10.04.16

2016 San Diego NeoConnect Recap

The San Diego design community began to fill the Port Pavilion at Broadway Pier well before the doors were officially opened for this year’s NeoConnect.  After last year’s game-changing event, booths sold out within 3 weeks of opening up to exhibitors and the guest list filled up rapidly in the weeks leading up to September 27th. 

With 592 attendees this year, overall attendance was up 34% from last year (2015).  The A+D community represented 43% of the attendees, and had the largest increase in attendance with 61% more than last year.

Check out the photos and video from the event.

Almost 100 manufacturers and dealers were represented in this year’s show featuring incredible products released at the 2016 NeoCon in Chicago.  Five designers from the San Diego design community were selected to be judges for this year’s Best of NeoConnect competition, where all of the exhibitors had an opportunity to submit one product to be considered, and the judges selected their 10 favorites to be voted on by the rest of the design community.  The submissions for Best of NeoConnect can be seen on Pinterest. Our five, highly esteemed judges were:

• Elizabeth Young, Robin Wilson Interior Design
• Jeff Hines, FS Design Group
• Jules Wilson, Jules Wilson Interior Design
• Mary Michaelsen, Hollander Design Group
• Stuart Fromson, Carrier Johnson + Culture

The top 10 products in this year’s Best of NeoConnect competition were:

• BAUX | Greenline-AP | Acoustic Wood Wool
• GRAND RAPIDS CHAIR | EPIC | Reece Chair
• HAFELE | Slido M-80
• HAWORTH | Fern Chair
• HUMANSCALE | Quickstand Lite
• JLC-TECH | SDLA | T-Bar LED
• KNOLL | Bertoia Diamond Chair in 18K Gold
• MDC | Zintra
• MIRAGE | GCTHOMAS | Transition
• SHAW CONTRACT | Configure

The attendees at the event voted on their top choices by texting on their phones, results showing live on a projected screen above the show, and the winners were as follows:

GOLD:  SDLA’s JLC-Tech LED T-Bar Smartlight  with 51% of the votes!

SILVER:  Humanscale’s Quickstand Lite

Congratulations to Aaron Kroll of Gensler for winning the free IIDA Professional Membership raffle!  Welcome to IIDA!

Special thanks to the 2016 IIDA San Diego NeoConnect Committee:
Angela Lafica, NeoConnect Co-Chair, Ware Malcomb
Shana Van Namen, NeoConnect Co-Chair, SVN Design Resource
Annette Lievers, Shaw Contract
Bethany Carlson, LPA
Courtney Kirian, Momentum Textiles
Diana Tracy, Commercial Décor Gallery
Eileen Walker, Arborite
Elise Holmes, MDC Wallcovering
Erica Puccio, Stone Source
Erica Roman, Unisource
Faith Harrison, Global
Janice Magnuson, Cuningham Group Architecture
Judith Thomas, GC Thomas
Kari Schultz, Mannington
Katelyn Loveridge, bkm Officeworks
Kimberly McCready, DesignTex
Lesley Christensen, ID Studios
Maggie Rybak, Caesarstone
Manuela Bravo-Smith, Carrier Johnson
Michelle Morgan, Cuningham Group Architecture
Nicole Dotson, bkm Officeworks
Rebecca Hetter, Coalesse
Sue Ann Mitchell, Haworth
Tony Robson, Crossville
Tricia Mauller, EPIC Contract Group
Wendy Williams
Ymisserah Eddington, Steelcase
Yuriana Stransky, Gensler

Thank you all for making this another fabulous NeoConnect in San Diego, and we will see you again next year!