HFA Announces Schedule For The 2017 Las Vegas Summer Market Seminars.

Furniture World News Desk on 6/20/2017

The Home Furnishings Association (HFA) announced its schedule for the 2017 Las Vegas Summer Market Seminars. The HFA educational seminars, which are free to market attendees, are held in the Retailer Resource Center (RRC), Building B-1050.

The HFA hosts seminars during both Las Vegas and High Point Markets in the RRC—a place designed to give retailers access to information, vendors, workshops, and speakers that can help improve and grow their businesses. Seminar topics include everything from sales and sales management to social media, operations, promotions, technology, and more.

“The RRC is the perfect place for retailers to find service providers for almost all of their operational needs and to get answers to those questions that keep them up at night,” said NAHFA’s CEO, Sharron Bradley. “Our complimentary seminars focus on topics retailers want to learn more about. Their success is our sole business.”

Seminars are offered Sunday, July 30th through Tuesday, August 1st during the Las Vegas Market.

Sunday, July 30, 2017

7:30am-8:30am **JUMP START SESSION**
3 Solutions to Ignite Your Brand and Stand Out in the Crowd
Isaac Knorr & Kurt Strasser, Knorr Marketing
What is your brand? Do you know the importance of proper branding and why people would choose YOU? In this seminar, you will discover 3 solutions to ignite your brand and drive traffic to your store. Takeaway how to deliver a cohesive branding campaign, through the power of direct mail, social media video, email and Facebook ads.

9:00am – 10:00am
5 Ways to Drive In-Store Sales from Your Website
Scott Hill, PERQ
What’s the shopping experience like on your website? Are you giving consumers the same experience online that you do in-store? Join Scott Hill, co-founder and executive chairman of PERQ, a consumer engagement technology company, as he shares actionable insights into how you can reflect your in-person showroom experience on your website to increase your bottom line.

10:30am – 11:30am
Avoid Common Mistakes in Developing Your eCommerce Strategy
Jesse Akre, Amber Engine
Samsonite buys eBags. Unilever bought Dollar Shave Club. Walmart buys Jet – right after Jet buys Hayneedle. Big money is being thrown at ecommerce. What’s your ecommerce offensive strategy?
In this session, Jesse Akre will lead a continuing discussion in making the right online decisions and how to avoid common misconceptions, mistakes and stumbling blocks. Get all your questions answered on this frontier.

1:00pm – 2:00pm
Don’t Wait for Customers, Go Get Them
Brad Huisken, IAS Training
Furniture retailers can’t afford to sit back and wait for customers to come to them—they have to go after them. Brad Huisken will lead participants through a fun and motivational seminar on how salespeople can build their individual businesses and grow the business of the entire store. He’ll talk about building repeat and referral business by building relationships with your customers. Remember, about 80% of your business comes from 20% of your customers. Let’s go get them!

2:30pm – 3:30pm
5 Steps for Building Your Personal Brand
Rene Gingrich, Profitability Consulting Group
Whether you’re a storeowner, manager, sales professional, or designer, understanding the value of a strong personal brand is critical to maximizing opportunities. This seminar will share strategies and provide tools designed to help you learn how to use your core values and talents to effectively represent both your company and yourself while interacting with your customers, potential customers and community. Learn highly effective strategies you can share with your team and use yourself to set a standard of excellence in your organization, communicate your brand and make an impact.

4:00pm – 5:00pm
Social Media Survey Results: What Do You Want to Know?
Jeff Evans, Social Dealer Connect
We surveyed industry retailers to find out what they wanted to know about effectively using social media in their businesses—this seminar is based on the results of that survey. Find out what retailers like you are talking about and find out how to use social media as a tool towards success in the furniture and design industry.

Monday, July 31, 2017

9:00am – 10:00am
Email Marketing Workshop: Ideas to Improve Results
Ken Mahr, Email Broadcast
Wish your email marketing was better? Join us to learn big picture ideas and tactical (practical) tips you need to succeed in today’s crowded inbox. Discover how to source creative content ideas your audience will love, the value of automation and how to use it, strategies for building your email list and more. You’ll leave armed with info you can use immediately and an understanding of how today’s best furniture retailers are using email marketing to drive millions in sales. Come early for a good seat and bring your questions. Prepare to participate in discussion and leave with an improvement plan. 

