If you’re in design, you’ve heard these terms in recent years — resimercial and resitality. As the lines blur between residential design and design for commercial spaces, such as hotels, restaurants and spas, more home furnishings suppliers, and by extension the markets where they exhibit, are recognizing the need to cater to “the other side.”
Here’s a snapshot of what typical retail/residential design and hospitality markets are offering to reach their growing base of designers and retailers who work across both residential and hospitality opportunities.
Reaching the Hospitality Designer
High Point Market
Specifically for hospitality designers, the Hospitality Design Studio on the top floor of the Suites at Market Square debuted at the fall 2018 market. It offers a curated selection of leading hospitality brands and products along with The Hospitality Hub, an information center designed to help the hospitality and contract trade take advantage of the resources at High Point Market. The exhibition will be available again with new exhibitors at the fall 2019 market.
Las Vegas Market
Las Vegas Market features more than 70 showrooms offering a wide range of FF&E suppliers for the hospitality and contract trade, and for the summer 2019 market, multiple hospitality seminars and tours are being planned. In addition to Las Vegas Market, International Market Centers hosts the annual Hospitality Link matchmaking event on the World Market Center Las Vegas campus. The three-day event brings together 20 in-project specifiers and purchasing companies for a series of one-to-one meetings that take place in the vendor showrooms. Additional networking activities and meals are provided, giving buyers and sellers additional time to meet and socialize.
Atlanta Market
The Commercial Design floor opened in August 2018 in Building 1, floor 5, as a new resource for hospitality designers. The floor includes nearly 20 manufacturer showrooms; ASID Georgia chapter headquarters and workspace; and the Commercial Design Lounge, presented by AmericasMart in partnership with ASID, the International Interior Design Assn. and The Network of Executive Women in Hospitality, which provides a space to work with clients, source materials and hold meetings.
Dallas Market Center
Dallas Market Center caters to hospitality designers in a few ways. The Interior Home + Design Center, opened in 2017, and several floors of the World Trade Center actively serve hospitality design customers, and more than 250 manufacturers with showrooms at Dallas Market Center serve hospitality clients. Dallas Market Center has a dedicated team of design liaisons to help hospitality customers during market events or on a daily basis with access, tours and resource identification, plus the marketplace also offers events such as Dallas Design Week, design organization meetings, and market events specifically for the design industry including hospitality.
Reaching the Residential Designer
HD Expo
While the HD Expo is geared toward the hospitality industry, lines between residential and hospitality are blurring more and more everyday. During the show, which takes place May 15-17 in Las Vegas, many of the speaker panels will be focusing on the hospitality portion within a residential project and speaking about the general business of design. Two seminars of interest include “Star Lineup: Getting Granular with Design’s Top Talent,” in which design pros from around the world will have a discussion about their recent and upcoming projects and trends they’re observing, and “Wellness Today: The Start-Ups,” which highlights the startups that are taking advantage of the wellness movement and creating new concepts that meet the needs of the evolving consumer.
BDNY
Taking place November 10-11, 2019, at the Javits Center in New York City, BDNY brings together designers, architects and other top manufacturers in the hospitality design space. For residential designers, seeing inventive new furnishings, lighting and textiles showcased at the show will provide a cutting-edge advantage, as many trends start on the hospitality side of the market. Also of interest are plenty of educational sessions, highlights including “The Art and Science of Crafting Unique 360-Degree Experiences,” “From Dimensional to Digital: Art Outside the Frame,” and “Looking at Senior Living Design as a Strategy.”
