THE QUICK BACKSTORY ON HIGH POINT MARKET

First, a quick intro for those of you who may read this and not have any idea of what High Point Market is.

High Point Market, held in High Point, North Carolina for the past 50+ years, is the USA’s largest wholesale industry tradeshow for the home furnishings industry.

Spread out over the downtown High Point area across 100+ buildings, it normally attracts approx. 75,000 visitors twice a year from around the world.

Who attends? Brick and mortar retail store buyers, e-commerce only retail buyers like Wayfair, Amazon, etc., interior designers who are purchasing for their clients, hospitality buyers and those, like me, who are industry service providers.

I have attended this market twice a year, for the past 19 years, with the exception of three times…one of which was last Fall, when it first opened up again during the pandemic with strict safety protocols in place.

I have met many of my closest friends as a result of attending High Point Market for so many years and those friendships and relationships have been - and are - critical to the success of my business, Savour Partnership, to this day.

[ NOTE: for those who may also know me as the CEO of The Kaleidoscope Partnership….as of 2021 I decided to conduct all of my business activities under one name: Savour Partnership, to simplify my marketing. ]

WHAT IS A HIGH POINT MARKET STYLESPOTTER?

The High Point Market StyleSpotter program was first implemented in 2011 as a high level influencer marketing program meant to help the world at large see the top trends shown by the manufacturers exhibiting at High Point Market, through the eyes of 8 carefully selected interior design influencers.

[ Fun Side Note: I had the pleasure of working, in 2012, on behalf of one of my then clients, Olioboard, on a contest Olioboard planned - together with High Point Market Authority - for a 9th Style Spotter. It was a very competitive event and a fun contest and the eventual winner was Lisa Herring Mende. You can read Lisa’s post about that at the end of this post ].

These 8 carefully selected design influencers are heavily promoted by the High Point Market Authority throughout the year and in turn they help to promote the trends seen at High Point Market through a variety of content initiatives they are involved in, including online marketing activities, panel presentations and articles they contribute to on behalf of High Point Market Authority.

Afterwards, they become part of the #hpmktSS alumni, and every market are invited for a Group dinner where they get together to connect and deepen their relationships with each other.

I had the true pleasure of having one of my very good past clients selected as a #HPMKT Stylespotter for the 2015 team: Leslie Hendrix Wood, the owner of Leslie Hendrix Wood Interiors and the founder of the Hadley Court lifestyle blog.

Sadly, Leslie passed away in Jan. of 2021, an event that broke my heart as we had worked together for 5 years and had become good friends during that time.

Leslie left a lasting legacy to our industry, though, through her donation of the funds that enabled the Hadley Court Center For Design Collaboration to be built at the Bienenstock Furniture Library.

HOW DO YOU APPLY TO BECOME A STYLESPOTTER?

You apply to become a High Point Market Stylespotter when the applications are open notice goes online approx. mid year by every year. The Vice President of Marketing for High Point Market Authority, Ashley Grigg, also sends out a press release.

If you want to be notified of when the application process goes live on High Point Market Authority’s website, get on High Point Market Authority’s mailing list by emailing Ashley at:

ashley@highpointmarket.org.

TOP TIPS FOR BECOMING SELECTED AS A HIGH POINT STYLESPOTTER

The Stylespotters are selected by a team of 4 people: Ashley, Gary Inman, Shay Geyer and an unnamed 4th.

Yesterday, Friday, April April 16th, 2021, I was joined - by surprise - by my long time friends, interior designer Gary Inman [ who serves on the board of the Bienenstock Furniture Library with me ] and Shay Geyer, the owner of Dallas based retailer IBB Design Fine Furnishings Designs, in an impromptu Join Clubhouse room I started about High Point Market.

I asked Gary and Shay several questions about what they consider when selecting the next year’s team of High Point Market Stylespotters.

WHAT GARY AND SHAY SAID ABOUT WHAT THEY LOOK FOR WHEN SELECTING NEXT YEAR’S STYLESPOTTERS:

No. 1

The first thing that stood out to me in this long convo we had on Join Clubhouse was they both look for team players. What did that mean to them?

They are not looking for design divas but for designers and/or lifestyle influencers who consistently make an effort to lift others up. They said it’s apparent to them, via social media, who does that and who doesn’t.

I found that so refreshing to hear, and I hope you do, too.

No. 2

They are looking for a diverse group. This means geographical diversity, diversity of point of view, physical diversity and, in addition, diversity of type of business to reflect all the different types of businesses the people have who attend #HPMKT - as mentioned above.

