I’m so excited to once again be speaking at, and attending, the National Kitchen and Bath Association’s annual tradeshow, #KBIS2022, starting in 1 week, on Tuesday, February 8th.

This is one tradeshow I’ve sorely missed attending. It’s full of such inspiring tradeshow booths, like Signature Kitchen Suite’s and Cosentino’s - two of the sponsors of Seasonal Living Magazine’s Virtual Designer Showhouse.

It’s where both kitchen and bath designers, like 5 of my current clients attending, Sharon L. Sherman of Wyckoff, New Jersey based Thyme and Place Design, Debbe Daley of New Hampshire based Daley Designs, Susie Feia of Madison, WI based Feia Construction, Lori Carpenter of Arkansas based, Lori Carpenter Designs, and the team of Laura Umansky of Aspen and Houston based, Laura U Design, go to see, touch, feel and learn about the products they will be specifying for their clients in person and to forge deeper connections with their key suppliers.

And, it’s also where service providers like myself go to speak, rekindle friendships, learn from others and conduct business.

First, let me share with you the one presentation I will definitely be attending: Sharon’s presentation on Wednesday, Feb. 9th, beginning at 1:30 pm in the North/South Concourse building, South Hall, Level 3, Room 230B on:

Contract Clauses: What Your Business Needs To Know To Minimize Downside Risk

This is a presentation you will not want to miss, if you’re attending #KBIS2022, too. Sharon has been a luxury kitchen and bath designer for the past 20+ years, and is a no-nonsense businesswoman who knows this subject inside and out.

The information she will be sharing with KBIS’s attendees who come to her presentation will be invaluable.

Be there if you can!

I am also speaking at KBIS, 2x, in the more intimate venue of Veronika Miller - Eagleson’s and Jaime Derringer’s #DMMTalks Lounge.

This is the venue where I’ve spoken several times before. The image below, from this post by another former client, Gloria Graham - Sollecito of Artful Kitchens, is from 2018 when Claire Jefford moderated a panel with Maria Killam, Laurel Bern and myself on How To Monetize Your Website For 24/7 Revenue Streams.

This year, Claire will be speaking on this topic with another group of designers who have all done well in monetizing their websites for 24/7 income.

This is a topic I’ve shared lots of free information on over the past 5 years in my Facebook Group for interior designers, #DesignWealth.

If you’re not attending, and you’re a full time professional interior designer and want some of my own top tips for yourselves, please Request To Join my Group at https://facebook.com/groups/DesignWealth,

If you are accepted into my Group after answering the 3 membership questions, you will be able to search my Group for #toptips #toptip and find a wealth of info to help you understand how to monetize your website for 24/7 income.

You will also find many blog posts on my blog, if you will search back a bit, on how to monetize your blog for 24/7 income.

This year, 2022, I will be speaking, as I mentioned, two times.

First, I will be speaking on Top Tips For Acquiring The Right Traffic To Your Website For 24/7 Revenue Generation and New Client Acquisition on Wednesday, February 9th, beginning at 9:15 am in the #DMMTalks Lounge which is located in the North/South Concourse building, South Hall B, Level 1.

If you’d like to have breakfast while there, please register on the below link as only registered attendees will be served breakfast. If you are planning on breakfast, please arrive at 9 am for breakfast distribution.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/design-milk-x-modenus-talks-lounge-influencer-breakfast-tickets-247320069987

Next, I will be speaking in conversation with Jaime Derringer of Design Milk and Katye McGregor Bennett, of KMB Communications, on the last day, Thursday, Feb. 10th, beginning at 10:30 am in the #DMMTalks Lounge on the metaverse and all things NFT’s and why it might [ or might not ] matter to you.

I am very excited about this conversation and what the financial opportunities are for the kitchen and bath, home furnishings and interior design industries.

As some know, I moderated a panel at Fall 2021 #HPMKT as part of Ethos Design Collective’s launch events that was professionally filmed by Jaipur Living on, The Future of Design: From Virtual Showhouses To The Metaverse. See that video, here. The metaverse discussion starts at about 35:00.

This is a topic I’ve long had an interest in.

Again, as some of you know, I conducted the first ever product development experiment in the metaverse [ then known as a virtual world ] of Second Life 14 years ago, back in 2008, in collaboration with Rob Sligh, then the president of Sligh Furniture.

I wrote about it for my Retail Ideas column I used to pen for Furniture Today.com, here:

https://www.furnituretoday.com/business-news/sligh-second-life/

[ A note: the email address in this article is not in use by me anymore, and I folded The Kaleidoscope Partnership, my original company’s name, into my second company, Savour Partnership. I now operate my business under one name only: Savour Partnership.]

I have shared many articles about the metaverse and NFT’s in my Facebook Group for interior designers and if you’re a member of it, just search the group with the hashtag: #metaverse, and you will find them all.

