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From Home Furnishing Business

Registration Is open for ART Conference 2014

February 25, 2014  by in Accessories, Industry, Product, Special Events   

In its 22nd program year, the conference features include business, motivational, home trend and design presenters along with interactive workshops. Registration for the conference is open to anyone in the home accents industry.
 
The schedule begins Thursday afternoon, May 1 and will feature a panel of industry stars sharing information with attendees and setting the stage for “Building the Bridge” between home accent segments. The conference program includes presentations and workshops on branding, sales, visual trends and new to the lineup, Speed Dating ART Style where attendees will get to choose 4 business topics to explore. These topic short sessions are designed as an overview introduction to provide the information and tools an attendee needs to further explore the topic on their own. 
 
The content this year is built on feedback from four focus groups, which included single-store retailers, national multi-store retailers, large manufacturers, boutique manufacturers and rep agencies. Branding and sales resonated across all groups as the topics they wanted to hear about most.   

This year’s program will feature two main training modules: 
* BRANDING, led by Chris Malone, founder and managing partner of Fidelum Partners and co-author of The Human Brand. Malone has more than 20 years of sales, marketing, consulting and organizational leadership experience.  Groundbreaking research by Chris and Princeton University’s renowned social psychologist Dr. Susan Fiske has yielded a deceptively simple but important finding: as customers, we engage with and become loyal to companies and brands in precisely the same way we do with other humans—on the basis of their warmth and competence, and a track record of driving growth and profitability. His primary presentation is “Back to the Future:  Building Customer Loyalty in the Digital Age” and with colleague, Steve McMahon, Principal Consultant, Fidelum Partners will follow up the general session address with concurrent workshops titled, “Building The Human Brand” each to focus on a particular segment of attendee. 

* SALES, led by Randy Eller, founder and owner of Eller Enterprises.  Eller’s expertise in the Home and Gift industry is the result of a committed career. His path to success began with a 10-year stint in the retail management of variety stores for a 20-store chain headquartered in Knoxville, Tenn. He is perhaps best known for his accomplishments and guidance of CBK, an importer and wholesaler of home décor. Eller's general session address, “Why Your Sales Engine Is Just As Important As Your Product Line,” is a general session address and follow up workshop with vendor attendees that discusses why your sales engine is as important as your products and shares practical, specific management techniques and projects that any company can successfully execute to achieve their sales goals. Joining Randy for a shared general session sales module address is Dennis Gianetti, MS, Go-Giver International Speaker & Coach. Since 1995, Gianetti has been a speaker, trainer, coach and consultant for major corporations and sales organizations across the country. Following his general session preview, Gianetti will do a follow up workshop, titled “The Go-Giver Approach.”
 
To register for conference and more information, please visit accessoriesresourceteam.org, and click on the conference tab. Registration for conference should be received by April 7 to be guaranteed of a hotel reservation at Paradise Point.