Surfaces StonExpo 2012: Education Program Planning

Last week, April 7 and 8, 2011, the Surfaces/StonExpo Education Advisory Council met in Dallas, TX for the yearly planning meeting to hash out the direction of the 2012 Education Program.

The process is intense!

The meeting takes place at Hanley Wood Exhibitions offices. We meet initially as a full group, and then break into two groups to specifically address Surfaces and StonExpo separately. We then come back together again to review, further discuss [or debate] education sessions before returning home.

This is the second time that the two industry shows - Surfaces and StonExpo - have come together. The implications for the education program mean that some sessions remain unique to each show and others are relevant to attendees of both shows.  As you can imagine, when we break into separate groups, the focus in on each industry's specific educational needs.

We start out identifying the core topics that must be covered. We discuss which are the industry's hot topics. Finally, we identify new industry issues. The topics range from technical and installation issues, to design trends, to business best practices...

Next, we review the program submissions, decide which topics make sense given the environment, make sure that core/hot/new topics have been covered and then re-evaluate in case the same subject has been addressed too many times or not enough.

On the Surfaces side, we reviewed in detail several hundred Surfaces-focused education program submissions! StonExpo did the same with their submissions.

The entire Surfaces StonExpo Education Advisory Council

The StonExpo Group with Chelsie

The Surfaces Group with Dana and Chelsie

As Chelsie Thornton commented, "I don’t know about the Surfaces group, but on the StonExpo side, we seemed to be working feverishly to cover everything thoroughly during our brief day and a half time together!"  

The last part of the process brings both groups back together to review a merged listing of proposed education program topics, debate which stay or go and which need additional followup.  We don't stop until the program outline makes sense to all in the room.

Yes, intense!

Here are the members of the Surfaces/StonExpo Education Advisory Council who attended the April meeting.

On the Surfaces side:

• Joan Ceccarelli, Timeless Designs
• Steve Feldman, Floor Covering News
• Paul Friederichsen, BrandBiz, Inc.
• Leigh Hightower, MAPEI
• Jeff Macco, Macco's Floor Covering Centers
• Mike Micalizzi, Custom Building Products
• Jon Namba, Namba Services
• Christine Whittemore, Simple Marketing Now

On the StonExpo side:

• Sebastiano Brancoli, The Consultants International Group, Inc.
• John Cogswell, CogswellStone
• Dave Corey, Flooring Services, LLC
• Rodney Harvey, Curtain Wall Design & Consulting, Inc.
• Jim Hieb, Marble Institute of America
• Michael Reis, Stone World Magazine

From Hanley Wood Exhibitions: Kelly Cooper, Heather Gibke, Amie Gilmore, Dana Teague, Chelsie Thornton and Amanda Young.

Thank you, Hanley Wood and all of my fellow Surfaces StonExpo Education Advisory Council members. I learn a great deal about both industries during this intense process and can't imagine doing so with a better group of people!

Added 4/18/11: For additional perspective on the process, check out Paul Friederichsen's post on the Surfaces/StonExpo Blog titled Dedicated to Educational Excellence.

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Anticipating Surfaces 2011

Believe it or not, even though Surfaces 2010 is still fresh in my mind, we've already started anticipating Surfaces 2011.

Preparations are officially underway. The Surfaces Education Advisory Council met last week to review, discuss and prepare for Surfaces 2011 which will be momentous from multiple perspectives! Why? Because of several changes.

First in venue. Surfaces 2011 will take place at the Mandalay Bay instead of the Sands Convention Center.

For the first time ever, Surfaces will co-locate with StonExpo/Marmomacc Americas, the #1 North America stone industry event.

Surfaces 2011 timing - January 25 through 27, 2011 - coincides with that of Winter 2011 Las Vegas Market.

We met with the StonExpo Education Advisory Council and really enjoyed the perspectives they brought to our conversations. I anticipate the co-location creating a rich environment where retailers, designers, distributors, manufacturers and everyone in between will benefit from related surfaces [e.g,. marble, concrete, stone... in addition to carpet, wood, vinyl, ceramic, etc.] and broader perspectives relating to the environments that all of these products create.

