International Home + Housewares Show 2016 – It's smART!

The International Home + Housewares Show will make its comeback this year with a new branding focusing on an “It’s smART” theme. The show is slated to be the destination for smart, innovative houseware sourcing and the number one industry event in the world to find one-of-a-kind ideas and gain strategic houseware industry insight.

Smart sourcing
The latest products from 2,100 suppliers from around the world will make their debut at the 2016 show to be held from March 5-8 at McCormick Place, Chicago, USA. The show is the largest houseware-only fair in the world and more than 60,000 home-goods professionals will be on hand to explore thousands of innovative products. International buyers will have a chance to find new products and product lines that are not yet available in other markets.

The Dine + Décor Expo will cover cook and bakeware, gourmet food and products, tabletop, kitchen essentials + accents and home décor, offering hundreds of the newest product innovations and design-focused products for the kitchen and home. Nearly 1,000 companies will be demonstrating the best of the best for dining and entertaining — all under one roof.

The Clean + Contain Expo will showcase bath and shower accessories, cleaning and hardware, home organisation, clothing care, luggage, pet supplies and inventors corner — offering thousands of environmentally-friendly products to optimise space, clean your home, decorate your bath and care for your pets.

There is also a Discover Design area, which will feature innovative, design-oriented companies and brands in all show categories. This year, the new location will be at the North Building.

In addition, the Wired + Well Expo showcases the best in innovative product trends for energy efficiency, personal care and culinary expertise. Besides, according to the show organiser, Chicago is the best choice to find products for air filtration and cooling, product categories that are rapidly growing in importance in Europe, Asia and Latin America.

Global opportunities
More than 800 international exhibitors displaying innovative and design-focused products will be at the International Sourcing Expo, located on Level 1 in the North Building, providing unlimited sourcing opportunities from China and Taiwan, while the Global Design Points pavilions, located in both the North and South Buildings, will showcase top design products and global trends. Countries represented at the show include Brazil, India, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and Turkey.

The Global Design Points’ Showcase highlights the best products from the various Global Design Points country pavilions.

Free education and trend forecasts 

The one-of-a-kind education offers retail opportunities, fresh consumer perceptions and colour trends — seminars and sessions on trends and design, visual merchandising and branding, the Internet of Things and consumer lifestyles.

Some of the highlights in the educational offering of the International Home + Housewares Show 2016 include talks on colour and design by Leatrice Eiseman, the International Housewares Association’s (IHA) colour expert and executive director of Pantone Institute.

Eiseman will share about the right colour direction to take with the consumer’s constant desire to see something new continuing to influence colour/design trends.

Another topic highlight at the show is How millenials make themselves at home, which addresses the growing number of millennials in the home and houseware-consuming mrketplace than baby boomers. That means a total reset of industry strategies on the part of stores and suppliers alike. Using the latest exclusive consumer research, HFN editors Maureen Azzato and Warren Shoulberg will present “insights and upsets” about how the industry needs to change to address this new consumer in selecting specific product classifications.

Turning food shoppers into housewares buyers by Todd Hale, Nielsen, will touch upon the combination of factors that have revived interest in cooking and have made the kitchen once again a major centre of activity in the home.

This session will provide delegates with actionable insights surrounding the kitchen category and the consumer behaviour trends that are shaping it. In addition, it will provide an understanding of the major shopper segments of kitchenware in order to define their needs and preferences.

The kitchen category is not only a trip driver, but must also be merchandised adjacent to the fresh aisle in order to capture more basket fill related to consumer health and wellness. A simple change of how businesses view this category, such as labelling it “food prep” instead of “kitchenware”, can make all the difference in how retailers buy and how suppliers go to market.

Special displays for strategic information, ideas and inspiration
The Hall of Global Innovation gives visitors of the International Home + Housewares Show a visual summary of trends that are shaping the houseware industry.

The exhibits include:

• gia Product Design Awards: The finalists and global honourees in 12 categories will honour the latest and most innovative in product design. All the products competing for the IHA Global Innovation Awards for product design are spotlighted in the New Product Showcases, located in the Buyers Clubs in each show building.
• gia Retail Awards: Award-winning retailers from around the world will showcase the best visual merchandising and retail practices.
• Pantone ColourWatch: Nine palettes representing the strongest home furnishing colour trends for 2017 will be presented.
• Student Design Competition: The winners of the 2016 IHA Student Design Competition will demonstrate their models.

Another highlight of the show is the Inventors Corner, which will feature the Inventors Revue, where startup marketers present their creations to a panel of experts and seasoned inventors offer presentations on how to succeed as an inventor. In addition, a full lineup of celebrity chefs, including country singer Trisha Yearwood, Top Chef Masters champion Rick Bayless and James Beard award-winner Ming Tsai, will demonstrate their culinary techniques at the Cooking Theatre. There will also be networking events at the show.

The show online

Housewares Connect 365 at www.housewares.org/housewaresconnect365 is a year-round search-and-planning tool for navigating the show exhibitors and products, searching for special displays and show events, and viewing product catalogues, photos and videos. Show visitors can create their own briefcases to save searches and personalised show plans and to communicate with exhibitors directly.

Another important resource is the ih+hs 2016 mobile app, which allows visitors to search for exhibitors, show events information, customised floor plans and more. The free app can be downloaded on iTunes or Google Play by searching “ih+hs 2016”.

The show is the largest houseware-only fair in the world and more than 60,000 home-goods professionals will be on hand to explore thousands of innovative products.