interiors 2010 starts today!

The industry arrives at interiors 2010

interiors 2010 kicked off in style this morning, the show floor seems buzzing and there’s a really great selection of products. Stands to look out for are Flexible Love,  a great extendible seat made from cardboard; great outdoor pods from Ornate Garden; innovative beds from Hyder International and many more. We’re updating Twitter all day so watch out for pictures and updates from the show…

Thinking Space in Hall 2 is where  you’ll find Designersblock who have really excelled this year with some unique and interesting products, mixing new designers and classic companies together on the stand. New Design Britain next door shows just a fraction of the design talent that our universities are cultivating. Birmingham City University’s collaboration with colour forecasting company, Global Color is a true progression from last year’s showcase, definitely worth a look.

More interiors 2010 snippets to follow…..

Celebrating the best of European hotel design

The European Hotel Design Awards took place exactly one week ago and what a star-studded event it was! We have only just recovered after this very successful evening, which celebrated the best of hotel design and architecture across the continent. This 12th ceremony of its kind took place at the Hilton Park Lane and was hosted by journalist and TV presenter, Mariella Frostrup. The dinner and reception was attended by the industry’s most influential professionals, all eager to congratulate the winners of these prestigious awards.
The winners in the 13 different categories, included hotel Malmaison Aberdeen,  Andel’s Lodz (Poland), Story Hotel (Sweden), Hotel The Vine (Portugal) and many more. See the full list here.
This year saw the highest number of entries ever submitted, giving the judging panel a difficult task choosing the eventual winners. Chairman of the judges, Jeremy Blake commented: “The overall level of entries was once again of a high standard and covered a wide range of recently completed hotel projects across Europe. The hotel industry was well represented across all aspects of design and delivery, which all contributed to an engaging and positive day of judging.”
The European Hotel Design Awards was held the evening before The Sleep Event took place on the 3rd and 4th November at the Business Design Centre.

European Hotel Design Awards shortlist announced!

The European Hotel Design Awards 2009 shortlist has been announced! The high level judging panel including Robert Cook of Malmaison, Simon Ford of Intercontinental Hotel Group, Tim Mutton of Blacksheep and Jeremy Blake of Purcell Miller Tritton have perused the countless number of entries received and after much consideration have revealed the following shortlist of nominations. The prestigious awards ceremony, hosted by Mariella Frostrup, will take place on Monday 2nd November at the Hilton Park Lane, where the winners will be announced during a great evening of networking and socialising, recognising the projects that have won their way through a tough field of entries to be the best in their class.

Click here to see this year’s shortlist!

Designs of the future

The annual Electrolux Designlab competition has picked it’s top 25 entries for 2009. Industrial design students are invited to present innovative ideas for household appliances of the future, the 8 finalists and winner will be showcased at next years kbb Birmingham (21st-24th March). Click here to see the 25 most innovative and futuristic designs, picked by a highly acclaimed judging panel including Nipa Doshi, furniture designer and co-founder of Doshi Levien design studio; David Fisher, Design Director of internationally renowned product design consultancy Seymourpowell and of course, Henrik Otto, Senior Vice President of Global Design at Electrolux. Henrik will also be speaking at kbb Birmingham’s exclusive seminar programme, keep updated by visiting the brand new website www.kbb.co.uk

Trendy flooring!

We’ve just finished writing an exciting commissioned piece for a consumer yearbook. As we have such good connections within the flooring industry, including Victoria Redshaw of trend forecasting company Scarlet Opus, we’re able to give a pretty good overview of the current and future trends surrounding the flooring industry. We’ve also been talking to our National Floor Show exhibitors who have been sending in information relating to their most recent products. As over 140 companies will be at this year’s event, so the show floor is sure to display some of these current trends.

 

Here’s an overview of the future trends to look out for:

 

• Bold flooring pieces to brighten a dull winter’s day
• Asian influences: with Slumdog Millionaire and the 2010 Commonwealth Games, India is on the rise
• A variety of textures, in one flooring solution or laid side by side
• Staple flooring which sells well, the beiges and browns of recent years will be around for some time to come
• ‘Natural Selection’ – a hardwearing trend which embodies natural qualities such as tree silhouettes
• Durable and environmentally friendly flooring such as bamboo

For more information on flooring trends, visit www.scarletopus.com

The UK’s only flooring show of the year: www.nationalfloorshow.com
A trade only event

Mariella Frostrop to host the European Hotel Design Awards 2009

 

Mariella to host this year's Awards

 

The European Hotel Design Awards returns on Monday 2^nd November 2009, celebrating hotel design across Europe. This year the black tie awards ceremony, honouring the work of architects, designers and developers, will return to central London for its twelfth year at the prestigious Hilton Park Lane hotel.

Mariella Frostrup will play host for this glamorous evening. Well known for her unique voice,she has firmly established herself at the top end of opinion forming journalists and TV presenters in the UK. Mariella writes regularly for The Observer, Psychologies and Harpers Bazaar amongst other publications. Presenter of The Book Show for Sky Arts, she hosted a live ten part series, Hay On Sky for the third year running in May, showcasing the highlights of Britains biggest literary festival. She also presents Open Book and fronted the Memory Season for Radio Four. Mariella has sat on the judging panels of various prestigious awards including the Booker Prize, the Turner Prize and the RIBA Stirling Prize Awards.

