HPMA SHOWROOM DISPLAY COMPETITION ANNOUNCED

Attention all High Point Market exhibitors and showroom designers, it’s your time to shine and the High Point Market Authority is aiming the spotlights! This Market, we’re launching a new, annual event—The HPMA Showroom Display and Merchandising Ideas Competition—designed to celebrate the extraordinary showroom presentations you create each and every season.

All companies exhibiting at the Fall 2007 High Point Market are eligible and invited to enter the competition. Showroom displays will be judged on visual appeal, creativity, elements and principles of design presentation, each display’s ability to be replicated efficiently and affordably on retail floors and consumer allure. Find competition details, rules and instructions for submissions beginning Tuesday, September 18, 2007 at the following web address: www.highpointmarket.org/fall07competition. But you’ll have to act quickly: Entries will only be accepted until 9 a.m., Monday morning, October 1, 2007.

An esteemed panel of consumer and trade magazine editors from ten leading publications will serve as judges for the competition. Among these are Sarah Gray Miller, editor-in-chief, O at Home; Catherine Lee Davis, associate editor at large, Veranda; Laura Fenton, home editor, Good Housekeeping; Ray Allegrezza, editor in chief, Furniture/Today; Sheila Long O’Mara, editor in chief, Home Furnishings Business; Warren Shoulberg, editor, HFN; Julie Smith, editorial director, Furniture Style; Trisha Kemerly, editor, Home Furnishings Retailer; and Jim Carper, editor, Home Décor Buyer.

The competition will culminate in a gala reception for retailers, designers and exhibitors under the tent in the Century Courtyard at Market Square on Tuesday evening, October 2, 2007, beginning at 6 p.m., with competition winners recognized at 7 p.m. Along with highlights of the Market’s most compelling merchandising and design ideas, reception guests will also enjoy a tasting of award-winning wines from Biltmore Estates.

And, as an added benefit, competition entries will be featured in a special Display and Merchandising Ideas Handbook for retailers to be published immediately following the Fall High Point Market.

“We created this event to celebrate the world-class talents and exceptional creativity of showroom designers and merchandisers here in High Point, who are, quite frankly, the best in the world at what they do,” says Brian D. Casey, president and chief executive officer of the High Point Market Authority. “Season after season, year after year, they make magic happen. Now, we want to help capture that magic for retailers’ use in a simple, easy-to-use handbook that can assist store personnel in creating attention-getting presentations. As in everything we do, our goal is to serve as a resource for the industry, an invaluable partner that can provide business leaders with the tools and information they need to succeed and grow their businesses.”