As a business owner in the window treatment and design industry, I think it's important to belong to associations the specialize in the education and promotion of professional window treatment designers. This allows me to network with my peers, stay current on color and design trends, and make sure the products I sell are up to code when it comes to safety. Because of this, I am a member of two groups - KWA which stands for the Kentucky Workroom Association, and WCAA which stands for Window Coverings Association of America.
This week, I've been attending the WCAA 2011 Inspire conference. The conference, located at the Galt House in downtown Louisville, brings together business owners and window treatment vendors from all over the United States and Canada. It's a place to learn what's new in the industry, meet other designers and workroom professionals, and check out the best that our vendors have to offer. I've met one designer, Lee, who is attending from Oakland, California with her husband. Another designer that I sat with at lunch today is from Delaware. She's here by herself, so we were able to get to know each other a bit. Since we each attended different seminars in the morning sessions, we compared notes on what we had learned. She spent the morning in drapery fabrication classes - I spent my time in marketing classes. My most interesting contact came from my new friend from Bowling Green. Her business is a little farther along than mine, and we made plans for me to stop by her business next time I'm in town. We have daughter's that attend the same college, so we had something in common instantly other than draperies.
I'm sure the highlight for all of us in attendance today was the keynote speaker for our lunch, Sarah Richardson from HGTV's "Sarah's House". Sarah spoke about her design philosophy, and shared several funny stories about challenging rooms and clients. She was very down-to-earth, and even let all of us take pictures with her after her presentation.
Tomorrow, I'm taking a class on challenging windows, then spending the afternoon on the vendor floor checking out what's new. And I'm most excited about getting my scissors sharpened for free! (I know, this makes no sense to most of you, but if you spent as much time with a pair of scissors in your hand as I do, you'd understand how important it is to have them well-sharpened)
