IHA’s Derek Miller: The Inspired Home Show 2022
The Inspired Home Show opens on March 5, 2022, with the halls once again filled with new products and innovations. It will be the opportunity for the home + housewares community to come together for product discovery and networking, two activities sorely missed over the past 18 months.
With five months before opening, space sales for The Inspired Home Show are currently at 82% of space sold for the pre-pandemic 2020 Show numbers and include more than 240 new exhibitors. Exhibitors are enthusiastic about getting back to business as is the retail community. Retailers across the country and around the world tell us that digital product discovery is challenging at best and finding new and innovative products is extremely difficult – they see the Show as the most efficient and effective method and best opportunity to explore and engage with the industry.
If there was one universal lesson from 2020, it was the importance of being adaptable. This was, after all, the year when a pandemic quickly took over the world – complete with retail and manufacturing shutdowns, combined with unprecedented demand for housewares and home goods. As housewares executives reflect on the past year and outline their goals for 2021, there’s consensus that even the best-laid plans need to be ready to change.
Without question, 2020 will be remembered as an unprecedented year that brought both challenges and opportunities. The pandemic forced people out of public spaces and into their homes, which certainly took some getting used to. But this challenge quickly presented an opportunity for our industry, with consumer spending on housewares products increasing dramatically.
