Interior Design Consultancies

One of the best ways for Interior Design Consultancies to stay in touch with new ideas is to attend exhibitions and trade shows. Just recently I was honoured to receive a VIP invitation to “The London Sleep Event 2009,” 3rd and 4th November at London ’s stunning Business Design Centre in fashionable Islington. This well-known annual exhibition and conference is always attended by representatives from many of London ’s top interior design consultancies. I took advantage of the opportunity to meet and/or reconnect both with exhibitors and with interior design consultancies whose work I admire. As the name would suggest, London ’s Sleep Event focuses on hotel furniture, bathrooms, fabrics and wallcoverings. The exhibitors included a number of well-known architecture firms, furniture designers, project management companies and interior design consultancies. Although Global Interior Design does not regularly serve the hospitality and resort sector, I always love to see the exciting cross-fertilisation of ideas when concepts from hotel design get absorbed by interior design consultancies and used in London residential settings.

Since conferences are very much on my mind right now, I thought I would offer a few tips for how to make the most of attending a conference, from the perspective of an interior design consultancy:

1. Be focused. Scan the exhibition floorplan in advance, and mark out exactly which exhibitors or interior design consultancies you most need to see.

2. Always follow up with new contacts. A great technique I use is to have my assistant write on the back of each business card I receive a brief 2-line summary of the conversation and any required follow-up or action items. That way when we return to London and to our interior design consultancy’s office with a stack of contact cards we know exactly what to do. If contacts are based in London , I will often suggest an in-person meeting over coffee.

3. Use your time wisely. Often there is the opportunity to split between exhibitor booths, awards ceremonies and conference seminars. If you are employed by an interior design consultancy that has several staff at the conference, try to have each person go somewhere different in order to get good coverage.