My Top 5 High Point Market Tips
High Point Market is, without a doubt, the most important furniture market in North America, if not the world.
Covering 180 buildings over the city of High Point, North Carolina, it attracts almost 100,000 attendees every Spring and Fall.
I have attended every High Point Market for the past 19 years, with the exception of 2 markets, and wanted to share with you a few tidbits that I think will help you have a more enJOYable and productive experience -especially if this is your first time going.
These are tidbits that you generally won’t see in the trade publications, but that I know from experience will make market more fun for you!
FIRST, A BIT OF BACKSTORY:
Know this: I have never been paid to attend #HPMKT, nor given anything in kind even though I have attended for all these years and spoken there many times. I started speaking at #HPMKT back in 2009, when I first started my main business, The Kaleidoscope Partnership.
Later, when the Antique and Design Center opened in 2010 or so, Amanda Lane Kinney and Karen Luisiana, the co-owners, asked me to keynote their seminar series and I ended up speaking at the Antique and Design Center several more times.
This blog post about one of those talks, during Fall Market of 2014, written by Carmen Natschke, included this graphic she designed. This was the first time (and the last time!!) someone ever referred to me this way.
Okay, read on for the tips!
#HPMKT TIP 1:
I encourage any of you in my Facebook Group, #DesignWealth, and any other interior designers that are reading this that have never been to the Antique and Design Center at High Point Market, to make it your FIRST STOP.
Why? Because everything for sale there is one of a kind and, generally, fabulous.
It opens before the rest of market opens, to give interior designers a chance to scout and buy first, before the wider market officially opens.
The Antique and Design Center also has 50 free parking spaces(!) for their buyers - a well kept secret!
Click this link to find out where those are.
NOTE: Because the Antique and Design Center is not owned by International Market Centers, ( the venture capital owned entity that owns about 85% or so of all of the buildings at #HPMKT ) , it doesn’t receive the same amount of national press as the IMC owned properties and showrooms do.
And because of that, there are still many interior designers who don’t know of the one of a kind items that can be purchased there. Please help your fellow interior designers know of this treasure by either telling them directly or sharing this blog post with them.
Below, is another picture I treasure from my keynote talk at the Antique and Design Center, back in 2012. If you want to see the Antique and Design Center’s blog post about that, click here.
On the far left is Jennifer Mehditash in the orange sweater. I had invited Jennifer to be my co-presenter and she rocked it! I have always enjoyed mentoring or helping younger women and Jennifer was one I took under my wing when she first returned to the US from Portugal and helped her to re-ignite her interior design career here.
Who remembers when I was working professionally with Olioboard and Jennifer appeared on the Olioboard segment on The Nate Berkus Show..and won it? Here’s her blog post about it, for a fun walk down memory lane.
Last year, in 2018, Jennifer won HGTV’s Designer of the Year competition, overall, and this year, in 2019, she’s one of the judges of it.
Jennifer: if you see this: congratulations on all you have accomplished since those early days!
#HPMKT TIP #2
It is well known that Currey and Company supports our industry financially through the dozens of events they underwrite and sponsor each year, including the Design Influencers Conference and many others. I appreciate that as so many others do, too.
What might not be quite as well known is that Robert Currey, Brownlee’s father, won the most prestigious honor anyone can win in the furniture industry. He was inducted into the American Home Furnishing Association’s Hall Of Fame. Read all about his history, here, on the AHFA website.
Please stop in to Currey and Co. to meet this icon of our industry.
The Currey and Co. showroom is a tour de force in beauty, not to mention it’s worth a visit to just see the very Instagrammable and STUNNING bonsai plants grown by the Currey family that they have on display. I took this shot of one of them at last fall’s market.
And they serve delicious, healthy lunches, made with organic foods grown on their own property. They are a must see destination every market, for every designer I know.
#HPMKT Tip 3:
Now, this tip IS on the #HPMKT website, but the one that follows and that is related to it, is not.
When you’re going to #HPMT for the first time, it can be overwhelming. There is so much to see, to do, to attend and it’s all exciting and beautiful.
Plan your schedule by BUILDING and/or AREA, using the #MYMARKET app, so you don’t waste time in walking and catching rides between buildings. Find the download link for the app, here.
BUT….plan your schedule using TIP #4.
#HPMKT TIP 4:
Plan your time so you only purchase from designer friendly resources that give you the best pricing so you can maximize your income. For this purpose, I strongly recommend buying THIS from Houston, TX based interior designer Veronica Solomon’s online store.
NOTE: I am not receiving any money from Veronica by sharing this with you. I simply think it’s important to support those vendor/exhibitors who support professional interior designers.
In addition, Veronica is a great example of a working interior designer that has put a digital download strategy in place to #DesignWealth into her business, 24/7, which she kindly gave me permission to share with others who were also attending Modenus’ SKS Appliances influencer marketing event with her, out in Napa Valley in June of 2019, where I was honored to be asked to speak to those who were in attendance.
On a related note, Carla Aston, who was also a speaker at the Napa Valley event, is also putting this 24/7 strategy in place and helping designers know how to do it, too. She has been a tremendous asset to the interior designer members of my #DesignWealth Facebook Group, by sharing her deep knowledge, for no charge, on many, many occasions over the past two years.
