The Blog.

For those of you who have never heard of NeoCon World’s Trade Fair, it is the largest contract design expo in North America. Designers and architects, builders and marketers gather annually at the Merchandise Mart in Chicago, IL for three days filled with product introductions, educational seminars, networking events and lots of fun.

The Merchandise Mart is so big that it has its own zip code! NeoCon limits its exhibition area to 5 floors. 3rd, 10th and 11th floors are all permanent showrooms whereas 7th and 8th floors consist of outside vendor booths. Tip: Easiest way to explore the show is to get up to the 11th floor in the always busy and full elevator and walk your way down from there. You can save a lot of time by doing this. The showroom around the mart also remain open to the expo and entice attendees with give-aways like tote bags and stuffed animals (?)

and free food; breakfast at Geiger was excellent! Lunch at DL Couch was delicious as well.

Every year, a 45-person panel of jurors tours the entire expo looking for the best products of the show. Based on their findings winners of silver, gold and innovation awards in various categories are announced on the first day of the show. As much as it is cool to see & test the winner products, I usually search the mart for my own “winners”. Below you will find a few of my favorites.

My absolute favorite from the Steelcase showroom was the paper coffee table.

Wouldn’t it be awesome to have a piece like this in your office lobby or a break room where ideas can be written right on the table? I thought so too.

Knoll introduced a new “not a chair” ergonomic desk/task seating collection called Generation. It look much heavier and massive than it feels. I was actually surprise by its lightness and flexibility once I set in it. Great product!

I realize that this is not a new introduction, but I was very much impressed with this product. Keilhauer has a chair called Sguig which was designed with female customer in mind. With its Free Shoulders back support and Pelvic Balance Point technology it provides a basis for a more upright and healthier sit.

For your home office, Coalesse came out with the best free-standing furniture collection. Their approach is “borderless thinking”; therefore the products offer elegant, functional and a work-home merging style. High-end finishes and a classical feel won me over.

As far as lighting goes, Boyd Lighting showed most marvelous fixtures; from rustic and large in scale, to smaller and more whimsical. Absolutely gorgeous…pricy but gorgeous.

On the funny note, (not my favorite product but it definitely stuck in my mind)here is the InterfaceFLOR new “Bill Cosby sweater” carpet tile collection. See it for yourself. Both the colorway and the pattern shout EIGHTIES…..!!! No wonder it was named Collection: Surreal, Product: Nouveau.

I had a blast at NeoCon this year. I think the fact that this was my fourth show gives me more confidence and makes it more fun to browse through the showroom. I saw a lot of familiar faces and connected with industry partners. It is a great event and if you didn’t make it to Chicago this year, you HAVE to plan on attending next year.

Tags: chicago, contract expo, contract furniture, merchandise mart, NeoCon

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 17th, 2009 at 11:19 am and is filed under Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.