TEXTILES
As usual, the 2010 textiles trade-show season kicks off with the most all-encompassing show for home and contract textiles, Heimtextil, which is scheduled to run Jan. 13-16.
The 2010 show will have the theme “Take a Walk on the Style Side.” The “Let’s have a look” section of exhibits will focus on architecture and materials, and the “Let’s talk about it” lecture forum will spotlight trademark and license-management issues, export and market-entry strategies, and the contract business.
This Heimtex will present an expanded Contract Creations section, with home-textiles trends occupying a prominent place in this forum. Olaf Schmidt, vice president, textiles fairs for Messe Frankfurt, said this area would include the Young Contract Creations Award: Upholstery and Wall competition, for which Messe Frankfurt has received a multitude of entries for both wall and upholstery designs. This “confirms we are on the right track with our efforts to bring young talents to the attention of a large audience of experts,” Schmidt said.
At the end of January, the New York International Gift Fair and the concurrent New York Home Textiles Market Week take place. The Gift Fair plans to add to its growing list of galleries with The Licensing Gallery @ NYIGF, an exhibit area featuring about 30 companies that will present art and design for sale or license, with the intent of providing manufacturers of gift and home products with access to artwork that is ready for gift and home products.
Another key feature at the upcoming Gift Fair will be the new marketing campaign being launched for the show. Titled “New Rules,” the campaign will include a redesigned logo and examples of product that will be on display at the show. The new look will appear on all print and online materials, and on signage that will be used at the gift fair’s venues—the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center and Passenger Ship Terminal Pier 94 in New York City.
One of the highlights at the 7 W New York showroom building during New York Home Textiles Market Week is the first-ever NYC Baby & Kid Fair, which will take place on the building’s 11th floor through the Jan. 29-Feb. 4 run of the show. Exhibits of children’s textiles, gifts and accessories will be placed front and center for this special feature.
Textiles showrooms will be open March 8-12 for the New York Home Fashions Market. The vendors hope that the market will build on the apparent success of the showroom week this past September. Vendors reported brisk business and a cautiously optimistic attitude among retailers who attended the market—and a growing feeling that the end of the recession, at least where home furnishings is concerned, may be in sight.
The Atlanta International & Fine Linen & Home Textiles Market runs concurently with the Spring Gift Show at AmericasMart March 20-22.
Art and design license show Surtex, complete with new branding initiative, revamped Web site and marketing campaign, will take place at the Javits Center May 16-22.
Back on the international front, the 15th annual Istanbul Home Textiles Exhibition (Evteks), is scheduled for May 19-23. Last year’s Evteks hosted 667 exhibitor companies and an estimated 72,000 attendees.
FLOOR COVERING
New products, designs plus seminars and events await the floor covering industry in 2010.
The Atlanta International Area Rug Market, Jan. 7-10, kicks off 2010 for the category. Twitter, Facebook and other social media will be the focus of the AmericasMart University (AMU) Social Media Day, with a keynote address by Erik Qualman, author of Socialnomics: How Social Media Transforms the Way We Live and Do Business. AMU will also have a comprehensive schedule of business classes for attendees.
AmericasMart’s Market Gala at the High Museum of Art will celebrate the John Portman: Art and Architecture exhibition.
The Atlanta market will also feature the National Oriental Rug Show (NORS), as well as America’s Magnificent Carpet Awards. In addition, the Museum of Introductions (MOI) gallery will showcase innovative and design-driven area rugs and carpets.
Internationally, Domotex, in Hannover, Germany, Jan. 16-19, expects 1,400 exhibitors from 60 countries. It’s roughly the same amount of exhibitors as last year, “which we interpret as a clear sign that the trade acknowledges the event to be the leading international trade fair for this sector,” said Stephan Kühne, board of management member of Deutsche Messe AG. “By introducing new keynote themes and special display settings to highlight trends and by creating strategic networking opportunities, we are laying the basis for our exhibitors and trade visitors from the trade, the skilled crafts and architecture to find good business leads and initiate concrete deals.”
Domotex attendees will note that the display category of handmade carpets and rugs will be relocated to Halls 19 to 23 in the Northern part of the exhibition grounds, making it easier to access from the new North 1 and West 3 entrances as well as give viewers a detailed overview of what’s available in the marketplace.
