by Ken Ryan
New York—Consolidated Carpet, along with 17 floor covering vendor partners, hosted over 400 industry professionals at the inaugural ConsoCon 2019, a post-NeoCon event held here at Metropolitan West.
The purpose of the event was to showcase NeoCon’s highlighted products while creating an exuberant networking environment for key members in the industry. While this type of event has been held in other cities, it was a first for New York City. “ConsoCon certainly exceeded my expectations and it’s because of the team we put together in house to plan and execute it,” said Dave Meberg, president & CEO of Consolidated Carpet, headquartered here.
The boardwalk themed event was heavy on the fun side, featuring open bars, a raw bar, DJ, photo booth, custom cornhole sets and themed food carts. Interactive experiences included virtual reality augmentation, tarot card readers, raffle giveaways and product demonstrations. A&D attendees were incentivized to visit each booth, and hopefully buy product. Vendors did their part by creating engaging product vignettes using floor covering elements to resemble a boardwalk.
“Any time you can meet with clients in a casual environment as opposed to going to their offices it is a great thing,” said Jewells Blackwell, a sales rep for sur4ces, who was among exhibitors who gave ConsoCon a thumbs up.
John McCrudden, global sales manager, floor covering, Milliken, noted that while these post-NeoCon events have taken place elsewhere, “this one was a great idea, and much needed in the New York City market.”
Meberg said the success of ConsoCon couldn’t have been achieved without the time commitment of event sponsors. “We thank them profusely for their support and confidence in us to pull this off. There has already been overwhelming demand to do this again, so we look forward to making this an annual event for the New York metro flooring and design community.”
Event sponsors were Antron, Armstrong, Bentley Mills, Tarkett, Gerflor, Milliken, Mannington, J+J, Shaw, sur4ces, Mats Inc., Michael Halebian & Co, Spartan Surfaces, Mohawk, Interface, Forbo and SalesMaster. Giveaway sponsors included Ardex, Schönox, Mapei, EF Contract, Apollo Distributors and The Buck Agency.
(Photo: The Consolidated Carpet team poses at the photo booth during ConsoCon 2019 in New York City.)
