Industry events are expensive. Not expensive like a nice dinner out. Expensive like plane tickets, registration fees, hotels, rideshares, meals, tips and a sample kit I then have to figure out how to get home.
That’s the part you can put a dollar figure on. The harder cost is the time I’m away. I’m not in the studio, I’m not answering a time-sensitive email at the speed I normally would, and that gap can be the difference between catching a problem and paying another freight charge. Here’s a worst-case scenario: a client can’t reach me and buys something on their own. Months of planning come apart over one well-intentioned decision. If I’m going to do an industry event, I have to be okay with the pause in the workflow, not just the cost.
So I get why people skip them. They’re expensive, they pull you out of the studio, and if you’re running a one-woman firm there isn’t always somebody else to cover what you leave behind. I contemplate them for all of those reasons. I still go.
The two big ones on my calendar are High Point Market and KBIS, the Kitchen & Bath Industry Show. Market is furniture, lighting, textiles, the things that end up in the finished room. KBIS is a little more technical: cabinetry, appliances, plumbing, software and systems that take more technical knowledge to understand. They’re very different shows, and I go to them for very different reasons.
What I’m Looking At in a Booth
Every show I’m hunting new products and new vendors, and plenty of those products end up in client projects. More than I could count at this point.
But for me it’s as much about how the displays are put together as the products inside them. A company selling appliances or faucets has nothing to do with wall color, and I’m still standing there looking at what they put on the walls and floors. Or I’ll be in a booth full of light fixtures looking at the cabinetry hardware somebody used to stage it. Those are the little trends I pick up on.
Last fall I went to Market with one specific project in mind. I sourced several pieces for the house over those days and 95% of what I recommended ended up in it, all of it from new, seasonal launches. Most of that will make its way online or into a trade catalog eventually, but eventually is the problem. Seeing it as it rolls out means I already know what’s available by the time I’m sitting down to source your project.
On the Caesarstone panel, one of a handful of moments a year where the trade show pays off in something you can’t get from a booth.
The Rep Who Wouldn’t Call Me Back
Being able to shake hands with your reps, meet the marketing folks and talk to a regional VP can make all the difference.
There was one vendor I was having issues with. I couldn’t get the local rep to call me back when I was trying to get showroom samples to make available to my clients. So I went to KBIS, met several people there, got their cards, and worked my way up the chain of command until I reached the woman who could finally help me. I’m relentless and not sorry about it. Now I have an entire section of my showroom dedicated to that product and it’s been a great addition.
Most of the time it’s less obvious than that. I just come home knowing more people than I did before, in person and online.
Sometimes it goes further. I sat on a panel at High Point in October of 2025, and there happened to be an executive in the audience. Something I said during the discussion landed with her, and her company brought me on as a brand ambassador. None of that happens without that specific moment in time, and it’s just not something you can tag or share your way into.
The room at NKBA’s Women to Women conference in New Orleans. A hundred designers, zero booths to browse.
This month I was in New Orleans for the National Kitchen & Bath Association’s Women to Women conference. A hundred people, three days, no flashy booths, no product on display, nothing to source. The people are the whole event. That’s very different from a huge trade show where there’s so much to see that real one-on-one time can be hard to come by. This one was built around it.
In October, I’m back at High Point for a panel called “Nobody Told Me This Was Part of the Job.” A formal education in design is the first, and arguably the most important, step toward becoming a respected, knowledgeable, professional designer. From there it’s on you to figure out the rest: the admin, the soft skills, the relationships, the networking. Design school is only half the equation.
I don’t go to these events because I need another tote bag or an excuse to leave Durham. I go because every product I see and every person I meet gives me one more thing to draw on when I’m working on your house.
If you’re planning a remodel, I’d love to talk.
