IHFRA gala during High Point Market will spotlight outstanding industry leaders

This week, I have on my International Home Furnishings Representatives Association hat and as the group’s executive director, I want to make a hopefully not-too-shameless plug for our upcoming  27^th annual Furniture Industry Awards Gala.

The gala will be held Friday, Oct. 13, at the Nido and Mariana Qubein Arena and Conference Center at High Point University.

In the event that the FIAG gala is new to you, here’s a quick snapshot of the event. Each year, IHFRA selects a group of industry participants that have helped the industry become better, more professional and more visible.

Those honorees are recognized at an all-industry gala that includes a cocktail hour, dinner, ample time to network and wraps up with our honorees receiving their awards.

This year’s honorees include Top 100 retailer Miskelly Furniture, Retailer of the Year; Roy Hester of Planned Furniture Promotions, who will be honored as Industry Icon; Edward Massood of  Massood Logistics, who will be named Pillar of the Industry; IHFRA rep Ted Jarnagin, who will receive the  Legacy Rep award; and John Pinion IV, who will be presented with the Distinguished Service Award.

In addition, IHFRA’s Rising Stars award will be presented to four up-and-coming future leaders who have already distinguished themselves for outstanding performances. This year’s Rising Stars are: Cameron Wanek of Ashley Furniture, Kian Amini of AICO, Sydney Harris of Furnitureland South and Katie Korngold of Korngold Sales & Marketing.

The theme for this year’s gala, “Celebrating the Family of Furniture,” perfectly describes not only each of our honorees, but the makeup of the industry as well.

As someone who has reported on our industry for more than three decades, I know that family businesses truly make up the backbone of our community.

With that theme in mind, each of our honorees is part of a family business that serves the home furnishings sector.

And on a larger scale, my takeaway after being part of the home furnishings sector for all these years is that our industry itself is a family as well. And like any family, we are not perfect, we have our strengths and weaknesses, but at the end of the day, we are family nonetheless.

I would like to personally invite everyone reading this to join us this year at our gala.

To be honest, each year the event gets the majority of its support from those wanting to celebrate with the honorees. However, as it’s an all-industry event, IHFRA can use your support and we would love for you to attend whether you are personally connected to this year’s slate of honorees or not.

FIAG is a great opportunity for you to celebrate your participation in our industry, network, meet new people and share a cocktail and a great dinner with old friends.

I am including a link to provide more information on our gala and to allow you to purchase tickets, congratulatory ads and sponsorships.  

Thanks for listening and I sincerely hope to see you in October!

Additional information, including ticket availability and sponsorship opportunities, will be posted on the IHFRA website. Interested parties can also contact Ray Allegrezza at rallegrezza@ihfra.org, Steve Allegrezza at sallegrezza@ihfra.org or Bonnie Wallace at bwallace@ihfra.org.