Back in the U.S., the Las Vegas Market, running Feb. 1 to 5, will occur again this winter at World Market Center. Along with the more than five million square feet of showrooms with new products and collections, the market will also have a number of design events and seminars scheduled. The Forecast Series will give attendees a peek at upcoming trends, while the Brave New World Environmental Leadership Series will help companies go green. For those interested in capturing more of the juvenile market, the Vegas Kids area on the ninth floor of Building A will have seminars as well as a special reception on Monday, Feb. 1. WMC will also have exclusive temporary exhibits, including the high-end Context, Design and Living and One Good World juried sections.
Other Las Vegas Market seminars will include such topics as engaging customers through the Internet and a panel titled The New Language of Marketing. In addition, the Western Home Furnishings Association will feature dozens of business-building seminars throughout the week in the Retail Resource Center on Building B’s 16th Floor.
In addition, international design luminary Juan Montoya will be honored by both the World Market Center Las Vegas and Las Vegas Design Center with the Design Icon.
The hospitality and healthcare design show—Inspired Design—will also run concurrently at WMC during Las Vegas Market.
Across the city in the Sands Convention Center will be flooring trade show Surfaces, from Feb. 2-4. Highlights include a designer day luncheon featuring Kim Myles of HGTV’s Myles of Style, and such seminars as From Farm to Floor: A Complete Review of Wool and Ten Tips for Today’s Economy.
At the end of January, the New York International Gift Fair and the concurrent New York Home Textiles Market Week take place. Attendees to the Licensing Gallery @ NYIGF will see an exhibit area featuring about 30 companies that will present art and design for sale or license.
The India Carpet Expo is scheduled for Feb. 23-26 in New Delhi. The rug industry will be headed to High Point Market April 17-22.
FURNITURE & LIGHTING
For the people selling furniture, lighting, mattresses and decorative accessories, 2009 can’t end quick enough. It’s been that kind of year for any product tied in this closely with the housing market.
With the page turning on the yearly calendar, the industry can look forward to some sense of normalcy, at least when it comes to its trade shows. For the first time in at least several years, the market landscape closely resembles the prior years. Unlike previous years when markets changed their dates, new showroom buildings opened or things otherwise got rearranged, the 2010 season opens with the usual suspects in the usual places.
The head-to-head fight that High Point and Las Vegas have been engaged in for the past several years seems to have settled into an uneasy stalemate. Neither market appears to be gaining share at the expense of the other and both complexes seem to be battling a common enemy—soft business—rather than each other.
Furniture and lighting markets in Dallas, Atlanta, Chicago and New York continue to jostle for their place in the mix with each market trying to achieve a total home approach. The Tupelo, Miss., show remains a key spot on the promotional calendar, while the Contemporary Show in New York is the premier domestic event for that market segment.
Overseas, important shows in Paris and Cologne in January are complemented by the event in Milan in April. And in Asia, shows in both China and the Southeastern Asian countries remain crucial locations for companies sourcing product out of those regions.
First up on the calendar for 2010 is Dallas. That’s where the lighting industry will head to see the latest in illumination at the Dallas International Lighting Market, Jan. 14-18, which runs concurrently with the Dallas Total Home & Gift Market. The market’s ARTS Awards event, which will honor Don McEvoy of Donald McEvoy Ltd. with the Academy of Achievement award this year along with more than 20 category winners, will be held on Saturday, Jan. 16, in The Grand Pavilion at the Trade Mart. The action returns back to Dallas June 24-27 with the Lighting Market.
The Dallas Market Center has been able to offer lighting customers the lowest hotel rates in six years, it says, as low as $78 a night. In addition, the DMC’s Luminary Frequent Buyer program offers $50 per night hotel reimbursements for up to five nights hotel stay for loyal lighting showrooms. Hotel reimbursements increase to $75 per night after attending three consecutive markets. After six or more consecutive markets attended, buyers can earn Zenith Luminary status, receiving $100 vouchers and complementary round-trip airport ground transportation via limo or town car.
