Furniture First Symposium Recap

Furniture World News Desk on 5/25/2018

(from the left, back row) Raette Trombly, Ron Huber, Brett Swygman, Keith Meriwether, Austin Klopfenstein; (front row) Amy Berkowitz, and John Merdinger.

Furniture First recently held its annual symposium in Fort Lauderdale, Florida last week. The three-day event included guest speakers, roundtable discussions, breakout sessions, and devoted networking time.

Activities at the symposium kicked off with a networking event in which 28 teams of retailers and vendors worked together to complete 70+ challenges while they assembled children’s bikes. Challenges ranged from trivia questions to team photos and videos. The bikes were given to children from the Boys & Girls Clubs of Broward County. The team that won the challenges handed their medals over to the grateful children as they tested out their new wheels under the hotel’s covered drive.

Member John Matter of Matter Brothers Furniture commented about his first Furniture First symposium experience by saying “I had the opportunity to meet with many of the service vendors in person to discuss, in depth, their services. I found great value in that. I also met many of my peers and was able to share ideas and learn from them.”

171 individuals from 94 member stores registered for the event. 136 representatives from 68 sponsoring vendors also attended. While weather related delays in airports across the country caused a few attendees to arrive late, the venue was at capacity when activities kicked off Monday evening.

Vendor slots for the 2018 Symposium filled up quickly when the sponsorship registration website opened last November; most prime sponsorships were gone within the first hour and the booths and tables were completely sold out within 48 hours.

Day two included the group’s always-popular Best Idea session. This year the competition’s grand prize saw a three-way tie between members Mark Bosler of Bosler's Furniture in Evansville, IN, Jason Pauley of Dow Furniture in Waldoboro, ME, and Morgan Marzano of China Towne Furniture in Solvay, NY. Their best ideas included strategies to increase sales with RSA incentives, a novel WIFI marketing approach and consumer review tactics.

Day three of the symposium featured keynote speaker Kevin Brown, author of “The Hero Effect,” in a poignant presentation on the power of customer service that goes above and beyond expectations.

The final day included several prize giveaways to members. Serta Simmons Bedding held a drawing for cruise and the winner was Chris Cooley of Michael Alan Furniture, Lake Havasu City, AZ. Other giveaway items included Apple products, Amazon products, Visa gift cards, Yeti coolers and free merchandise and services from Furniture First partners.

Furniture First members were incentivized to network with vendors during the event through challenges in the symposium app. Networking prizes, sponsored by Myriad Software, were awarded to three members; $1,250 went to Julianne Dewey of Dewey Furniture & Carpet in Vermilion, OH; the second prize of $750 was won by Cynthia Harkness of Harkness Furniture in Tacoma, WA; and the third prize of $500 went to Jessica Smith of Talsma Furniture in Hudsonville, MI.

Furniture First will hold their 2019 Annual Symposium May 13-15 at the Manchester Grand Hyatt in San Diego, California.

More about Furniture First: Furniture First is a cooperative national home furnishings and mattress buying group serving full line independent retailers with sales over $2 million. With 487 store fronts represented in 47 states, the members collectively produce $2 billion in retail sales. For more information, visit www.FurnitureFirst.coop or call 800-411-3477.