MSP Home & Design Show Brings Higher-End Feel to Home Design
Looking to channel your inner designer or remodeler and update your home? Whether you’re looking to upgrade your suburban home or add defining touches to your downtown loft, the all new MSP Home & Design Show will help.
Photos courtesy of Crush Collective Interior Design
Show producers Bruce Evans and Dan DeJaeger bring their significant consumer event and marketing experience, having worked as a successful team for nearly five years while working at North America’s largest producer of home and garden events. Attendees of the MSP Home & Design Show can look forward to discussions with home design experts, an appearance by HGTV architect and interior designer John Gidding, art from Drew Beson, and a Makers’ Market highlighting Minnesotan artisans and craftspeople.
The inaugural year of this fall show will provide a unique experience for visitors, offering a sampling of new home trends, interior design expertise, home products, demonstrations and much more — for large homes, small space living, and everything in between.
“We’re excited to bring a high-end, designed-focused show to the Twin Cities during the fall season — a great time for homeowners to talk with interior designers and start planning large-scale projects, or quick refreshes before the holidays,” Evans said. “We look forward to providing guests with a one-of-a-kind show that’s all about the attendee experience.”
According to Evans, creating a high-end home show has been in the back of his mind for years, and finally the opportunity presented itself. “We have seen a number of other markets where fall shows are very successful that focus more on interior design, home decor, the latest and greatest design features in homes, things like that,” he said. “There are other fall home shows, good fall home shows, but this is a higher quality fall home show targeting consumers with a little higher household income than others.”
In addition to focusing more on home design and decor while targeting higher income brackets, Evans and DeJaeger are also embracing the growth of populations living in smaller spaces downtown, with design aspects targeted for apartments and condos.
“We know the percentage of people living downtown now has gone up significantly in the past couple years,” he said. “And we do see that as an opportunity to provide those people with design and interior options for smaller space living. And we know that other shows kind of focus a lot on the outdoors and we will have some of that, but we’ll just be focused a lot more on interior design, home decor, interior design trends and advice.”
Top design and product trends will certainly be on display, but consumers are also given the opportunity to interact with an assortment of interior designers to get ideas and advice on their own design conundrums. Generating great buzz are the eight “designer rooms” on display, all being designed by different interior designers who will be on hand to answer questions and offer advice. One room features the work of five seniors of the Dunwoody College of Technology interior design program, each creating a unique piece of furniture for the home office. In a conversation with Evans he begins beaming with excitement as he shares that a portion of ticket sales will go to a scholarship fund for the Dunwoody interior design program.
The Dunwoody and other designer rooms are just one example of the interactive environment Evans was hoping for. “We strongly encourage our exhibitors to develop exhibits that encourage interaction; if they have small demonstrations they can do at their booth, we strongly encourage that,” he said. “We will even have an idea center where there’s going to be swatches of carpeting or examples of paneling or wood flooring where people can actually see and feel and touch the different products for the home.”
Not planning a large project? Evans and DeJaeger have thought of that, too. Local artist Drew Beson will be showcasing his art for purchase in a gallery and the Maker’s Market provides a unique area of the show featuring artisans, unique products and incredible talents including several from Minnesota. This is your opportunity to meet the masterminds behind a variety of unique art and home products.
Evans admits that there are plenty of home shows in the market, but the MSP Home & Design Show fills a void with its products, design features, and higher-end focus. The demand for a show of this nature is there, he says. “People here get it. Dan and I travelled across the country when we did the marketing for 21 different shows across the U.S. So we saw all of these home shows and Minneapolis always was one of the more trendy ones. We are a more progressive market and we like to be on the forefront of design and trends.”
MSP Home & Design Show
Minneapolis Convention Center
Sept. 30–Oct. 2
www.mspdesignshow.com
