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VTalk Radio Spotlight
Today's Guest: Jackie Hirschaut of The American Home Furnishings Alliance in High Point, North Carolina
Today's Host: John Bentley

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ANNOUNCER:  Welcome to Urban Diversions Radio brought to you by Urban Diversions Fine Furnishings, Antiques, and Architectural Elements of Traverse City and now here's your host, John Bentley.

JOHN:  Today on Urban Diversions Radio we have president and designer, Jackie Hirschaut.  She is the vice president of public of relations and marketing for American Home Furnishings Alliance.  Now AHFA is the world's largest and most active trade association solely dedicated to the advancement of the United States furniture industry.  The American Home Furnishings Alliance has served as the premier authority on information related to furniture in the United States and Jackie is one of the nation's leading experts on the furniture industry.  Welcome to the program, Jackie.

JACKIE:  Hi, John, how are you?

JOHN:  Oh just fine and dandy.  Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to join us on Urban Diversions Radio.

JACKIE:  My pleasure.

JOHN:  Now tell us a little bit about the American Home Furnishings Alliance first of all.

JACKIE:  Sure.  I'm talking to you from High Point, North Carolina, which is the furniture capital of the Universe.  In this small town, kind of in the central part of the state of North Carolina.  It's really the hot bed of furniture manufacturing and exhibition.  Twice a year, each April and October, this small town of about 45000 or so people swells to about 100,000 people as retailers, manufacturers, sales representatives, architects, and all kinds of professionals, interior designers come to our town to see the newest in home furnishings products.  So our trade association contains most of the major furniture manufacturers and importers that your listeners are familiar with.  Names like Bassett and Broyhill and Drexel Heritage and Henredon and the list goes on and on.  We have about 200 manufacturing members and about 200 suppliers to the industry and those are folks who provide either materials that are actually used in the construction of the furniture or they provide services such as financial assistance, planning, organizational logistics and that kind of thing for, again, the operation of the business.

JOHN:  Now I'm assuming that the American Home Furnishings Alliance does have a website?

JACKIE:  Yes it's www.ahfa.us, and we really serve as our industry's liaison to a whole variety of communities.  We are actively involved in helping the government understand the procedures of making furniture and helping them assist in consumer product safety and just making sure that residents around the country have a happy and healthy environment to live in.

JOHN:  Now let's talk a little bit about you, Jackie.  You are the vice president of public relations and marketing.  How long have you been with the AHFA?

JACKIE:  I've had this job for 10 years, and I have to tell you, it's the best job in the world.  It really brings together a lot of my professional career and along the way I've had the opportunity to meet and work with such really fabulous people.  I started, I guess, when I graduated from college with a degree in journalism and marketing.  I ended up in Washington D.C. and was a buyer in what was the carriage trade department store at that time Woodward & Lathrop.  So I learned all about customer service and merchandising and home products.  From there, I moved and put on my journalist's hat and I joined Furniture Today newspaper based here in High Point as an editor where I wrote about trends and products and newsmakers and important things that were going on in the industry.  I took a little side tour for about 10 years I was the editor and chief of Elegant Bride Magazine, but I didn't forget my roots in High Point., because goodness knows, every newlywed couple is setting up a new home and probably is going to need new furniture.  So I really stayed in touch with leading manufacturers about product that was perfect for smaller homes and young couples that were just starting out, and then decided to take some time off when my son was born, and low and behold in the course of taking maternity leave, was recruited for the job that I have here.  So here I am.  I'm the perfect target for furniture manufacturers in that I'm a wife and a mother, and I love my home, and I want my family to be comfortable and so I know just exactly what they're trying to do in trying to reach and satisfy today's consumers.

JOHN: Well now, Jackie, we are here to discuss the 2006 Winner of the Pinnacle Design Achievement Award that's Dale Campbell of Urban Diversions, and I understand that you were a judge on the panel for this.

JACKIE:  Yes.  I have had the privilege of being a Pinnacle Awards judge for about the last 15 years and it's really an outstanding award.  When you think about home furnishings, everybody wants to be comfortable in their home, and great design is certainly at the foundation of having an aesthetic that is pleasing to the eye as well as comfortable to the body, whether it's indoors or outdoors.  And so this award that is sponsored by the American Society of Furniture Designers really focuses on that design element and really calls attention to the outstanding product designs in about 15 categories each year.

JOHN:  Now, Jackie, we're going to have to take a break here, but we'll be right back to talk a little bit more about the 2006 Pinnacle Design Achievement Award.  You're listening to Urban Diversions Radio.  We'll be right back after these important messages.

ANNOUNCER:  Urban Diversions of Traverse City is your source for fine furnishings, antiques, and architectural elements.  With 45 years of experience and award winning designs, Urban Diversions creates beautiful limited edition furniture that is made in the U.S. and built to stand the test of time.  For more information on Urban Diversions Fine Furnishings please visit them on the web at www.urban-diversion.com or call (231) 946-6600.  Urban Diversions Fine Furnishings.