Especially since Surfaces 2010 wound up being the most fascinating Surfaces for me yet with two educational sessions, one-on-one sessions, a tour of Zappos corporate headquarters [the subject of an article in Floor Covering Weekly titled "Powered by service" in the 2/25/2010 issue and soon of a Flooring The Consumer blogpost], an incredible tour of the Encore [Carpetology blogpost coming], and marvelous meetings with friends I had, to that point, only met online.

• TILE Magazine editor, Arpi Nalbandian who refers to my Social Media 101 session in What Are Customers Trying to Tell You? from March 2, 2010.
• BuildDirect's Rob Banks
• Scarlet Opus' Victoria Redshaw and Phil Pond
• DOMOTEX's Katherine Leon and Art Paredes

For the first time ever, I witnessed Twitter - via #surfaces - playing a role in the show. If you don't believe me, check out the Twitter transcript in Twitter & Surfaces 2010.

I missed meeting WD Flooring, but hope to do so at Surfaces 2011 if not before.

For more perspective on Anticipating Surfaces 2011, listen to Kemp Harr's interview: Joan Ceccarelli Discusses Design Trends in the Residential Market From a Designer Perspective

Joan Ceccarelli, Residential Interior Designer in Park City, UT, and Kemp Harr discuss residential flooring trends and Joan's role on the Surfaces Education Advisory Council. Listen to the interview to hear about current trends in the residential flooring sector and ways to keep abreast of this changing market.

Thank you, Hanley-Wood, for the opportunity to provide insights on the Surfaces Education program and for ensuring that we have so much that is exciting to anticipate about Surfaces 2011!


Photo Above:
Surfaces Education Advisory Council 2011, from left to right: Jon Namba, Larry Nagle, Kelly Cooper, Joan Ceccarelli, Scott Perron, Chelsie Thornton, Mike Micalizzi, C.B. Whittemore, Kemp Harr and Paul Friederichsen.

Social Media: Fad or Revolution?

I believe in the Social Media Revolution. If you have any doubts, I recommend that you watch the video below titled "Social Media Revolution" created by the author of Socialnomics: How social media transforms the way we live and do business, Erik Qualman.

I mention the video for two reasons.

1. We tried to show it during our Surfaces 2010 Marketing In A Recession 101 workshop on 2/1/10. Unfortunately, we lost the connection early on and had to keep moving with our presentation.

2. The data is intensely compelling.

Erik Qualman published Social Media Revolution on 8/11/2009. Keep that in mind when you read through the statistics from the video and watch the video.

Note the change in technology adoption rates. [BTW, Facebook is now up to over 400 million users.]

Think how these tools democratize access to information, enhance communication, facilitate interaction, and support education. [Read through the comments to Statistics Show Social Media Is Bigger Than You Think and you'll witness some of this in action.]

Here is the video: Social Media Revolution: Is social media a fad?
[Subscribers, click on this link to view Social Media Revolution: Is social media a fad? directly on YouTube.]

[Note: There's also a short 2.35 minute version of Social Media Revolution.]


You might want to check out Socialnomics - Social Media Blog and its page full of all kinds of videos and interviews.

Now, how might you be part of the Social Media Revolution?

Added 3/30/2010
Social Media ROI: Socialnomics
[In case you can't play the video, here is the YouTube link to Social Media ROI: Socialnomics.]


Added 5/12/10
Social Media 2 Refresh issued on 5/5/10 with updated statistics.
[Here is the link to YouTube for Social Media 2 Refresh.

How Do I Make Social Media Relevant To Categories Like Flooring?

Wordle "How Do I" by C.B. Whittemore
How Do I Make Social Media Relevant to Categories Like Flooring?

Definitely a good question. It came up during my Four On The Floor About Social Media Marketing interviews with Dave Foster [Part III].

