Houzz comes to Canada

Nov. 29th saw over 700 design professionals attend a wonderful event at SoFA http://www.visitsofa.com/, the launch of Houzz in Canada.  It was lovely to see so many CDECA members there as well

There were wonderful speakers, fantastic food, some celebrities, lovely wine- what a fantastic day.  We learned how to use houzz to help grow our businesses and what an inspiring site it can be. Thanks to Linda Kafka for organizing such a lovely day.

A Great Seminar At SOFA - David Behr on Characteristics of Top Producers in any Market - "The YES Attitude"

Many people in the Design business spent the morning up at SOFA www.visitsofa.com attending a seminar by David Behr on the "Characteristics of Top Producers in Any Market - "The YES Attitude".  I was inspired.  Everyone there appeared to be inspired.  What an interesting speaker and a lot of great ideas and many different ways of doing business.  He offered many ways to say what we normally say, but with a different slant, much more positive.  It really was a worthwhile event.  We all want to improve our business and be more motivated.  What David did was give us some tools on how to make some changes that would be pertinent to our individual selves and businesses.  I came away thinking I would really start to put into practise what he spoke of.  Once again, many thanks to the staff at SOFA for another great seminar.

IIDEX - Internatinal Interior Design Exhibition.....

It was a busy week for us, as we also had IIDEX this past week.  Of course CDECA had a booth at the show and received many interested visitors.   I cruised the show with a colleague and we discovered many great products and took many photos to share.  Unfortunately, I deleted all of mine in error.  Not doing so great on the photography scale this week.  No worries... my good friend and colleague, our President of the local GTA West Chapter, Audrey took some with her phone and saved the day.  Here are a few of the many interesting things we saw.....

Now for some interesting products....

                                                                                             

Beautiful Carpet Squares from jj invision 

Great products from Surface Innovations - flexible slate and other materials.

 Interesting wall treatment from textur 3d

 Interesting lighting - can be used individually or have several together

 My favourite was this great display fy Palazzetti for a nice organized office.  I want this!

The Decorating Centre Annual Trade Show

Every September, TDC, www.thedecoratingcentre.ca hosts a wonderful Trade Show for Designers & Decorators and every year there is a waiting list because this has become one of the events of the year for us.  Many of the suppliers that we source through TDC set up displays of their product lines with all the new and fabulous items so that we are on top of what's going on in the design/decor world.  I usually take pictures of this event and did take my camera but alas, was having such a great time, I completely forgot to take any snaps.  We had two great presentations during the day, one from the people at Norwalk Furniture giving us the latest colour story trends and the other was Kimberley Seldon and her business coach Marysia Czarski.  Both were enlightening.  To top it all off we had a great lunch compliments of TDC and there were draws for great prizes.  I even won one!!  Remember next year to sign up early for this great event.  Many thanks to the Munros for a great day as always!

Updates

Don't forget to check the upcoming events page as well as the SoFa Window page tabs, so that you can see what we have been up to over the past few weeks.

July Sourcing Day

On July 17th, the GTA West headed to Designers Walk, http://www.designerswalk.com/ in Toronto.  Even though the weather was extremely hot, we had a great group of decorators show up for our tour.  We  visited the following showrooms Thanks for a great and informative day:

Hunter Douglas and the Resource Centre, with coffee and muffins

 provided by Helen Nichols, who arranged our tour for us.  

The resource area has conference rooms for us to use for 

meetings with clients as well as many small booths 

which showcase some of their vendors.

http://www.designerswalk.com/resource-centre.html

W Studio where Sarrah showed us their beautiful rugs, 

and taught us a few things about silk carpets.  

The selection was amazing, and we learned about their great delivery program as well.  

These rugs are all hand knotted, and come in a variety of modern to classic.

                                           Mille Luce Designs,  is an amazing lighting 

showroom, where we saw all sorts of new 

and wonderful products. 

We also saw the new light bulb by Phillips 

which is basically indestructible and lasts 15 

years- great for those hard to reach areas

We finished our tour at Robert Allen Fabrics, 

where we were like "kids in a candy shop"- 

there is something about seeing row upon row of beauttiful fabrics 

that make decorators hearts beat a bit faster.

Happenings at SOFA

June 28th brought many decorators and designers to SOFA, www.visitsofa.com once again for a great seminar from Karl Lohnes. Everybody seems to really enjoy Karl's great spirit and he has such a way of speaking and presenting facts he keeps you entertained. You want to know him better. He has presented to CDECA members in the past, most recently at our annual AGM and we all come away in a 'happy place' thanks to him.

'Another Packed House' to hear Karl Lohnes speak  

This event was sponsored by Magnussen Home, www.magnussen.com who are located in the SOFA showroom area of the International Centre.  Thanks to Linda Kafka and Azma Ousmand for arranging such great seminars and great speakers.

The topic was: 'Keeping the design ball rolling" during the slowest times of the year! Great presentation. Karl gave us much to ponder and act upon as well as sharing his recent "status" as an Artist. Yup, Karl has signed to have his very own piece of art available through CB2, www.cb2.com (new store by Crate & Store). Wow, that is really something and as Karl told us, he just felt like being creative and fun one weekend and someone showed somone, and someone else and so on and on; just from a little networking and people sharing, he got the attention

of top people at C&B and they loved what he created and voila you can now purchase his artpiece. Karl shared some other interesting options ahead for him, so keep following

A bit of England to celebrate the Queen's Jubliee

I came away with a lot of tips and was glad to have confirmation that some of what he shared, and I have already started, is a good thing. I believe the reason Karl is so sought after as a speaker and why he captures his audience, is that he talks to them as if we are all friends just sitting around having a little talk. He shares situations he has been in and how they generated business and does it such a way that is so down to earth, one feels, Yes, I could try that.

The seminar offered many great ideas and also stressed Social Media, Networking, the importance of good and honest Communication with potential and current Clients & Suppliers as well as other ventures you can stream into that could be related to your current career as a Decorator or Designer. 

A new focus can also be an enhancement to your current business as well as generate additional income, especially during the slowest times of the year. For instance a lot of us write for magazines, newspapers, why not a book?? Perhaps you can do DIY projects, sew, paint or any other creative work.  

I am a little late in writing this blog, but now that the hot days of July are upon us I am working on some of Karl's great tips!! Gonna go and tweet Karl now.......