Best of BDNY

By – Andrea Polaski, DAS Interior Designer

Have you ever attended a silent disco?

I did.  It was part of the Restoration Hardware Contract booth at the annual BDNY trade show in New York this past November. During the show, various vendors hold unique events in their space to promote networking and help engage the designers with their products.

When I stopped by the Restoration Hardware booth, they offered me a set of headphones and suggested I listen to music as I lounged on their furniture. It was a great way for designers and end-users to interact with the products for a longer period of time and have a more natural conversation about the vendor’s product offerings.

So what is BDNY?  Short for Boutique Design New York, it is a two-day trade show and conference for the hospitality design industry.  Although it is a trade conference, the exhibition floor feels more like an art exhibit where vendors design their booths to represent their offerings.

The conference also hosts two competitions between the vendors. The first is “The Best of BDNY Product Design Awards” where manufacturers of various categories are awarded for their new product introductions in the past year. The other competition is the “Best of Exhibition Design” which the booth displays are judged based on creativity and use of their product. To learn more about the winning vendors in both of these categories, please visit www.bdny.com/2016-best-of-bdny-product-design-awards-best-exhibit-honors.

This was my second time attending BDNY and my first attending the trade show on both days. If you plan on attending in the future, I highly recommend spending two days to walk the trade show and attend some of the seminars and workshops. It was time well spent for the entire design team here at DAS and we look forward to attending again. Hope to see you there!