It also came up during Marketing In A Recession - September Update. More specifically, Paul Friederichsen asked the following question:

How relevant is social media to a category like floor covering with such a long purchasing cycle? If customers are in the market for a new floor on average every 5 – 7 years, what kind of dialog do I, as a dealer, have with customers and how does it result in additional business for me? Do I get a meaningful return for that effort.

My response - no surprise - is that social media is definitely relevant to a category like flooring which is complex, has a long repeat purchase cycle and represents a significant investment.

Not unlike plenty of other categories - like cars, roofs, appliances, computers, ... I bet you can think of plenty more.

You don't believe me? Stay with me.

There are three assumptions that I need to spell out. One is that you consider that your business is about more than just a one-time transaction. The other is that you really care about your customers and appreciate that your product or service fits into their bigger picture -- think home, lifestyle, community or general environment -- and enables them. [Isn't flooring a support base for living?] And, you must believe that loyalty is a driver of profitability.

Getting back to the relevance of social media to categories like flooring.

Complex products require education. What better way to educate than by using social media? Look at how WiseGrass uses its blog to conduct mini-seminars about lawn maintenance. Or how the Mayo Clinic uses video to communicate the expertise of its physicians and researchers and shares those via social media platforms.

Building relationships with customers uncovers opportunities. Despite the long repeat purchase cycle, how can any retailer know that a customer looking for one flooring solution doesn't have other flooring decisions waiting to be made? That was certainly the case for my Mother. She intended to redo more floors, but was so disgusted with her experience after re-flooring 3 rooms that she vowed never again to go through it. Imagine, though, had the retailer kept in better touch with her, asked questions about her experience, explored suggestions on how to improve her experience, and got her talking about her floors... At least one more sale would have ensued from her, not to mention sales to her friends. Traditional tools combined with social media tools like Google local ratings and rankings would help you hear about unhappy situations. By hearing about them, you have the opportunity to fix them. By sharing this information in a public forum, you communicate to future customers how seriously you take customer satisfaction! Blog comments offer a similar forum for communication. Or, invite customers to be part of your e-Newsletter list or Facebook page to communicate directly with them.

Flooring changes often trigger other purchases. What about assembling a network of related retailers to help with those needs? You could use social media - think blog or Facebook Fan Page with links to your network - to explain why you chose the service providers you did and promote success stories that you all contributed to. Not only would you generate goodwill, but also amazing word-of-mouth.

My favorite, though, has to do with maintenance. As complex and significant the investment, flooring rarely comes with detailed care instructions. And, in many cases, how a consumer maintains [or doesn't] her purchase may invalidate a warranty. Although you will find care information online, much of it is confusing and not always credible. Imagine the opportunity available for strengthening relationships and building loyalty by offering customers and visitors a wealth of reputable flooring care tips and recommendations for maximizing the original investment. This can be accomplished via your website, a blog, Facebook and also video clips [e.g., check out my video of Annette Smith demonstrating how best to remove a carpet stain].

There's more! Implementing a social media strategy for complex categories allows you to:

Learn from your customers, anticipate what they need, conduct research with them and enlist them for product development. Fiskateers comes immediately to mind.

Connect with customers you never realized were in the market for your products. Look at the innovation that museums are implementing to connect with customers.

So, do you believe me? Do you see how social media can be relevant to categories like flooring?

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Marketing In A Recession - September Update

And now an update on Marketing In A Recession 101, the Surfaces 2010 unlike-any-other, must-attend 3 hour workshop that three brilliant marketers -- Scott Perron from Big Bob's of America, Paul Friederichsen from BrandBiz, Inc. and I -- will present on Monday, February 1st, 2010 from 9am to noon. Be there!

We've just had a working teleconference during which we walked through a first draft of our workshop content. We're having fun with our hypothetical retailer. By the time we are done, I do believe that our fictitious 'Bob' will have come to life...

I'm finding the discussion thought-provoking: we each have unique perspectives on the marketplace.

We spent a good bit of time exploring 'complacency' in business. It's often a byproduct of abundance [sound familiar?] and leads to the attitude of "nothing's broken, so why fix it?" Definitely what got our 'Bob' in trouble.

