Award Season - Casual Living Rolls Out Red Carpet
I'm a sucker for award season. It doesn't matter if it's Critics' Choice or Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild, Independent Spirit or the grand finale Academy Awards, each New Year the film industry has me enthralled with the first glimpse of red carpet it unfurls.
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| Casual Living highlights two integral facets of the industry with the Supplier of the Year Award and Retailer of the Year Award at the inaugural Casual Living Conference, Feb. 22-24. | |
So it pleases me to no end to announce that this year, after decades of viewer participation, I'm finally getting in on some award action.
Casual Living has announced the honorees of our first awards ceremony. It's taking place at our inaugural Casual Living Conference, to be held Feb. 22-24 at the Ritz-Carlton in Sarasota, Fla., a few thousand miles eastward of Hollywood, but just a few days shy of the Academy Awards.
We are paying tribute to those that take their company and the industry as a whole to a new level through creativity, innovation, and decisive and bold actions - and I think you'll agree that our selection for each category is undisputedly worthy.
Drum roll please ...Glen Raven Custom Fabrics, manufacturer of its Sunbrella brand of outdoor fabrics, will be honored as Supplier of the Year, and Leader's Casual Furniture, the Florida-based, 19-store retailer, will be recognized as the Retailer of the Year.
The conference agenda, titled "The Sky's the Limit," inspired the award itself - a multi-faceted, upward-reaching obelisk. The conference features a widespread array of speakers and panels addressing success strategies, industry challenges, category growth and more. We tee off on Wednesday with golf, spa treatment options, a retail tour and cocktail party, but as everyone knows - the real fun kicks in at the Awards Dinner and Ceremony on Feb. 23.
Please join us. It looks to be a red carpet event all around.
The event is sponsored by Sunbrella, Agio, Merchandise Mart Properties Inc., Treasure Garden, AmericasMart, TUUCI, Pride Family Brands, the International Casual Furnishings Association, Telescope Casual Furniture, Gensun Casual, International Market Centers, Dallas Market Center, Hanamint, Alu-Mont, Casual Cushion, Windward Design Group, Alfresco Home, Gloster, Lane Venture, Lloyd/Flanders and OW Lee.
To register for the Casual Living Conference, to be held at the Ritz-Carton in Sarasota, Fla., Feb. 22-24, go to http://www.casualliving.com/con2012 (ICFA member retailers enter "ICFA2012" to apply for a $45 discount). For more information, contact Casual Living Executive Editor Nicole Crews at ncrews@casualliving.com or Publisher Norman Hamilton at nhamilton@casualliving.com.
Lilica commented:
@looch: our first move was from Chicago to bangkok. EVERYTHING was a huge iiffdcult adjustment for me....the language, weather, food. Plus I'm a neat freak and Bangkok is not the most clean city or the nicest smelling. It took me a good 6 months to get somewhat adjusted. The Thai people were so nice and financially, we were great. If there was anything, I couldn't get like food products or lotion or anything, my family or friends would mail it over. By the end of our time there, I really loved living there and was sorry to have to move. My husband was fine from the beginning and helped me a lot. Moving from Bangkok to Tokyo was definitely a much easier adjustment. The biggest obstacle was language. I'm Japanese but from the US so my Japanese was not good at all. I look Japanese so everyone spoke to me in Japanese and I couldn't understand them. When I told them I don't speak Japanese they just got confused. After 3 years here, my Japanese has gotten quite good so it's no longer that much of a problem.
Jenese commented:
Do the awards include any eco friendly product development or local community organization projects? What are the qualifications for the supplier of the year award to enter?
Alice commented:
Would this be beneficial for a small outdoor retail store owner? Not interested in golf.