No. 3

They are looking for candidates who have good followings on Instagram AND Pinterest, as those are the two sites that #HPMKT uses the most to promote the Stylespotters program.

They said having 10,000 followers+ on Instagram was not necessary to be selected, but that certainly a large following on either of those two platforms, all other things being just about equal, would possibly tip the scales in your favor as the purpose of the program is to spread the word as widely as possible about all of the beautiful trend forward products shown by the exhibitors at #HPMKT.

No. 4

They are looking for up to date websites that showcase your distinct point of view.

No. 5

Importantly, they are looking for Instagram feeds that showcase your own work and point of view, not the work of others. They are also looking for strong visual content creators, as well, who understand how to utilize social media in a way that benefits the exhibitors.

CONGRATULATIONS TO THIS YEAR’S 2021 STYLESPOTTER TEAM

Meet them all on this link:

https://www.highpointmarket.org/products-and-trends/style-spotters

Below is a screenshot from the official press release sent out by #HPMKT about this year’s 2021 Stylespotters.

Last year, in 2020, San Diego interior designer Rachel Moriarty was a #HPMKT StyleSpotter and, given my own love of color, I really enjoyed everything she spotted.

It wasn’t easy being a 2020 StyleSpotter through the first year of the pandemic, and the whole 2020 team did an outstanding job doing most of their work virtually.

I was also excited to see that 2020 StyleSpotter [ and new Bienenstock Furniture Library board member ] Nancy Fire spotted one of Savour Partnership client Seasonal Living’s concrete and reclaimed teak tables, the CLIPP, last year.

Here’s the edge of the CLIPP indoor/outdoor dining table that Nancy stylespotted from Seasonal Living, as seen in their #HPMKT showroom last Spring.

The image you see behind the CLIPP was one frame of a series of videos Savour Partnership produced for our client during the 2019/early 2020 tradeshow season.

This June, I am excited to see which, if any, of the StyleSpotters find Seasonal Living’s Interhall - 506 showroom where The Provenance Signature Collection by Laura Muller will be shown for the first time.

Laura, a professional builder/designer from Los Angeles, and known to many by her Instagram username, @FourPointDesignBuild, will be debuting her first licensed indoor/outdoor furniture collection for Seasonal Living.

We shared a sneak peek of one of the pieces in the new Spring 2021 edition of Seasonal Living Magazine, which you can see by clicking here.

And if you’re wondering about the above magazine, one of the service offferings of my company, Savour Partnership, is producing bespoke, consumer facing digital magazines for luxury manufacturers and interior designers.

We’ve been designing and writing Seasonal Living Magazine now for about 2. 5 years and it’s become quite popular with design loving consumers and interior designers.

It’s not pay to play - meaning you don’t have to pay to be a featured designer in it - and you do not have to have used Seasonal Living’s products to be featured, either.

But, certainly, if you have a modern indoor/outdoor residential or commercial space you’ve completed for a client, and it does utilize Seasonal Living’s indoor/outdoor furniture, lighting and/or decorative accessories, please send it in for us to see at editor@seasonalliving.com.

[ NOTE: If you’re interested in having your own consumer facing, shoppable magazine in 2021 or beyond, please contact me at leslie@savourpartnership.com ]

Be looking for the Summer 2021 issue of Seasonal Living Magazine to debut prior to June #HPMKT.

Thank you for reading this and I hope, if you aspire to be a #HPMKT StyleSpotter, that the tips here will help you understand how to prepare yourself - and your online presence - to be a top contender.

For more information on all things High Point Market, make sure to see the High Point Market’s official website, here:

https://highpointmarket.org

and it’s also fun to see the videos on their You Tube channel, here:

https://www.youtube.com/user/HighPointMarket/videos

and to follow all of the 2021 Stylespotters and Shay and Gary, click here:

https://www.highpointmarket.org/products-and-trends/style-spotters

As always, thank you for reading my blog.

Leslie Carothers
Chief Energizing Officer
Savour Partnership

If you’d like to follow me, Leslie Carothers, in other places, this is where you can find me:

@tkpleslie: Instagram | Linked In | Twitter
@savourpartnership Instagram | Linked In | Facebook | Twitter
@designhappyliving Instagram | Twitter

As promised, here is the link to Lisa’s blog when she became the 9th StyleSpotter back in 2012:

https://lisamendedesign.blogspot.com/2012/07/mia-on-monday.html

And if you missed my post last week about Join Clubhouse, and would like to join my Club, #DesignCoffeeChat every Saturday morning at 9 am CT, see this post:

https://www.savourpartnership.com/blog/2021/4/8/about-join-clubhouse