That then led to a discussion about listening which dovetailed beautifully with observations about social media marketing.

It also inspired my recent post on listening titled "Simple Marketing Starts With Listening."

My section about integrating social media into our retailer's marketing strategy generated the following questions. I'll be addressing them here and in the workshop:

1. How relevant is social media to a category like floor covering with such a long purchasing cycle? If customers are in the market for a new floor on average every 5 – 7 years, what kind of dialog do I, as a dealer, have with customers and how does it result in additional business for me? Do I get a meaningful return for that effort?

2. How do I do all these things and still run a business ... and I can’t afford to hire anybody to do it for me?

3. What do I need to do, and in what order or priority?

4. What dealers out there are doing this and how are they successful with it?

5. Who should I follow on Twitter? What websites should I have bookmarked? Etc...

Great questions, I thought.

What others would you add to the list?

Stay tuned for more.


Previous posts in the series that tracks our progress as we prepare for our groundbreaking Surfaces 2010 3-hour workshop:

1. Connecting With Retail Consumers
2. Marketing In A Recession - Strategy Series

I was tickled to come across this article about a third generation carpet retailer: The Carpetman - A Family Business That Still 'Cuts A Rug' by Andrea Aurichio, whose business is in far better shape than that of our fictitious retailer!


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Simple Marketing Starts With Listening

Kahuna Luna as New RCA White Puppy Dog, Ear Cocked Listening to "His Master's Voice", Vintage Phonograph, Music Mascot originally uploaded by BL1961.

Simple, practical, effective marketing starts with Listening. Don't you think?

Listening comes up all the time - especially if you're listening for it. And, particularly in conversations relating to marketing with social media even though it's relevant to all marketing.

It's such a basic and critical activity, fundamental to building meaningful relationships, and yet think how difficult many brands, marketers and companies find it.

Perhaps listening took place at the onset of a project - maybe in the form of research or a focus group. But, once the data and insights obtained, we shut the exercise down and hear no more. And, then we get into trouble. No?

Listening came up during a Powered webinar titled "From Zero to Community: Practical Advice to Grow and Nurture an Online Community" with Rachel Happe from The Community Roundtable and Bert DuMars [who blogs at Exploring The Social Media Ecosystem] from Newell Rubbermaid.

From Rachel we learned about the Community Maturity Model and community management best practices. Bert discussed Sharpie - Uncap Your Creativity, Graco Baby - From The Heart and Rubbermaid - Adventures in Organization communities and social networking efforts. [Note: I've admired the Graco Baby program since hearing Lindsay Lebresco - formerly with Graco - discuss Graco Baby at 2008 BlogHer Business in NYC so it was wonderful to hear about it again.]

In listening [!] to Rachel and Bert, I was struck with how critical Listening is to building and nurturing a sustainable community. It conveys respect. It's a source of amazing ongoing insights, too. Intense, active listening never stops. It's also strategic and it goes beyond a specific product to understanding what the product enables.

Take Sharpie Uncapped which celebrates the creativity that Sharpies facilitate. By observing and absorbing [i.e., listening] what Sharpie users do with Sharpie products, the company realized that it could offer value by showcasing what fans do, and create a forum for that greater creative community.

Not too dissimilar from what Mike DiLorenzo from NHL.com shared during the MarketingProfs Digital Marketing World Conference. He mentioned that 50% of NHL fans are 'displaced' [i.e., live in markets away from that of their favorite team]. Listening has allowed him to uncover ways of nurturing fans' enthusiasm regardless of how individual teams performed. [Read Shannon Paul's Very Official Blog Interview with Mike DiLorenzo.]

Listening also represents a critical theme in Social Media's Collective Wisdom: Simplifying Marketing With Social Media, my e-book based on the first 26 interviews in my social media series about Bridging New & Old. It's a requirement for participation in social media marketing. We can no longer assume that we know what the answers are to customers’ questions, or that our initial research remains eternally relevant. Rather, we must become keen observers, listeners and facilitators with customers always in mind and do so on an ongoing basis.

