Social Media has become a super highway between me, my vendors and my reps. This type of communication has brought me closer to my product than I ever felt possible. In the past designers tried to build relationships or learn what manufacturers had to offer in a once a month visit to their showroom or my workplace. Now, with the internet, they are just a click away……….
Last week I was asked to speak about Social Media at the Kravet Showroom, Arizona Design Center with two of my fellow designers. This was my first speaking engagement and became possible through my social media efforts.
This coming Monday I am honored yet again. I am invited to:
“Thermador’s Luxury Design & Build Summit” at the state of the art “BSH Gallery & Training Center” here in Scottsdale, AZ. This showroom features Thermador, Bosch & Gaggenau Appliances in actual kitchen vignettes and I hear it’s like no other showroom anywhere.
Myself and other designers from around the United States will be flown in (to bad I’m from Scottsdale)treated to massages (yeah!), golf, dinners, and a night on the town. We will also be visiting their showroom, having a real life chef cook for us, and exposing us to what these companies have to offer.
This is “Part One” of my exciting experience w/Thermador!! Below is just a peak of the kitchen at the actual “BSH Gallery” showroom.
 |
| Thermador Kitchen at the BSH Gallery & Training Center in Scottsdale, AZ |
I was invited to a gathering at a local well known lighting company called Hinkley’s here in Scottsdale. They set it up in the back where they actually made the custom fixtures. I was really intrigued. I love watching things being made.
We were walked around by one of the designers who showed us some of her work. She is very talented and knowledgeable and you can see by the way she explains some of the fixures very passionate about what she does.
Also at the workroom there were guys actually melting steel, hammering it, twisting and turning it, and molding it to make parts of the fixtures. I love lighting fixtures and why I had never seen this part of it I’ll never know. I guess I was to busy specifying them then to get into the science of how they were produced. That was their job. This I am understanding now, was my loss.
I have been getting pretty involved with going to my vendors events lately and I am happy I am doing this. Vendors are also taking this time to inform designers on their products properly by putting on these events.
In the past month I have been to Kallista for a presentation on Custom Showers, Kravet Furniture where they uphostered a chair in front and displayed the types of frames/padding, fabrics, etc. And as I mentioned above Hinkleys Lighting.
Business being a bit slow is giving me a chance to relearn. To put a face to a name rather than just talking to vendors on the phone. Actually seeing what it is that they do on a day to day. Realizing that always seeing them in my place of business could hamper me because seeing each little thing that goes into the job is just as important to the whole process of what they bring to the table.