Cathy Oates, Event Director commented, “The European Hotel Design Awards are the Oscars of the hotel design industry. As such we are looking forward to a great evening, recognising and rewarding, those projects that have won their way through a tough field of entries to be the best in their class at this prestigious awards ceremony.

 “We hope this will kick off a fantastic and rewarding week for the industry, as The Sleep Event and high-level conference, starts the following day. With a wealth of new companies and brand new features alongside an informative and topical conference programme, this is the only industry event to be at this year.”

The  categories include the best architecture of a hotel, both conversion and newbuild.  Interior design categories for various spaces including guestrooms, bar, restaurant and lobby areas. Other awards celebrate innovation, sustainability and the two final awards recognise outstanding contribution to the industry and the European Hotel Design of the Year.

To book a table at the ceremony, please visit www.thesleepevent.com to book online or call Lesley Morris on 020 7234 8708 or email lesley.morris@ubm.com

Positive thoughts for the future…

This week, the PR team has been thinking about the European interiors market. If this is already sounding a little too niche for you, please read on! Some positive thoughts are about to come your way…

I can’t help but feel that things seem to be improving for businesses, or at least not looking as bad than at the beginning of the year. Maybe it’s the fact the sun is shining or maybe we’re genuinely coming out of this difficult period. Whatever the reason, people seems to be sounding more optimistic in London. Even the UK media are starting to suggest that ‘green shoots’ are showing.

With these positive thoughts still in mind, I went about thinking of reasons why international companies should invest in the UK, and the EU as a whole. With London taking centre stage with the 2012 Olympic Games, we should start to look to the future and realise the opportunities that the UK holds.

One of our exhibitions, Interiors Birmingham, is the perfect platform from which to explore these within the interiors market. As building projects still continue, companies should be ready to jump on these new opportunities.

The below article was written for the Chinese Furniture Association. So lets all try to be positive and see if we can’t get out of this! After all, the sun is shining (just) and we live in a fantastic country.

Till next time!

 

THE UK NEWS AND INTERIORS BIRMINGHAM  – YOUR GATEWAY TO THE EUROPEAN MARKET..  

The UK interiors market, a place to invest during 2009/10… 

According to official UK Land Registry data, house prices in more than 50% of the UK rose during April 2009. This is good news for the furniture industry which has so far managed to stay resilient, trading through the ‘improve don’t move’ culture that the nation has adopted in order to soften the blow of the downturn. But building projects are continuing and even showing signs of improvement, especially in the public sector. Ireland’s Education Minister has recently claimed that almost 5,000 construction jobs will be created in the country this year in building projects within the education sector. €614m has been put aside for schools where older school buildings will be refurbished and new ones created. Elsewhere in Europe, the UK residential and commercial property markets are also showing signing of stabilising with the smallest decline recorded for well over a year.

As these markets begin to pick up next year, furniture companies outside the EU should be ready to reap the rewards and begin to invest in solid marketing strategies designed to infiltrate the European market. Creating vital contacts at live events continues to be the soundest way to do business.

Interiors Birmingham is one of the key events in the European calendar and gives overseas companies the chance to do serious business within the EU. This well-established trade show welcomes key buyers from retail giants such as John Lewis, Debenhams, Harrods, Tescos, Next, Sainsburys and IKEA.

With nearly 30,000 visitors and spanning 64 square meters of space, the event provides international companies with the ideal launch pad from which to explore the European market – which is still worth just under £10 billion in the UK alone. Overseas furniture companies should ensure they have already created a solid presence in the EU during 2010 as the market begins to flow once more.

 www.interiorsbirmingham.com

 

Is it still happening?

 

The answer is most definitely YES!

We’ve heard that there’s been a lot of rumours circulating in the flooring industry that National Floor Show is not taking place in September. I’m not sure who started this rumour, but I can unequivocally say that this years show will be taking place from 8-10 September at the Harrogate International Centre once again.

I think the postponement of the Tile & Stone Show and Floorstyle has caused unsettlement in the industry and maybe caused some of these rumours to start, but as the UK’s only flooring event this year we have plans in place to make National Floor Show another fantastic show, with new areas and features and a must attend business enhancing seminar programme, making it a worthwhile visit for those buyers with limited time out of the office.

So for anyone who hears any rumours about the cancellation of NFS 2009, please put thm straight immediately! Information is constantly being sent to the press, so look out for updated news in your monthly industry magazines.

Introducing our blog…

So I’m finally trying to enter the world of online/ social media/ networking etc. – I guess it’s better late than never – and so I now bring to you the Interiors PR blog that both Lucy and I will be updating on a regular basis, keeping you posted with new signings that the sales teams are bringing in across all our exhibitions, letting you know when key speakers are confirmed for our seminars and conferences, any industry gossip we’re party to and any other interesting facts and issues that we come across!

Saw an update of the Sleep Event conference programme today and it’s shaping up to become another must-attend for the hotel industry – some of the major hotel groups are involved as well as key architects and design agencies. The topics look really interesting across both development and design disciplines. We’re just waiting for contracts to be signed and I’ll post up the speakers.

Have also confirmed Jeff Banks (think Clothes Show programme in the 90’s) for a National Floor Show seminar…he designs some collections for one of the exhibitors, Asiatic Carpets, and has agreed to speak about his background from fashion into interiors and his thoughts on flooring designs.