Daily News
From Home Furnishing Business
High Point Virtual Market Experience Has Successful First Week
May 20,
2020 by Laurie Northington in Business Strategy, Designer Weekly, Industry 
The first week of International Market Centers’ (IMC) High Point Virtual Market Experience offered content and community for the industry – with hundreds of participants logging-into six webinars and thousands of visitors sourcing and discovering products and a digital audience generating funds for City of Hope. Week two offerings, running May 18 – 22, include a Virtual Showhouse debut, another eight information-rich webinars and continued product discovery and online sourcing through IMC’s Catalog Connexion.
“IMC’s High Point Virtual Market Experience is a great opportunity to leverage our current digital tools to enable product discovery and provide industry-relevant content,” said Bob Maricich, IMC CEO. “We were delighted with the high levels of participation and engagement for our debut last week and look forward to two more weeks of exceptional offerings and opportunities for buyers and suppliers alike.”
IMC’s Catalog Connexion, a keyword-searchable catalog library that connects buyers and sellers through product flipbooks, debuted last week with more than 543 vendor catalogs loaded to the site. By the conclusion of week one, 8,581 visitors had viewed a total of 218,546 pages with many contacting vendors for additional product information. During the next two weeks of IMC’s High Point Virtual Market Experience, IMC Exhibitors can continue to upload catalogs to the site.
Week one concluded with a special concert benefitting City of Hope, a not-for-profit cancer treatment and research center in California. Ray Allegrezza and the RMSB Band performed on Facebook Live, Instagram Live and Zoom, raising money via text-to-donate and direct donations on the City of Hope website. Participants can donate through the end of the IMC High Point Virtual Market by texting “FurnitureCares” to 41444 or visiting https://app.mobilecause.com/form/RXG26g?vid=8d48e.
Week two highlights include the launch of IMC’s Virtual Showhouse, a project in which six well-known designers use IMC exhibitor product to “build” their ideal room. Participating designers are Corey Damen Jenkins, of Corey Damen Jenkins & Associates; Bria Hammel, of Bria Hammel Interiors; Erinn Valencich, of Erinn V. Design Group; Jason Oliver Nixon, of Madcap Cottage; Libby Langdon, of Libby Langdon Interiors and Shayla Copas, of Shayla Copas Interiors. To learn more and to see the designers’ finished rooms, visit http://www.imchighpointmarket.com/virtual-showhouse.
Week two also features another eight content-rich webinars – five of which offer CEU-accreditation for participants – addressing business practices during and after COVID-19, current market trends, color forecasting and utilizing media opportunities and more. A complete schedule follows, and information and registration for these free sessions is available online at http://www.imchighpointmarket.com/webinars-and-events/.