One of my artist friends, Robin Pedrero [ I love her work and own two pieces of hers ] has just minted NFT’s of her work that are available for sale on the NFT marketplace, Open Sea.

I spoke to Robin at length about her experience, and will be weaving her insights about minting NFT’s into my conversation with Jaime and Katye.

If you’re already ahead of the game, and you’re collecting NFT’s, find Robin’s here:
https://opensea.io/robinpedrero

Another NFT marketplace is Rarible [ it’s smaller than OpenSea ] and furniture industry star product designer, Jason Phillips of The Phillips Collection, has just minted his first NFT of a table he’s designed for the metaverse and he chose to list it on Rarible.

Find Jason’s NFT available for sale here. This is one NFT I anticipate will go up in value, over time.

https://rarible.com/jasonphillipsdesign/sale

Another thing I’m excited about is that 20 of Ethos Design Collective’s members, including myself, are attending #KBIS2022.

I wrote this post

https://www.savourpartnership.com/blog/2022/1/25/everything-you-need-to-know-about-ethos-design-collective

all about Ethos Design Collective - the world’s first search engine site where consumers can go to find vetted luxury interior designers to hire and where, as part of the member benefits, we have created private label programs with our sponsors for our members.

I can’t wait to get a group picture with these talented designers!

Follow 19 of the 20 Ethos Design Collective members attending #KBIS2022 on Instagram by clicking on the links below which will take you to their Instagram profiles.

Sharon Sherman, Lori Carpenter, Jessica Duce, Tristan Gary, Jennifer Stoner, Elizabeth Hudson Scruggs, Lori Hanson Miya, Wendy Woloschuk, Debbe Daley, Jennifer Lodge Tampasis, Sarah Cleopatra Wilson, Suzie Fagan Winston, Jay Eiler, Ilse Benard, Jaime Rogers, Marsha McDonald, Arianne Bellizaire, Tiffany Cassidy, and myself, Leslie Carothers. Member Robin Burrill is also attending, but is not on Instagram.

and follow Ethos Design Collective on Instagram here:

https://instagram.com/ethosdesigncollective

11 of the above members of Ethos Design Collective are either current or former clients of Savour Partnership and 4 of the above 20 members of #EthosDesignCollective are also part of Veronika Eagleson’s #DesignHoundsKBIS influencer marketing tour to #KBIS2022: Tristan Gary, Lori Hanson Miya, Suzie Fagan Winston and Jessica Duce.

Ladies, congratulations!

Jessica, a recent Savour Partnership client and one of the top vacation rental ownership designers in the USA will be presenting with a few of her fellow #designhounds on Best of Design Hounds From KBIS2022 on Thursday at 11:30 on the #KBISNext stage, right after our conversation on the metaverse beginning at 10:30 am in the #DMMTalks Lounge, a nearby space.

You do not need to register to attend this presentation, but if you’d like to register to attend the #KBIS2022 show, you can do that by clicking on her image below.

Here are 3 maps to orient you.

You can find the #DMMTalks Lounge, marked here with the red arrow, in the ICFF Pavillion near the #KBISNext Stage in the NORTH/SOUTH Concourse’s South Hall, Level 1.

Note that most of the huge tradeshow booths like Signature Kitchen Suite, the sponsor of my talks in the #DMMTalks lounge, are in the WEST Concourse building, Level 2, so give yourself plenty of time to walk, via the covered walkway between the two main concourses, as they are pretty far apart on foot.

To see ALL of the fabulous talks being held in the #DMMTalks lounge, click here.

To see everything happening at #KBIS2022, if you can’t attend, follow these official hashtags:

#KBIS2022
#DMMTalks
#DesignHoundsKBIS

Lastly, I was honored to be nominated by my professional colleagues around the nation and then chosen as a 2021 Changemaker by Veronika’s Design Hounds - the #1 influencer marketing company for interior designers and kitchen and bath designers in the country.

Because I am looking forward to doing a little product sleuthing for the readers of my lifestyle blog, Design Happy Living, too, at #KBIS2022, I created the graphic below to combine both so readers of this blog could get a sense of what Design Happy Living is all about.

I did some wonderful brand giveaways for readers of Design Happy Living last year with Thibaut and Global Views on Design Happy Living, and would love to do some more with K&B brands that fit my curated aesthetic there.

I invite you to follow Design Happy Living on Instagram here:

https://instagram.com/designhappyliving and to see [and subscribe to!] the blog here: https://designhappyliving.com.

As always, thank you for reading this long post {!} and I am looking forward to everything #KBIS2022 in just one week now..and I hope you will enjoy what I will be sharing - and what everyone will be sharing on the tags - if you can’t attend.

It will be a balm to my soul to be able to see so many friends again in person that I haven’t seen in 2 years and I know I’m not alone in that feeling.

Until then…

Leslie Carothers
Chief Energizing Officer
Savour Partnership

https://instagram.com/lesliemcarothers