From there the calendar turns to Mississippi for the Tupelo Furniture Market, a perennial spot on the promotional furniture circuit. The show is back in January for the second consecutive year, Jan. 22 to 24, after a brief flirtation with February.
Next up is the Las Vegas Market at the World Market Center, which takes its February-September schedule into its second year. This year’s event, Feb. 1 to 5, will again showcase a mix of furniture, mattress, lighting, rug and decorative accent exhibitors.
A series of seminars will be held again, including The Forecast Series and the Brave New World Environmental Leadership Series, as well as dozens of seminars throughout the week, in the Retail Resource Center on the 16th floor of Building B sponsored by the Western Home Furnishings Association.
There will also be a section of temporary exhibits, including the high-end Context, Design and Living and One Good World juried sections.
Entertainment at the show, always of interest to attendees, has yet to be announced.
The Indian Furniture & Accessories Show, scheduled for March 13-15, includes product for homes, gardens, offices and hotels in a variety of designs in wood, cane and bamboo, and wrought iron.
One month later it’s back to the U.S. for the High Point Market, April 17 to 22, continuing its new Saturday to Thursday sequencing. Premarket, which is being promoted with renewed strength by the High Point Market Authority, is a month earlier, March 15 and 16.
High Point enters its 101st year in 2010, still with more showrooms and more attendees than any other American furniture event. There will also be ongoing efforts to control costs on hotel rooms and rental cars as well as more free parking within walking distance to the market center. Again, entertainment details have not been released, but for the past several markets, there have been concerts in the tent between the main IHFC building and Showplace and those are expected to continue.
The same week there will also be action in Italy where Milan’s Salone del Mobile is being held, April 14 to 19. “The Event is Back” is the theme for the 2010 show, following a strong showing in 2009, “despite the extremely challenging global economic climate,” show organizers said on their Web site. The show, considered the number one event for the contemporary furnishings market, will once again spill out from the Milan Fairgrounds into all sorts of venues and locations around town.
The closest thing to Milan in the U.S. is the International Contemporary Furniture Fair, which has established itself as the top resource for modern design in this country. The 2010 edition, May 15 to 18, is set as always at the New York Javits Convention Center. Among the exhibitors this time will be contingents from: Austrian Trade Commission, British European Design Group (BEDG), Design in Brussels (Belgium), Furniture Association of Portugal, Furniture New York, The Furniture Society (U.S.), German Design Council, IDSA New York (Industrial Designers Society of America), Inside Norway, Interiors from Spain, and Thai Trade Center (Thailand).
TABLETOP
The Atlanta Gift & Home Furnishings Market kicks off the trade-show year for the tabletop category.
For this year’s show, scheduled for Jan. 6-13, AmericasMart is launching the section as Living and Entertaining: Gifts, Tabletop & Accessories, reflecting the category’s evolution to a more casual style.
“With a casual-style influence and the need to offer a broader range of product, companies are now showing merchandise intended for everyday use and gift-giving,” the company said. “Living and Entertaining captures this progression and will become the next destination for all-occasion entertaining.”
Meanwhile, the entire Home section of AmericasMart is becoming designer driven. Reflecting this design energy and cross-merchandising opportunities, celebrity designers Thom Felicia, Kathryn M. Ireland and Brad Ford will make presentations at the show.
The following week sees gift shows taking place in Los Angeles, Dallas, Orlando and Philadelphia.
California Gift Show, taking place Jan. 12-18, will be the second integrated since merging with L.A. Mart. With events and introductions at both the L.A. Mart and the Los Angeles Convention Center, the January show will mark the return of Beckman’s Handcrafted Gift Show, featuring “a high-quality exhibitor base built though an application process to guarantee a unique and valuable attendee experience in the show’s appearance, programming and product resources,” according to organizers. This show within a show will feature a diverse group of artisans exclusive to the United States and Canada and will be showcased at the Los Angeles Convention Center during the California Gift Show.
Dallas Market Center’s Total Home & Gift Market, Jan. 13-19, runs concurrently with the International Lighting Market and Holiday & Home Expo. A full slate of seminars is scheduled including designer Susanna Salk presenting “Home Trends & Design Style,” and Tom Shay, president of Profits Plus, speaking on “The Internet Is for Dough, Not Just for Show.” The Gift Market returns to Dallas June 23-29.
