Winners of the 11th annual Showroom of the Year Awards will be announced Wednesday, June 24, 2020 at 5 p.m. EDT in an interactive Facebook Live event on Lightovation’s Facebook page. The awards program is co-sponsored by Furniture, Lighting & Decor magazine and Lightovation at Dallas Market Center.
For the past decade, the Showroom of the Year Awards have been presented during the June edition of Lightovation, the largest residential lighting show in North America and the primary buying event for retailers of lighting products. With the cancellation of this year’s summer show due to COVID-19 concerns, the decision was made to present the awards as an interactive virtual watch party, enabling the entire lighting industry to participate online.
“It is more important than ever to recognize and celebrate the accomplishments of lighting retailers, so we are excited to host a real-time event that will bring the industry together in honoring these outstanding showrooms,” said Cindy Morris, President and CEO of Dallas Market Center.
Each year, showrooms are judged on a number of criteria, including merchandising display, marketing and advertising, customer service and engagement, employee education and motivation, and community involvement. One Showroom of the Year is named in each of three dollar-volume categories. All finalists are also eligible for three specialty awards: Outstanding Merchandising Display, Exceptional Community Involvement and Social Media Star, an award that industry members helped select. Winners will be profiled in Furniture, Lighting & Decor’s July/August issue.
Judging this year’s competition was an an accomplished panel of industry veterans: Bobby Berk, interior designer and Design Guru from Netflix’s “Queer Eye;” Melissa Galt, an interior design business coach, marketing consultant, business speaker and author; and Caroline Hipple, President of Norwalk Furniture.
“As always, the entrants and finalists in our Showroom of the Year Awards are top-notch lighting retailers who put customers and community first, even in the face of adversity. Choosing from among them was certainly not easy for our judges,” says Diane Falvey, Editor-in-Chief of Furniture, Lighting & Decor. “Our celebration is a little different in these trying times, but we are as excited as ever to share the winners of the 2020 Showroom of the Year Awards.”
Follow the Lightovation Facebook page to watch the award ceremony live and join in the discussion with other members of the lighting community using the #SOTYAwards hashtag.
