International Housewares Show

I'm going to the Housewares Show next week. It's every bit as intriguing as walking into the fabled Emerald City of Oz. As a local, I've long heard about this show and its many delights, but was always told it was only for industry insiders. Until this year. Bloggers are in da house!

I'm going thanks to Dorian Dickinson of SotaVenture, with whom I'm also working on an exciting soon-to-be-announced MomImpact project.

There will be a few other Chicago area bloggers at the show as well as a group of moms from around the country sponsored by the Hoover folks. Well, they must know I already have a vacuum I like (though honestly my vacuum of choice these days is the Navigator I got from the Shark folks I met last fall in NYC). Or maybe they know I'm also set to meet with the folks who make the Rolls Royce of vacuum cleaners later this month. And though I want to scream, "What is it with vacuum cleaner companies reaching out to moms?!" I stop short because, even though I have the world's most helpful husband, he rarely touches the vacuum cleaner.

The Housewares Show is about more than kitchen gadgets (and apparently there's a big emphasis on things like color trends--for 2011. Who knew?), but I have to say I'm excited to see the kitchen appliances and gadgets (note to self: we need a new bread machine). This I why I'm going to read this Gaper's Block piece several times over before I hit the ginourmous show floor (additional note to self: don't be distracted by shiny objects, at least not too many of them).

You can follow along on Twitter under the hashtag #housewares. A couple of brands from the show have reached out to me via Twitter, which I appreciate, but it's interesting to note that at this point, most of the #housewares chatter is coming from me and the other mombloggers. I'm not much for color trends, but I can tell you that by the 2011 Housewares Show, more brands will be tapped into the the power of social media moms.


Do you have a houseware trend prediction for me to test out at the show?

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