Education

Learn about educational events, informative webinars and special reports, designed and prepared to help members stay up-to- date on current business topics, trends and issues!

Smart Home: Keeping Connected

Michelle Hespe meets Carley Knobloch (or Carley K, like her blog is called), a digital lifestyle expert, to chat about the Internet of Things and the smart home. As a retailer, you need to embrace this new wave of technology or risk falling behind your competitors. A couple of years ago, most people hadn’t heard of Internet of Things (IoT) or the smart home. Even 12 months ago…

Smart Thinking for Smart Living

Michelle Hespe catches up with Mike Wolf — a leading U.S. expert on the Internet of Things (IoT) and the evolution of the Smart Home — for a chat about what the future holds, and what is happening in the smart world, right now. It’s hard to comprehend that the first iPhone was released in 2007, and today over 2 billion people are using them. It all happened so…

The Smart Home of the Not-Too-Distant Future

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a movement that is already part of our everyday lives and is growing rapidly. And, the future is exciting for the Smart Home with several trends emerging including: Cooking Technology – Products are being embedded with smart sensors that control exact time, temperatures and even the humidity needed to properly cook a meal based on precise…

Recycling and Display Props

By Martin M. Pegler Props, I would imagine, is short for “properties” and “properties” can be anything that adds something to a scene, a setting, a display. If we were to look around us, we would see we are standing in the center of a field of display props: from the furniture in the room, the plants, the unused rolls of wallpaper, the tableware, the collection of pots and…

A Cut Above

The Chopping Block is Chicago's largest recreational cooking school and gourmet retail store, and yet so much more to so many people. From cooking demonstrations for newbies flexing their cooking wings to hands-on cooking classes where good home cooks can advance from their comfort zone, The Chopping Block is out to get everyone cooking confidently. And for those who love…

What’s Hot and What’s Not in Consumer Color Preferences

The always-popular Leatrice (Lee) Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute, returned to the keynote stage Tuesday, March 21, for a second session at the 2017 International Home + Housewares Show to share her insights on what colors are hot and which ones are not. She told the crowd there’s room for every color family in housewares, but different consumers may…

Top 5 consumer trends affecting housewares revealed at 2017 Int’l Home + Housewares Show

The consumer marketplace is changing in dramatic ways, so it’s important to get to know today’s ‘real’ consumers, said IHA’s trend forecaster Tom Mirabile at the 2017 International Home + Housewares Show today. Mirabile, who is also senior vice president, global trend & design at Lifetime Brands, was joined at his annual keynote presentation this year by Peter Giannetti,…

2018 PantoneView Home + Fashion palettes revealed at 2017 Int’l Home + Housewares Show

We’re living in a digitally directed, Instagrammed and Pinterested world where color and design trends can be communicated instantaneously, Leatrice (Lee) Eiseman – executive director of the Pantone Color Institute – told a capacity crowd Monday at the 2017 International Home + Housewares Show. For that reason, she said, it’s vital that anyone in the home and housewares…

Smart Homes Bringing Unprecedented Change to Housewares Industry

Smart Home thought leaders discuss challenges and opportunities at 2017 International Home + Housewares Show What’s working in the world of smart home products, where are we going and what is needed to get there? These are just some of the questions addressed today at a lunchtime panel discussion entitled “How the Smart Home is Disrupting Housewares (and What to Do…