designers daily blog 9/22/07

I've done 3 trade shows in 2-1/2 weeks and have tried to use this weekend to catch up. The first trade show was in Orlando for a Furniture and Accessories show. The current economy had a terrible outcome on this show as there were very few companies on display - apparently many have gone out of business, and very few attendees - perhaps for the same reason. Nonetheless I made a few very good contacts for purchasing direct with the manufacturer so I was happy.

The second show was for Sarasota Association of Realtors - International Congress. I attended this event because I want to make new realtor contacts, and especially those focusing on the international client. It was an incredible 2 day show, I met some great people, and it was worth every cent. I learned so much and it really put a bug in my hat to become an international realtor.

The third show was for HD Boutique in South Beach. It stands for hospitality design for hotels and restaurants. I attend this show every year and am never disappointed. I am excited about all that I learned and have a few great news article ideas from it. Usually I stay with my friend who is a designer in Ft. Lauderdale but this time I got a room at a trendy boutique hotel - The Catalina and she met me there for both days. It was crazy, the hotel is very trendy, it was voted best place to model watch in '07. And true to its name there were half a dozen models checking out monday morning when I arrived. Many of the shows attendees were also staying at this hotel so I made lots of friends right away. The convention center was 2 blocks away and South Beach was 1 block away. I arrived monday, met about 6 people from the show, Elizabeth showed up and we walked to this street that has a bunch of restaurants and outdoor seating, it was awesome and the restaurant we chose had the best manager, we had a great night. The next day, we went to the show, walked half the floor and went to a seminar on spa design. That night we met at the bar and there was a tradeshow party across the street, that was a total rip off $90 for the tickets and you get all you can drink but the food was a cold veggie and dip buffet! The waiters walked around with skewered meat appetizers but were few and far between so for $90 I had two drinks, and three bite sized pieces of meat! A few of us decided to go find a better place to eat up the street, as we were walking by the Ritz Carlton there was an event happening at their restaurant and we were trying to read the sign to see what it was, when someone tapped me on my shoulder, I turned around and Channel 10 news camera was in my face and the newswoman was handing me a postcard with a painting of a bunch of naked people and in front of the painting was a bunch of naked people, she asked me what I thought about it and I asked "the painting or the orgy?" she said you tell me and I said "I dont know, is it art or is it an orgy?" she asked "would you participate?" and I said "no", then a long pause and I said "at least not for free" (that's what a couple of drinks will do). Then she asked one of the guys with us and he said he would do it but he had to leave for Chicago that day. So, we were probably on the evening news but we were'nt inside to watch so I'll never know.
The next day I walked the other half of the show floor and attended a couple of more seminars. One was on Dramatic Design which was a contest for someone to comeup with a design for a hotel in the future and it had to be feasible. There were 2 finalist, both had really good ideas and I expect to see both completed in the future. The audience got to vote who the winner was and they got$5,000. It was such a compelling seminar that nobody wanted to leave when it went over its alloted time. I voted for the posieden project which is a concept by a french man on an underwater hotel - it is so incredible I really hope it gets built although right now it's at an estimated $15,000 per person per night room rate. He's got it booked for the first 3 years once its completed. There was a panel of 5 judges within the hospitality industry that got to ask questions. Some of them were kind of lame. After that seminar I walked into the other seminar on the restaurant chain Social. The owner and the designer were there explaining the concept and implementation of the restaurant and now they are going to launch a hotel with the same name. They were unorganized speakers but they were still intriguing because the ideas are really exciting. I've decided to write seperate blogs on the things I learned because it would be too much for one blog.

Saturday I had to go through 5 bags of flyers, magazines, business cards and ads from the three shows so now I am in the process of flipping through the magazines. I hope this all goes to good use someday.