Worlds Away sponsors first Designer ExperieNCe dinner

Worlds Away sponsors first Designer ExperieNCe dinner

Home Accents Today, Designers Today, and Casual Living magazines came together to create Designer ExperieNCe: a signature three-day creative forum in Greensboro, NC that celebrated the area’s long-standing tradition of designing and manufacturing furniture and textiles with speakers, tours, and social events.

The event began at Greensboro's Proximity Hotel on August 22, 2018 with welcoming remarks from magazine editors in chief Susan Dickenson, Jane Dagmi, and Waynette Goodson.

Dickenson said, "One of the things I’ve always regretted about the High Point Market is that the buyers spend their short time here inside showrooms that take up a few city blocks. I wish they had time to see what it’s like here during 'non-market' time and explore all the beauty and delicacies of the surrounding area, along with some of the local furniture makers. The agenda I want would have required you all to stay a couple of weeks, so this first time out we've settled for an abbreviated version that can be accomplished in just under three days!"

Afterward Dennis Quaintance delivered a talk in the nation’s First Platinum LEED Certified Hotel, the Proximity Hotel. He discussed the six key areas of human and environmental health: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection, indoor environmental quality, and innovation in design and then related them to how they impact our world.

Next Libby Langdon gave an inspiring talk on her experiences and how she was able to tenaciously make her own path from teenage model to television personality to furniture designer, and everything else along the way. Certainly her days growing up in High Point (“the “furniture capital”) shaped her attitude toward interior design.

Worlds Away graciously sponsored the kick off dinner with cocktails, dinner, music, and art. Nearly eighty-five interior designers convened in the evening to socialize with their peers and mingle with other professionals in the industry in the White Oak Room & Social Lobby of the Proximity Hotel. Painter Chip Holton drew a crowd as he created an abstract rendering of the event live.

Finishing out the forum, the group toured the archives and manufacturing facilities at Thayer Coggin, Phillips Collection and Artistica Home / Lexington Home Brands, had a seated dinner at Revolution Mill, and sampled internationally recognized and award-winning cheeses from Goat Lady Dairy and farm in Climax,

All participants learned from the speakers, networked with peers, earned continuing education credits, and explored the area’s storied past as well as new things to come. This is likely to be the first of many Designer ExperieNCe events, and Worlds Away was so pleased to get to be a part of it.