Her ebook below, about how to expand your service offerings to include design consultations only, is essential reading. Learn from the master. Buy it here.
FYI: Carla was Savour Partnership’s first client for one of our email opt in mini-magazines, two years ago now, and we recently received this wonderful testimonial from her:
"My email opt-in now nets me around 10 new email addresses every week, and has for the past two years. That's more than the 2-3 emails I was receiving, before I had an opt-in giveaway. My list of engaged blog readers has grown and it feels great to have this beautiful piece of my work with valuable information to entice readers to subscribe. All designers and bloggers need one!"
And if you missed the recent blog hop organized by Carla and I, that shows you a sneak peek into designer’s offices, click here. It’s a fun read before #HPMKT.
Just recently, I launched my own online course in partnership with interior designer and eDesignTribe founder, Jenna Gaidusek: How To Set Up, Structure and Market Your Own Online Courses To Maximize Your Passive Income. If you are interested in purchasing it, save 200.00 by using the code PINTEREST at checkout, here.
Jenna and I will be speaking together at #HPMKT on Sunday, October 20th at the Bienenstock Furniture Library at 7:30 am - breakfast will be served - about how how interior designers, retailers and manufacturers, too, can #DesignWealth, 24/7, into their businesses.
Please put this on your calendar. You won’t want to miss it, nor the chance to explore the beautiful Library, home to North America’s 2nd largest collection of extremely rare books on furniture and interior design dating back to the 1600’s.
#HPMKT TIP #5
This last tip isn’t a tip for interior designers, (although it would be wonderful for all of you attending #HPMKT to visit Seasonal Living’s space to meet Gary and see his line ) but a way for those of you who are manufacturers exhibiting at #HPMKT to grow your businesses, faster.
READ ON:
Our Savour Partnership client, 5x Arts Award winning Hall of Fame member, Seasonal Living Trading Company ( a designer friendly ) indoor/outdoor furniture, lighting and decorative accessories resource, will be exhibiting in Interhall 310 at #HPMKT.
The owner of Seasonal Living Trading Company is Gary Pettitt.
Gary is ALSO an online publisher.
He publishes #SeasonalLivingMagazine, a gorgeous consumer facing luxury lifestyle magazine whose mission it is to inspire people the world over to live a life of wellness and sustainability, in harmony with the seasons, through images and articles on seasonal….travel. recipes.entertaining. design.
Our company, Savour Partnership, designs and writes this magazine for Gary.
Seasonal Living Magazine is complimentary for all subscribers and also gets sent to Gary’s substantial email list + promoted over all of his social channels and every issue is promoted via a national online video ad campaign.
Follow Gary’s Instagram page here, to see some of the past videos and be sure to follow his Insta Stories. where you will see more.
This is the cover of one popular issue, where his guest contributor was Maryam Montague, the owner of Morocco’s Peacock Pavillions boutique hotel and the other featured contributors were international color expert, Amy Wax, tile expert, Lee Harris Nicholson of Filmore Clark and the featured designers were Betsy Burnham of Burnham Design and Cheryl Clendenon of In Detail Interiors.
If you’d like to, please get your complimentary subscription by clicking here.
The newest issue, on Paris, will be available online and in print, in Gary’s Interhall showroom during Fall 2019 #HPMKT.
Gary is also starting to accept advertising. It is very inexpensive to advertise in Seasonal Living Magazine and the benefits for being able to grow your business faster are substantial.
We are not selling this advertising for Gary, but simply letting everyone know that the opportunity is available.
Gary and his reps are the ones to speak to about the advertising and they will have a media kit available at #HPMkt for any of you that are interested.
Because we produce and write this magazine for Gary, however, we will be producing the new sponsored content ad units for his advertisers.
Sam, by business partner in Savour Partnership and the designer of the magazine, is the #1 rated visual content producer for HGTV, and writes HGTV’s Design Trends column.
As a result of Sam’s knowledge of consumers and mine in content marketing to luxury consumers, we can bring substantial additional value to advertisers in Seasonal Living Magazine.
If you are interested in speaking with Gary or his representatives at #HPMkt about advertising in Seasonal Living Magazine, please stop by to see him in Interhall #310 or contact him by email at editor@seasonalliving.com.
NOTE: If you are interested in working with Savour Partnership on your own digital publications, whether you are an interior designer, retailer or manufacturer, please contact me for an appointment during #HPMkt by emailing me at leslie@savourpartnership.com.
BONUS TIP TO HELP YOU GROW YOUR FINANCIAL PROSPERITY IF YOU ARE AN INTERIOR DESIGNER:
If you are an interior designer reading this and would like to join my free (closed) Facebook Group, #DesignWealth, please send me a REQUEST TO JOIN on this link:
http://facebook.com/groups/designwealth.
In this Group are hundreds of threads with free information for you about how to drive traffic to your website and blog so you can #DesignWealth into your businesses, 24/7.
We also discuss many other things pertaining to the furniture and interior design industry and have a #ShareYourBlog thread every Saturday, where you can share your latest blog posts and have them read and commented on by people around the world.