Designing Women Rule the Word (And Other Things I Learned at High Point Market)

With my designing women at High Point Market. Surrounded by talent, creativity, and energy—feeling inspired.

I was thrilled—and a bit overwhelmed—to attend High Point Market a few weeks back. When I arrived on Friday, I followed someone (who had been there before) from my hotel shuttle, picked up my lanyard, and walked into the convention center. Boom! Complete sensory overload. I promptly walked outside and called my hubby for a few words of encouragement. Pep talk over, I jumped right in to “the world’s largest furniture and decor market”. Furniture,and lighting, and textiles, and workshops—oh my!

Without sharing every juicy detail of every seminar I attended, the bottom line is I learned so much from amazing people. Equally important, before and after my seminars, I talked and made connections with the other designers. Connection. Talking to and learning from other designing women—new friends and old—was truly a highlight of the market for me every single day.

With the first of many seminars I planned to attend over the course of the next few days behind me, I walked through a handful of showrooms with one of my new designing women friends before heading off to an event to learn about how one of the vendors builds their furniture. After the demonstration, I visited a few more shops in the space checking out area rugs, art dealers, and lighting companies before heading to an all women’s event hosted by a group called Withit, for women in the industry to kickoff Market. Although I am not currently a member I was welcomed with open arms (literally, there was hugging—I love hugging!) and many women who were excited to meet me and hear about my goals for market as well as give me tips for how to make it a more successful trip. It was a wonderful way to end my first day at my first market—surrounded by supportive people who encouraged me and shared my excitement.

By Saturday I had gotten my footings and was ready to go. My team put together an actionable outline of what seminars would be good options for each day and which vendors met our criteria of being sustainable, locally sourced, and willing to work with a small design firm, which was great for me to work from.

The first workshop on my agenda was a photo-styling seminar, that was hosted by one of the vendors on the opposite side of town from the main convention center, which was perfect, as it allowed me to make my way through the outdoor vendors I was interested in seeing along the way to the panel.

I explored a beautiful furniture company with incredible sculptural pieces first, and then headed to a fabulous art supplier next. Afterwards, I met with a rep at another furniture shop before heading to the seminar.

Afterwards, I headed to the outdoor showrooms on the other side of town. I stopped by my favorite mirror distributor, went to a very small furniture maker with beautiful options, and then headed to one of the main showplace buildings for a lunch and showroom tour I’d been invited to. The showroom was beautiful and the vendor was new to me, but I can’t wait to work with them and it was one of the few vendors that I opened an account with on the spot-so you know I loved what they had to offer.

After that, I stayed indoors and hopped around to several showrooms before heading to a party at another furniture company’s showroom. All over High Point, vendors are hosting meals and parties and seminars galore. Their goal is to get more designers and industry pros in the door to see their offerings and hopefully get you to sell their wares. I quickly learned that the art and science of the market is to choose wisely! This event was with a company whose pieces I already knew I loved and wanted to see in person, and it was also a great event that many of my designer friends, who I had met at a conference in the Spring, were also attending. Double bonus points: seeing the furniture and reconnecting with my designing women. Lots of hugging—who doesn’t love hugs—catching up, and dancing the night away! It was truly a great way to get re-inspired for my business and what I’m doing by talking shop and life with others who are doing the same thing and share my excitement.

On Sunday, some of the wonderful Designing Women who I met on the shuttle, kicked off the day with me at a delicious breakfast at one of the showrooms. We chatted about where we were all going that day. After discovering that some of our stops were the same, we went to a few showrooms together. It was fun to go through showrooms with someone else to hear their thoughts on the trends and the pieces that were displayed this Fall.

Next stop was a seminar about Growing your Practice and learning about how to have your processes continuously updated and growing with every completed project—I love this concept. After each project, we always like to take stock of how the project went and what we can do better on the next, but this idea takes it a step further by updating your processes and systems on a company wide platform making it easy for support staff or other designers joining your team, to get up to speed and follow your processes, keeping the whole team to run smoothly. Lots of great insights.

The next presentation I wanted to attend was across the street several hours later, so I stayed in the area and visited some of the showrooms in the same building until running into another designer friend for lunch. I love the design industry now and how many women (and men) are lifting each other up sharing stories and how they are doing things so you can learn and grow together. Building community with fellow designers was one of my favorite aspects of the market!

I headed to another presentation with some of my designer friends where we listened to three fabulous designers, all of whom are inspirations in the industry, share their mindsets and how they lead their projects and their teams. Another powerful presentation. Afterwards, the group of us ran over to another seminar in a different building to learn more about growing your team, and hiring. Do you sense a theme? DBK might be growing...

After this presentation wrapped up, I headed back to the main building. I had the better part of 4 full days blocked off for Market. When I was reviewing the laundry list of vendors and the seminars, there was so much ground that I wanted to cover. Once I was there, Sunday morning, I decided that if I could get through enough before the end of the day on Sunday, then on Monday I could play catch up and do some work from my hotel before checking out to spend some time with family in the area.

So that is just what I did. I hustled through about a handful of additional vendors (if not more), met up with some more design friends for one last cocktail and showroom walk through, and then got on the last shuttle back to the hotel.

On Monday morning I spent some time sifting through the business cards I received at Market, along with several pamphlets, brochures and goodie bags. As a personal preference, I opted to use the app to save any vendors I wanted to follow up with back at home by way of putting a star next to anyone I visited or wanted to visit, and then putting a heart on those to follow up and look into accounts with, which helped me stay organized and be more ‘green’ at Market.

The days were very fast-paced at market and this didn’t always work, so I spent time filing the details of the other people on this last morning while it was still fresh in my mind. Then I put together a pouch of goodies for my little girl, and packed up my bag. Once everything was set, I took advantage of the quiet of my room to do a little work and check in on my current projects for the duration of the morning.

All in all, I would say that my experience at High Point far exceeded my expectations! It was amazing and so inspiring to be in a town filled with furniture, accessories, art, and home decor. From seeing the trends of market, and taking stock of the details underlying many collections, from connecting within my designer friends, and the invaluable knowledge gained at the various seminars I attended, I am glad I prioritized getting to Market and will definitely be back—wiser, more experienced, and better prepared!