For those unable to attend Furniture Today’s Leadership Conference earlier this month, you will find coverage of most of the key sessions in this week’s issue. What you won’t find are the insights that attendees gained from networking with colleagues and peers and that were an intentional and much larger portion of this year’s content offering.
For the first time, we devoted the morning of the conference’s last day to a massive brainstorming session that brought together the skills, knowledge and experiences of our attendees with one goal in mind: to help retailers deliver a better in-store experience. Divided into three groups scattered across the conference ballroom, the combination of retailers, manufacturers and suppliers joined forces to come up with myriad new ideas to help dealers enhance their customers’ shopping journey.
After a vigorous round of brainstorming, each group had a spokesperson share those insights with the full audience, giving attendees access to an even wider and more diverse range of ideas and strategies than within their individual groups.
Based on conference surveys and one-on-one conversations afterward, it was clear that many dealers came away with more than a few fresh ideas to spice up their store experience. Importantly, the value of in-person networking and the need for the event to deliver on that networking was never more apparent.
This year’s event also featured our first-ever Retail Sales Awards. This new program recognized the unsung heroes of the furniture industry, the retail sales associate. Based on nominations from across the country, Furniture Today recognized 10 sales superstars and hosted them at the conference. Many brought friends and family members to share in the moment, bringing wonderful, celebratory energy to our annual Awards Dinner.
The RSAs also brought their expertise to the conference stage, sharing their “secret sauce” for successful selling in a free-wheeling and informative panel discussion to close the conference. What was immediately clear from the discussion is that success starts with caring. To a person, each RSA on the stage emphasized the caring they have for their customers and the joy they get from helping someone improve their homes and their lives.
If that wasn’t cause enough for optimism, the industry leaders on our Retail Economy panel as well as retailers throughout the event noted that business is already on the upswing as the year closes, with the prospect of even further improvements expected in 2025. Myriad retailers at the event noted that the post-election day period has seen an uptick in sales, and several indicated that not only Black Friday but the entire month of November have been delivering at a level not seen in years.
Similarly, each of the panelists on our Furniture Economy panel on Wednesday morning, expressed the expectation that all the signs are pointing toward a reinvigorated business climate as early as Q2 2025.
Please enjoy the complete coverage throughout this issue, which will offer even more detail and insights from this year’s event.
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