More specifically from the e-book:

Listen, listen, listen. If you are listening, you'll be ahead of the curve. You may even be part of "the next big thing" before it becomes big. [LoriMagno]

Listen. Most companies are pretty bad at this anyway, but they have to start being very good at it. It will make them much better at what they do. [RichNadworny]

Listen. [DougMeacham]

Listen actively:
After you start paying attention to social media, start monitoring online conversations to see if your company/brand is being discussed. Use tools like Google Blog Search and Twitter Search to see what the chatter is. [MackCollier]

Listen. See what bloggers and Twitter and other social media users are saying about you or your products or others in your space. To start, use blogsearch.google.com and search.twitter.com to monitor the conversation. If you want more, Andy Beals suggests eight free monitoring tools here. [AnnHandley]

First - Listen - what are people saying about your brand? If they are saying something negative about you, engage with them and try to turn this 'threat' into an opportunity! There are plenty of free tools out there to monitor conversations such as Google Alerts, Twitter Search or Tweetbeep to name a few. [LollyBorel]

Set up Google Alerts to start listening to what the market-place is saying about you. Read Chris Brogan’s “Grow Bigger Ears” post for other ways to effectively listen. The results may further arm you as you convince decision-makers that people are already talking about you, and it is better to be part of the conversation. [PegMulligan]

My last suggestion is that no matter what they’re doing, they need to listen. I’m still surprised when I learn that companies don’t have a Google alert set up. It’s not surprising at all that people don’t search Twitter and the like for their brand names. [DavidPolinchock]

Listen strategically:
Understand the limitations and the benefits of the tools, or tactics, before you consider implementing. Listen and watch the rhythms of the social elements (blogs, vlogs, social networks, Twitter, etc.) you are considering before you create your social media strategy. [TobyBloomberg]

Place an activity moratorium on your staff as they enter the social media world. We use a 30 day No Comments, No Posts moratorium on our incoming people to give them a chance to listen and learn before they dive in and start posting. This gives them a chance to see how it’s done and avoid some of the common newbie mistakes. [ChrisKieff]

Listen some more. What do you hear. Are people talking about your brand? If not, then why? If they are, then what are they saying? Do they love you? Do they hate you? Are they helping you to increase your customer base or lose it? There is a lot of value in those conversations. Use it to your advantage. [DougMeacham]

What are your thoughts about listening? Do you consider it as critical a first step to simple marketing as I do?

Download Social Media's Collective Wisdom: Simplifying Marketing With Social Media. It's free and chock-full of wisdom.


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Marketing In A Recession - Strategy Series

Work continues feverishly on Marketing In A Recession 101, the Surfaces 2010 unlike-any-other, must-attend 3 hour workshop that the three brilliant marketers pictured here are presenting!

When last you heard from us in Connecting With Retail Consumers -- the first in our Marketing Strategy Series leading up to our 3 hour workshop at Surfaces 2010 -- Scott Perron from Big Bob's of America, Paul Friederichsen from BrandBiz, Inc. and I had just kicked off our first working session.

On Sunday, August 2nd, 2009 we got together in Atlanta for our second face-to-face meeting... It was intense!

Not only do we have a session title - Marketing In A Recession 101 - but also a description:

This packed 3-Part, 3-hour workshop takes the dealer through today’s real issues and offers real solutions for making marketing efforts and dollars work harder in today’s economy. Part One: Branding Basics – foundational to everything – from identity to positioning in the marketplace. Part Two: Advertising and Promotion – Sure fire strategies and tactics that you should know about and use. Part Three: Social Media – the hottest way to communicate and bond with your customers. Don’t miss this if you want to seize the opportunity to build your business in times like these.

The first few hours of this last working session focused on identifying goals for the workshop and then exploring the big ideas currently affecting consumers and retailers.

In terms of goals:

1. Simplify the complexity often associated with developing and implementing a marketing strategy.

2. Translate the concepts and framework into actionable and real life solutions by showing how a specific [yes, composite] retailer would apply and benefit from our suggestions.