New for the Chicago Market: Living and Giving (Jan. 21-27) is a Fair Trade Pavilion, dedicated to Fair Trade Federation artists and products. The pavilion will be filled with “high-end quality products which create sustainable and positive change for some of the world’s communities,” according to show organizers.
The Chicago show is also teaming with Beckman’s Handcrafted Gift show, which will run during the Chicago Market event.
The winter New York International Gift Fair is the 158th edition of the semi-annual show. Show organizer GLM is expecting 2,700 exhibitors and 31,000 buyers to attend.
The show will feature SustainAbility: Design for a Better World, a special eco-focused exhibit. Participation in the display is limited to global gift and home industry suppliers whose products or production processes are eco-friendly, or companies whose business practices are socially responsible, philanthropic or fair-trade oriented.
The section will feature 220 products emphasizing design simplicity and eco-friendly manufacturing.
Forty One Madison has announced that 30 of its permanent showrooms will be open for the winter gift show. Lobby displays will feature unique products from nine showrooms, displaying gifts and decorative accessories not found elsewhere in the marketplace.
Complimentary luxury shuttle bus service will run in a regular loop between Forty One Madison and the Jacob Javits Center during the show.
In addition to launching the NYC Baby & Kids Fair during the Gift Show, 7 W will offer a complimentary buyers’ lunch. On Jan. 29 the building hosts International Buyer Appreciation Day.
Also during the show, 7 W visitors can enjoy free admission to the New Museum of Contemporary Art.
The leading international show for the tabletop trade remains Ambiente, the giant fair held at the Messe Frankfurt complex in Germany. This year’s event, set for Feb. 12 to 16, will be as big as ever, but get out your maps because everything else about the fair will be all new.
For 2010, Messe Frankfurt is rearranging the entire layout of the show, precipitated by two events: the closing of permanent showrooms in Hall 10 and the opening of a new building, Hall 11. The combination of the two created the opportunity to totally change the configuration of spaces. Most of the tabletop and housewares exhibitors, who had been located in Halls 8, 9 and 10, are being shifted to the other side of the complex, in Halls 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6. Better tabletop companies, for instance, will now be located in Hall 4.1, while Hall 4.0 is the site for a newly organized Contemporary Design area for tableware companies. Select Asian suppliers will continue to exhibit on the lower floors of Hall 10.
The Indian Handicraft & Gifts Fair, to be held in Uttar Pradesh, is scheduled for Feb. 20-23. Show organizers said the fair features 97,000 square meters of exhibitions with 1,800 exhibitors.
The tabletop industry heads to Paris for Maison & Objet Feb. 22-26.
For the New York Tabletop Market, scheduled for April 13-16, Forty One Madison’s lobby vignettes will be created by Martha Stewart and her editors from Martha Stewart Living, Martha Stewart Weddings and Everyday Food.
Stewart and staff “will bring a wealth of ideas for entertaining by mixing her tabletop and furniture designs with tableware and accessories industry-wide,” the showroom building said in a press release.
A representative from Forty One Madison said the building will also announce new permanent showrooms in the near future.
Forty One Madison will also offer a host of amenities including complimentary coat checking and refreshments throughout the market.
Showroom building 7 W will highlight “Dining Goes Digital” and the importance of online shopping, registery, design and dining for the Tabletop Market. Partnering with a media leader in the home/apartment design field, a series of signature programs and events are being developed and will be announced shortly.
During the market, style experts will create inspiring vignettes focusing on easy home dining and entertainment featuring products pulled from 7 W showrooms. The building is also hosting a fifth anniversary cocktail reception on the opening day of the show. Other 7 W amenities include a complimentary buyers’ lunch, limo service between 7 W and Forty One Madison, a buyers’ lounge and coat check.
The first half the tabletop trade show calendar wraps up on June 13-16 with the launch of the World Market Center’s Gift + Home, its first stand-alone show outside of the bi-annual Las Vegas Market.
According to Phillip McKay, World Market Center’s senior vice president, 74 percent of current Las Vegas Market attendees already purchase gifts and decorative accessories and market officials believe there is continued growth ahead.
