As a representative of a key event within the interiors sector, how has the pandemic affected your visitors?
It’s pressed pause for much of the industry’s operations which has of course been a massive challenge. It’s also given many people the time and space to reflect and create. We’re likely to witness a fast-forward process in social drivers, trends and changes in people’s world view. This will represent big development and design opportunities.
Your ‘voice’ as a key industry event is incredibly important to ensure positivity, commitment and also to maintain exposure of your brands. How have you managed to maintain this throughout the last 12 months?
We’ve tried to remain transparent, generous and empathetic in all of our communication. We spent the first month of lockdown constantly on the phone to partners and as the situation developed we’ve maintained this contact. This allowed us to listen to and understand how they were dealing with the situation, let them know that we weren’t going anywhere (literally), and to share our plans as they developed. We’ve also shared our good news and thought-pieces across social platforms, allowing us to stay visible and to galvanising people. We’ve been careful to only say things that we think are worth saying though, it wouldn’t be cool if we were blindly high-fiving the community every day throughout a global pandemic. It’s a good time to be humble.