In terms of big ideas currently affecting the consumer marketplace that retailers need to pay attention to:

1. Retailers must focus on the customer

2. Consumers yearn for simplicity [eliminate confusion and Paradox of Choice]

3. To deliver a memorable retail and brand experience, consistency of effort matters: need to prioritize, delegate and make everyone accountable.

4. It's important to keep track of information

5. Don't forget about taking advantage of existing assets

6. Be female-friendly

7. Consumer shopping habits have changed radically: consumers start at an Internet search window which means that the Internet and digital visibility [especially with Google] matter; they are shopping more stores to obtain the best value. They trust others before they trust you.

For the second part of our afternoon, Dave Foster from TalkFloor joined us for an interview about the Surfaces Workshop.

The result: a five part TalkFloor TV series titled Whittemore, Friederichsen & Perron Preview Surfaces Workshop “Marketing in a Recession 101,” each approximately 10 minutes long.

In Part 1 he asked about our fictitious retailer, named Bob, a composite created from what many retailers are going through right now. We described the roles we would each play.

In Part 2, we focused on the opportunities available to retailers even in this environment. During the seminar, we plan on bringing fresh ideas and thinking to old problems, helping retailers get back to fundamentals and make better use of the new tools available. It's all about customers and relationship building. PS: Paul let out that there's a happy ending to our story!

In Part 3, Dave asked how to determine where to spend marketing dollars and what role online plays. Our response: think about the customer. What is it that she is trying to do? How do you help her? What is it that your brand represents, how do you integrate all of the elements of your strategy and how to you establish a relationship?

Our wisdom from Part 4: identify who your customer is and market to that customer. You cannot successfully be everything to everyone. We discuss the competition and urge retailers to engage with customers.

Finally, in Part 5, we encourage viewers to take advantage of the data already available on customers to create better marketing strategy and tactics.

Thank you, Dave!

Scott, Paul and I are next scheduled for a teleconference in September to walk through the first draft of our presentation.

I hope you plan on joining us at Surfaces 2010. The workshop - called Marketing In A Recession 101 - takes place Monday, February 1, 2010 from 9am to noon. Registration will start soon.

In the meantime, does this post trigger any other ideas?

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Connecting With Retail Consumers - Marketing Strategy Series

As you know from Press Release: Whittemore Re-Appointed to SURFACES '10 Education Advisory Council, Paul Friederichsen from BrandBiz, Inc. [on the left], Scott Perron from Big Bob's of America [in the middle] and I will jointly present a workshop at Surfaces 2010. The subject: brand marketing, advertising/promotion, and social media to effectively connect with retail consumers and generate business.

Although our immediate focus relates to flooring, the lessons and discussion apply to any business or industry.

Scott, Paul and I will be collaborating intensely over the next few months as we build our workshop. I plan on documenting our process and discussions here on Simple Marketing Blog as a reference and also to include you in what we create. With your feedback, we will fine-tune our materials for added relevance and usefulness.

We might even ask that you test drive some of our ideas....

During our kick-off session at Hanley Wood's offices, we realized that we frequently hear one question in particular from businesses of all sizes, shapes, and forms: how to effectively use marketing to build a business. Perhaps a basic question, but truly a profound one.

Here's how Wikipedia defines marketing: "an integrated communications-based process through which individuals and communities discover that existing and newly-identified needs and wants may be satisfied by the products and services of others"

Critical to the success of this communications-based process is Strategy. Strategy ensures that your brand message relates to what you offer customers in your marketplace, and that you consistently implement it across all aspects of your business - in-store, on you website, through your advertising and promotions, across all of your customer communications including customer service and any community building and social programs. All elements must work in concert and focus in on your customer and how best to offer relevant value to her [women represent our core consumer certainly in flooring and also across the majority of purchase categories].

That means that you have to think about how and why you might select one platform over another to implement aspects of your marketing plan.

How you train your in-store associates matters as much as those on phone support or those who install your products in your customers' homes.

