With design fairs being postponed or canceled altogether due to the coronavirus—TheInspired Home Showin Chicago is officially off, while industry standard-bearerSalone del Mobilehas been moved to mid-June—High Point Market, the major furniture fair that draws some 75,000 attendees each season,announced late last week that it plans to move forward with its April 25–29 event. Tom Conley, High Point Market Authority’s president and CEO, chats with AD PRO about how the organization arrived at that decision.
AD PRO: You’re not canceling Market this season, despite many industry shows being postponed or called off. Walk us through that decision.
Tom Conley: We sent out 55,000 emails last Friday telling people that Market is open—that was after a call we had with our executive committee urging us to be more aggressive. The calls [from marketgoers] were starting to come in. When we had the conversation with the executive committee, we had nine confirmed cases in the States.Salonehad just been postponed until June. There are no guarantees that either the actual number of cases—or the hysteria surrounding the cases—will be resolved by June.
I think this industry just depends too much on Market—not only to see new product but right now, more importantly, because of how the coronavirus has affected China and other Asian countries—to be able to have buyers and sellers get together in a room, look each other in the eye, and talk about what they can reasonably expect [on business concerns such as] the delivery of product.
AD PRO: In a recentinterviewwith theGreensboro News & Record, you said, “We have zero industry people from China who have registered.” Is that still true?
TC: Yes. It’s driven by the fact that the government won’t let them out; U.S. airlines won’t fly there, and the State Department won’t let them in. That’s just addressing the reality. There are some Chinese-owned companies that will be exhibiting and I think the buyers will want to see those owners. That puts a strain on those relationships. But unless something dramatic happens, those meetings won’t happen. They’ll have to rely on the U.S. reps, or on video calls.
AD PRO: How many Chinese attendees usually attend Market?
TC: I don’t have the exact numbers. China, not counting exhibitors—just industry guests and buyers—has been the number two country in terms of international attendees. Canada is number one. It’s a couple thousand [people]. Of course, we do have Chinese exhibitors, but we don’t track them because they don’t go through our registration system. Most are inIMCbuildings and do their own exhibitor registration.
广告支持:鉴于很多产品起源于China, are you expecting any problems with goods arriving on time?
TC: We’ve got Premarket coming up in a few weeks. The good news is that Premarket sponsors are going to be market-ready because they got their product on the water before the restrictions hit. But we are hearing about difficulty in terms of the supply chain. I can’t tell you to what extent and who is involved. But it’s logical to assume that, because factories weren’t able to get back to work, plus there are Chinese-owned and -operated factories in Vietnam that couldn’t get back up to speed because the managers and line leaders couldn’t get back into the country. How it all affects Market, and individual companies, will be determined by those companies.
AD PRO: Have you heard reports of designers canceling their plans due to fear of traveling?
TC: One or two designers. I had a couple of colleagues who just returned from the Design Influencers Conference in San Francisco, both exhibitors and designers. These are high-level designers who are also influencers, with a very large social media following. While they were out there, they received our email [confirming that market will proceed as usual]. As I understand from our colleagues, 90% were pleased that we were continuing with Market. Yes, Market is going to be soft. There are people from either a corporate or individual perspective who won’t come. But the extent of that, at this stage of the game? Nobody knows.