ANNOUNCER:  VTALK RADIO.

ANNOUNCER:  We now return you to Urban Diversions Radio with your host, John Bentley.

JOHN:  Welcome back to Urban Diversions Radio.  We are on the phone with Jackie Hirschaut.  She is the vice president of public of relations and marketing for the American Home Furnishings Alliance.  Welcome back to the program, Jackie.

JACKIE:  Hi John.

JOHN:  Now we've been talking about the Pinnacle Design Achievement Award and specifically the 2006 winner which was Dale Campbell of Urban Diversions.  Tell us a little bit about why this award is so important to the furniture industry.

JACKIE:   Well I think that the furniture industry really takes pride in creating outstanding products for families around the country and this is just one opportunity to focus on the value of good design that the aesthetic silhouette is pleasing to the eye, that the proportion and scale of the constructed piece is comfortable and kind of in keeping with today's lifestyles.

JOHN:  Ok, now who is eligible for this award and what types of furniture are considered?

JACKIE:  The furniture considered for this award is residential furniture.  That means furniture that is designed to go into homes.  We never consider furniture that's designed for a hotel or a restaurant or anything like that.  We are really focusing on home life.  And designers from around the world are invited to submit their creations to be considered for this competition.  There are a few requirements in that the product needs to be current.  It has to have been designed just within the past few years and it has to be broadly available to consumers through retail stores and specialty shops.

JOHN:  Ok, now what was it in Dale Campbell's design that led to him receiving this award?

JACKIE:  Well, you know, there are 15 categories for this award and all of them are focused on various categories within indoor furniture, but Dale's design really hit a home run in the summer in casual furniture category.  This is a category that is just exploding.  Consumers love the idea of creating outdoor rooms.  Taking the ambiance that they have and have come to be so comfortable with inside their house and just simply moving it outside.  So what do we want to do outside?  We want to be able to sit and relax.  We want to be able to converse with our friends and our family.  We may even want to be able to have a meal el fresco and so Dale's design of the Sun Chaser which was a parallel set of 2 exquisite Chaise Lounges which could be arranged so that the two folks who are enjoying it could sit side by side both having sun hit them at the same time, or if it was more of a time that maybe the clouds were out, and they were just enjoying being out in the fresh are and enjoying some conversation, they could arrange it so that they were sitting and kind of could face each other, you know, to enable that conversation.  So the flexibility and it was just an innovative product.  There was nothing like it in the market at the time and the judges all went wild.

JOHN:  Now how does a customer know if a piece of furniture was designed by a recipient of the Pinnacle Award in the retail outlets?

JACKIE:  Most of the manufacturers are just bursting for joy when they are honored with receipt of a Pinnacle Design Award, and many of them will add an extra hang tag or perhaps have a little easel sign in the store display that will identify the winner.

JOHN:  Do you foresee any more great designs coming from Dale Campbell of Urban Diversions?

JACKIE:  I think there is no question that there is a whole lot of great designs guaranteed from Dale Campbell.  Dale is really an expert in the home furnishings category, and he stays on top of things from his base in Michigan, he travels to High Point which is the international uni-center for home furnishings products, but he also studies what's going on in the outdoor category at the special market that that industry holds in Chicago.  So between staying on top of designs but also being really in touch with the consumers who shop his store and that he comes in contact with, he's perfectly set up to marry all those things together, and I think we're going to be seeing a lot of great new things.

JOHN:  Sounds like he is a breath of fresh air in the industry.
JACKIE:  Absolutely.  I consider him a friend and a colleague.

JOHN:  Unfortunately Jackie, our time is up, but before I let you go, why don't you give a website for consumers who are interested in home furnishings.

JACKIE:  We've got the perfect website.  It's www.findyourfurniture.com and once you get on it, there's a room planner to help you figure out what kinds of pieces you need where and how you can move them around.  There's a special section where you can ask Jackie if you've got an unusual question, and you just can't find an answer, and there's a way to search and see pictures of thousands of pieces of the most exquisite furniture around.

JOHN:  Great.  Thank you so much for joining us today, Jackie, on Urban Diversions Radio.

JACKIE My pleasure, thanks for your call.

JOHN:  We've been speaking with Jackie Hirschaut. She is vice president of public of relations and marketing for American Home Furnishings Alliance, and you've been listening to Urban Diversions Radio.  Thanks for tuning in.  Everyone have a great afternoon.

ANNOUNCER:  You have been listening to Urban Diversions Radio at www.urban-diversions.com.  Urban Diversions radio is powered by VTalk Radio and Vertio.net.  Talk radio for the 21st century.

 

 



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