How you speak to you customers matters. Whether in person or in your advertising and promotions, on your website as well as how you might interact with them via social networks - assuming that is something you participate in.

In other words, everything has to work seamlessly together to deliver that consistent, credible message and experience that allows you to connect with customers.

Do you agree?

I hope so, as that is what we plan on discussing and illustrating in our workshop.

As we discussed how to do all of this, we thought we needed to get as nitty gritty and realistic as possible to make our points. Down to creating a hypothetical flooring retailer to demonstrate 'how to' make use of marketing to truly connect with customers and build your business. Making it that much more likely that workshop participants - and readers of this blog series - can walk away with specific action items to put into use immediately.

Comments? Reactions? Feedback?

Are there any specific aspects of marketing strategy and connecting with customers to build your business that you'd like us to address? Please let me know.

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Press Release: Whittemore Re-Appointed to SURFACES '10 Education Advisory Council

For Immediate Release: May 19, 2009

Whittemore Re-Appointed to SURFACES ’10 Education Advisory Council
Reinforces value of “All-in-One” show and education program theme

Kinnelon, NJ – Christine Whittemore, chief simplifier of Simple Marketing Now LLC, has been re-appointed to the SURFACES 2010 Education Advisory Council. The Education Advisory Council guides and shapes the Education Program for SURFACES, the only trade show to bring together in one location every aspect of the flooring industry once a year in Las Vegas, NV. The focus of SURFACES ’10 will be “All-in-One.”

“The All-in-One theme for SURFACES ’10 captures the unique aspect of the show. It is the only venue to bring together all in one place retailers, installers, inspectors, manufacturers and designers involved in the flooring industry. It is also the only show of its kind to offer participants all in one place the range, quality and relevance of knowledge and learning that the Education Program offers,” says Dana Teague, SURFACES show director.

The SURFACES Education Advisory Council consists of industry experts representing a wide range of perspectives to guide and shape the SURFACES Education Program. Whittemore joins Jon Namba, executive director, Certified Floorcovering Installers; Scott Perron, president, Big Bob’s of America; Paul Friederichsen, owner, BrandBiz, Inc.; Joan Ceccarelli, ASID, CID, Timeless Designs; and Mike Micalizzi, technical services manager, MAPEI Corporation.

Says Teague, “The Advisory Council plays an important role in creating an Education Program that is relevant to show participants. We tailor the program to address the current economic environment and provide actionable product, marketing, sales, design and installation advice. The only way to do that is through the insights and perspectives that Christine and the other Council members bring.”

The 2010 SURFACES Education Program will focus on the customer, product knowledge, the new economic reality, sustainability and how to connect with customers given a socially networked world.

Whittemore will be participating in a workshop with Scott Perron and Paul Friederichsen on marketing, advertising and social media, and leading a social media 101 seminar.

SURFACES 2010 takes place from February 1-4, 2010 in Las Vegas, NV at the Sands Convention Center. For more information about Hanley Wood’s flooring focused trade show, visit SURFACES.com.

For more information about Simple Marketing Now LLC, contact chief simplifier Whittemore at CBWhittemore@SimpleMarketingNow.com or visit the Simple Marketing Now website and companion weblog & newsroom – Simple Marketing Blog.

# # #

About Simple Marketing Now LLC

Simple Marketing Now is a marketing communications consultancy that provides organizations with the right combination of traditional marketing and new and digital tools to improve the customer experience and build brand. For more information, visit http://SimpleMarketingNow.com

About Hanley Wood

Hanley Wood, LLC is the premier media company serving housing and construction. Through four operating divisions, the company produces award-winning magazines and Web sites, marquee trade shows and events, rich data and custom marketing solutions. The company also is North America’s leading publisher of home plans. Hanley Wood Exhibitions (Dallas) conducts events serving the industry’s strongest market segments, including World of Concrete, one of the top 20 trade show events in the country.

Founded in 1976, Hanley Wood is one of the ten largest B-to-B media companies in the United States. Hanley Wood is owned by affiliates of JPMorgan Partners, which uses CCMP Capital Advisors to manage this investment.


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