Monday, January 21, 2019
After four sucessful days, DOMOTEX 2019 finally closed their gate on January 14 in Hannover.
The latest edition of the fair – the world’s leading showcase for carpets and floor coverings has underscored its reputation as the sector’s biggest and most important hub for business, innovations and trends. Over 1,400 exhibitors from more than 60 nations came to Hannover to kick off a successful new year of business. With close to 90 percent of all attendees having decision-making authority, the caliber of the show’s visitors remained extremely high – a fact confirmed by exhibitors. Due to growing market concentration, DOMOTEX recorded a slight dip in attendance. According to the exhibition survey, the order situation of exhibitors remained constant, while the purchasing volume per visitor went up. About 70 percent of all DOMOTEX attendees once again came from abroad – a clear sign of the flagship fair’s international appeal. In terms of visitor backgrounds, attendance was notably up on the part of wholesale and retail professionals. The figures also revealed an increase in attendance by architects, interior designers and contract business professionals. In addition, DOMOTEX 2019 saw an increase in the amount of display space sold.
“Thanks to its strong international drawing power, DOMOTEX serves as the sector’s definitive global marketplace. The positive and optimistic outlook on the 2019 business year that was tangible in the trade fair halls proves the success of this year’s exhibition,” said Dr. Andreas Gruchow, the Managing Board member in charge of DOMOTEX at Deutsche Messe.
“Manufacturers and customers as well as partners, architects and designers from all over the world come together to network at DOMOTEX, spawning new business relationships and collaborative opportunities previously not deemed possible,” remarked Sonia Wedell-Castellano, the new global director for DOMOTEX, adding: “That’s what this year’s theme of Create’N’Connect is all about.”
Digital tools for sales and marketing in the floor covering industry
A key topic at the event involved solutions for the digital presentation of carpets and floor coverings. The new digital solutions ran the gamut of VR and AR applications, including visualization aids for every aspect of the marketing mix, plus innovative software which makes it easy for customers to discover and choose their favorite designs and collections while providing retailers with new options for digital product presentation and sales.
This year’s theme of “CREATE’N’CONNECT” put the spotlight on digitization and creative connectivity across all aspects of floor design, forming a leitmotif for the entire event. The “Framing Trends” special showcase featured stunning presentations, innovative product displays and an exciting supporting program, creating a lively hot spot that was particularly appreciated by visitors with a lifestyle focus.
“The floor sets the stage for any interior,” says internationally renowned designer Sebastian Herkner, highlighting the vital connective function of carpets and floor coverings within the overall design concept. “Along with walls, floors define the context and basis of interior design. The choice of floor material affects how we live and communicate in the resulting interior space.” As a presenter at the Framing Trends speaker’s forum, Herkner addressed the lead theme of connectivity operating at the interfaces of architecture, interior design and design.
Framing Trends – a special showcase at DOMOTEX 2019 devoted to all aspects of the CREATE’N’CONNECT lead theme – served as the creative hot spot for the overall event. It provided the main forum for presentations and debates on the megatrend of connectivity and was a standout attraction for architects, interior designers and influencers, among others. It consisted of the following three modules: “Flooring Spaces”, devoted to presentations of innovative products; “NuThinkers”, featuring a selection of university design projects; and the highly original art installations featured in the “Art & Interaction” space.
Flooring Spaces – presentations on the CREATE’N’CONNECT lead theme
One of the central attractions at DOMOTEX 2019 consisted of the the “Wood Lifecycle” flooring space, a project created and designed by Total Tool Milano, featuring a “lifecycle” of wood in seven distinct steps – from the tree growing in the forest to the recycled product which completes and closes the cycle at the other end. Every point on the cycle of this connective display featured products from a leading Italian company. A special “connectivity wheel” from the Schmidhuber company, made up of colored glass facets, invited tradeshow visitors to enter the wheel and set it in motion with their footsteps, thus generating multi-colored light reflections on the surrounding floor coverings provided by Carpet Concept, for a unique visitor experience. This technique of highlighting the connections and interactions between light and materials also promoted social connections and interactions in the form of selfies.
Again within the context of the lead theme, Fletco Carpets, in partnership with its customers, created a special floor of digitally printed carpet tiles and a carpet mat. Most of the floor surface was printed with a precisely defined pattern to form a clear contrast with the pixelated outer zone. This was continued on the walls, illustrating the almost limitless possibilities of digital printing technology for the development of brand identities, exemplified by creatively coordinated wall and floor products. In another exhibition space, Visionme, a young, Hannover-based company, presented “IUNCO”, a package of innovative visualization technologies and distribution channels for the floor covering industry. The “Virtual Showroom” offered a comprehensive display of virtual reality technology, while the “Product Catalogue” devoted itself to augmented reality and AI. An AI smartphone app enabled DOMOTEX attendees to substitute virtual floors for the real thing and experience the visual and spatial effects. The multi-platform IUNCO visualization technology allows the user to emotively connect real and virtual worlds.
Tags: carpet and floor coverings, domotex, January 2019, leading showcase, successful conclusion
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