casual, International Market Centers, Dallas Market Center, Hanamint, Alu-Mont, Casual Cushion, Windward Design Group, Alfresco Home, Gloster, Lane Venture, Lloyd/Flanders and OW Lee. Sponsorships are still available.
     To register for the Casual Living Conference, go to http://www.casualliving. com/con2012 (ICFA member retailers enter "ICFA2012" to apply for a $45 discount). For more information, contact Casual Living Executive Editor Nicole Crews at ncrews@casualliving.com or Publisher Norman Hamilton at nhamilton@ casualliving.com.

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Inaugural Conference Set

Dec 13, 2011

Registration still open for Casual Living Conference, Feb. 22-24

Jan 17, 2012

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