Luxury Products Group (LPG) celebrated a year of tremendous growth with its largest-ever Spring Expo, held Jan. 29-31 at the Marriott Grand Hotel in San Diego.

In welcoming members and vendors, Director Jeff MacDowell shared a list of successes that the group accomplished in 2019:

• Record setting membership now exceeds 440 showrooms across the United States and Canada
• Above industry growth in sales, and overall improvement in rebate performance
• Record-setting attendance to the expo
• Expansion of the LPG marketing platform, which enhances members social media campaigns and offers them options to customize a low-cost communication to the retail and design community
• Expansion of subcommittees to help curate the LPG vendors, services and training programs
• Announced the launch date and partners for the new LPG training portal

LPG now has become a force in not just showrooms connected with wholesale, but the true designer boutique showrooms can benefit from what LPG has to offer — and MacDowell says there is more to come.

“We have an even more aggressive growth campaign planned for this year,” he said. “We are going to own the training initiative for our member showrooms and create something that no other organization has been able to do, in relation to training far beyond product selling.  We will help teach creating the experience.”

Guest speaker Robb Best of Elkay USA, a leading expert on the connection between neuroscience and sales, had showroom leaders thinking about how they sell during his presentation. He discussed the science behind body language.

Other educational sessions were led by industry executives and consultants on topics designed to increase the knowledge and capabilities of showrooms and their partners. Also, small group roundtable meetings were scheduled that allowed members and vendors to share questions and ideas on a variety of best practices.

Several well-deserved awards were presented during the event: Mr. Steam was awarded the Vendor of the Year, Ultra Design Center of Denver was named Showroom of the Year, and Bain Ultra was awarded Booth Presentation of the Year.

Of course, there was plenty of time for some fun, friendship and networking. The highlight of the event was an evening on the USS Midway aircraft carrier museum, where members enjoyed a tour, refreshments and flight simulators.

“This was the best-attended, most-engaged Luxury Products Group event in its history,” said MacDowell. “Our members came to the meeting prepared to engage vendors in business planning. I am excited about the future of LPG with our investment in technology and our focus not just on the vendor partners, but on creating the best shopping experience for the customers that enter an LPG-supported showroom. There is no better time to be in LPG than right now!”