“The new Gift + Home show is a progression in World Market Center Las Vegas’ vision of being a total home marketplace,” McKay said. “The need to service this key industry segment is a natural extension of the diverse offering currently here. We have tremendous momentum in the gift industry and we’ve been steadily attracting gift buyers to Las Vegas Market.”
World Market Center Las Vegas executives selected the June 13-16 date based on the specific needs and buying patterns of the gift industry. Exhibitors will include permanent showrooms and temporary exhibitors in categories including seasonal, floral, decorative accessories, general gift and others.
HOUSEWARES
For trade shows involving housewares, the new decade kicks off with the Atlanta International Gift & Home Furnishings Market, which runs from Wednesday, Jan. 6 through Wednesday, Jan. 13 at its traditional location in AmericasMart Atlanta.
At the January 2009 show, housewares received a new emphasis with the opening of the 2 West building, with the location of housewares and gourmet-food vendors on the eighth floor. For January 2010, the Atlanta gift market will offer celebrity chefs in the Gourmet Demonstration Kitchen. Chefs Alton Brown, Tyler Florence and Virginia Willis will produce some of their specialties at the show.
The end of January will bring the New York International Gift Fair, which includes the Tabletop & Housewares division and which is scheduled from Saturday, Jan. 30 through Thursday, Feb. 4, at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center and Passenger Ship Terminal Pier 94 in New York City. This will include approximately 250 suppliers exhibiting kitchen gadgets, cutlery and flatware, barware and wine accessories.
Combined with resources located in other gift-fair divisions, attendees will have access to an estimated 500 gourmet product-specific suppliers. One of the highlights in the housewares category will be the exhibit area for the Italian Trade Commission, which will include 20 suppliers of housewares and tabletop products.
The biggest housewares show of the year, the International Home & Housewares Show, will take place from Sunday, March 14 through Tuesday, March 16, at its usual location, McCormick Place in Chicago.
The 2010 show will highlight the International Housewares Association’s new venture into social media. The association, sponsor of the show, is launching a new marketing campaign for the show that involves the Web’s social-networking sites. The association has initiated memberships on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. It has also posted Wikipedia pages for both IHA and the show, and has begun a blog specific to the show on its Web site, housewares.org. (See more on the IHA social media efforts in the Housewares section.)
The idea behind this campaign, according to an IHA statement, is to facilitate communication and networking among industry professionals. IHA’s Facebook page, for instance, now includes show event information, registration for attendees, access tools for preshow planning and the most current industry news. The Facebook page also links with IHA’s YouTube channel, which has videos of IHA events and other industry events.
Also as part of this campaign, IHA has set up two accounts on Twitter. The first, HousewaresAssoc, provides association members with information about the industry and about exhibiting at the show, including key dates, reminders and tips. The second, Housewares Show, serves buyer attendees at the show and focuses on show preparation, show events and industry information.
The LinkedIn group offers member networking opportunities and provides discussion boards to enable contact. It also has industry news, links to other companies within the industry and job openings.
On the international front, the first housewares show of 2010 is Ambiente, scheduled for Friday, Feb. 12 to Tuesday, Feb. 16 at Messe Frankfurt in Frankfurt, Germany. The kitchen section of the show will be located in Halls 1 and 3, while housewares will be sited in Halls 5 and 6. Both areas will be enlarged to form their own trade fairs within the dining section.
“With this restructuring, we are optimally tailoring the spatial requirements of each product area to exhibitors’ new collections and distribution channels,” said Thomas Kastl, director of Ambiente.
On the exact same dates in April, three key Asian shows will present housewares. These are the Hong Kong Housewares Fair from April 20-23; the Bangkok International Houseware Fair, scheduled for the same dates and including an open-to-the-public schedule from April 24-25; and the China Sourcing Fair, also scheduled from April 20-23.
The Hong Kong fair is scheduled to take place at the Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre. IHA will host a global pavilion at the fair, offering exhibitors the opportunity to participate in booths designed, constructed, managed and sponsored by the association.
The Bangkok fair is slated to take place at the Bangkok International Trade and Exhibition Centre, and will run concurrently with the Bangkok International Gift Fair. The China Sourcing Fair will take place at AsiaWorld-Expo in Hong Kong.