10:30am – 11:30am
How Visual and Voice Search Are Revolutionizing Product Discovery
Richard Sexton, Chief Product Officer, MicroD
Smarter, Faster, Easier—the three pillars of technology evolution. With the popularity of Siri, Alexa, Google Now, Cortana and the accessibility of smartphone and tablet cameras, the way consumers use online search is changing. Voice-activated devices and visual shopping are leading the search revolution and demand new methods in website optimization. Join Richard Sexton, chief product officer at MicroD, as he summarizes how voice and visual search work, what companies are doing to stay relevant, and why it matters! Learn about the impact these features have on how shoppers are searching your merchandise and discovering their next purchase.

1:00pm – 2:00pm
Retail Challenges & Solutions
David McMahon, HighJump/PROFITsystems
Over a 2 year period several hundred business owners expressed issues that hurt their productivity and growth. In this open discussion David McMahon, will discuss these challenges and propose solutions.  This seminar will be in an open-format style where you will have the opportunity to express a challenge that you have.  You will take away best practices that have been used by David’s Consulting Clients and Performance Groups so that you can overcome your business obstacles.  Small changes for the better can produce transformative results.  Get started here.

2:30pm – 3:30pm
Demystifying Digital Marketing
Jay Diamond, Netsertive
Today’s world of modern marketing has become quite complex as the Internet continues to influence more and more consumers during the buying process. There are so many choices, channels and decisions to make when it comes to your marketing strategy and where to allocate your budget. In this session, we break down all things digital to help your store win the marketing game. How the path to purchase has evolved and what it means to your marketing strategy, what digital channels are a must to implement to gain more exposure online and the importance of delivering a seamless customer experience across all marketing channels.

 
4:00pm – 5:00pm
Finding Revenue in Your Back-End Operations
John McCloskey, Profitability Consulting Group
Most furniture stores see their back-end operations as an expense. However, with careful planning and good systems and procedures in place, not only can you recover your costs for handling trash and repairing defective merchandise you might be able to come out ahead! In this seminar, you’ll discover some back-end best practices from areas normally associated with just expense!

Tuesday, August 1, 2017

9:00am – 10:00am
Creating an Unparalleled In-Store Experience with Mobile POS
Jamie Leffler, PROFITsystems
The shopping experience of 2017 is predominantly digital, which means it’s quick, efficient and intelligent. This creates a challenge for brick-and-mortar retailers to stay relevant, unless they create an equivalent experience in-store. In this seminar, you’ll discover how mobile point-of-sale makes it possible for you to win by empowering sales associates. Learn how the combination of real-time data at their fingertips and a focus on customer experience can change the game for your store. Don’t miss it!

10:30am – 11:30am
The Power of SIMPLICITY: Getting Consumers to Visit & Buy
Erika Sparrow, Imagine Advertising
Everyone makes so much noise on how you must digitize your marketing to attract and engage consumers for your retail store. We've worked with thousands of retailers and we'll break it down into a few tried and true simple solutions that work, canceling out all the noise. We'll show you the research on why consumers are not looking at your digital ads. We'll show you the research on ad blockers and how 49% of your digital ads may never be seen. Plus, we’ll talk about new internet tools that may be causing you to waste more than 40% of your ad spending, BOT fraud, and more.

1:00pm – 2:00pm
What’s Your After-the- Sale Experience?
Bob Bauer, Dispatch Track
We all know the delivery service teams are the last impression in your customer’s journey. With customer experiences being driven by everyday exposure from companies like Amazon and Uber how does your company compare?  In this seminar, you’ll learn tips and tools for making the delivery experience easy, seamless and a constant communication so your customers will come back time after time. 

2:30pm – 3:30pm
Use What You Already Own To Get The Most From Your Ad Dollars
Joe Lapekas, Owner, TruckSkin Graphics
Are you using print ads, radio or static billboards? Those are fine, but why not take your advertising on the road and get in-front of your customer’s everywhere you go. Metro trucks are seen by 14 million pairs of eyes a year. Don't miss out on those potential customers! In this session, we will share best practices on how to get cost effective ads with the most visual impact. The investment you make in delivery truck graphics goes farther than any other typical advertising medium.

4:00pm – 5:00pm
How Print + Digital = Highest Return on Investment
Rose Oldenkamp, Color Ad
Some believe direct mail advertising is obsolete; others think it lacks results. Join us for this presentation and discover why direct mail is still an effective tool and how, when used with digital marketing, you can get a higher return on investment than you would using either tool separately.

For more information about the HFA’s Retailer Resource Center or the seminars, please visit www.nahfa.org