In the afterglow of the High Point Market's Fall Classic, I kept thinking about all the curious and substantive elements of the industry's capital city.
As I said last May in an affirmative posting (appears below if you missed it), the creative class resides in and around High Point.
It's not in the cities where the regional trade shows reside, where the dazzling diversions can be intoxicating, yet have little to do with the foundations of an industry.
Here's more proof of the thriving creative class that keeps High Point strong: The Bernice Bienenstock Furniture Library. On your next visit here, go on over and exult in the treasures and riches.
Briefly, this 35-year-old indispensible institution thrives. It holds and cherishes the world's largest collection of volumes on the history of furniture. As a magnet to all serious designers and students of furniture, the library holds more than 7,000 volumes that can be found no where else.
Additionally, the library provides 800 titles of current books can be purchased, in a marvelous, stately stone house at 1009 Main Street. For more information , call Curator Carl Vuncannon, 336-883-4011 or click on his name to send an e-mail.
Here's my May 24 posting:
SUBSTANCE OVER STYLE: High Point’s dominance as industry’s primary and formidable knowledge home meridian
A significant disproportion of the furniture industry’s executive and creative class — its brains, heart and soul — rsides and works in and around High Point, North Carolina.
More than home of the world’s premier market center for furniture and home furnishings, High Point and the region is the primary working habitat to an estimated 15,000 influential people directly and indirectly involved in home furnishings and the semiannual international High Point Market each Spring and Fall.
Everyday in and around High Point, furniture’s incomparable and talented creative class is actively involved in designing, marketing, manufacturing, transporting, sourcing, financing, and warehousing furniture and home furnishings. Key trade publications and important industry associations are home in High Point.
Given the preponderance of the industry’s concentrated and interrelated foundation radiating from High Point, most people correctly assume and acknowledge the logic of basing operations in the furniture capital of the world.
For any doubters, the definitive observation of George Revington, chief executive of Home Meridian, confirms the strength of the region in announcing his decision to base company executive offices in High Point. Home Meridian is parent of the merger of Samuel Lawrence Furniture and Pulaski Furniture, formerly of Arizona and Virginia, respectively.
"We have showrooms here," he said about High Point, as quoted in the Greensboro News & Record. "Our design staffs are primarily in High Point. The finishing companies we primarily do business with are in High Point. And High Point is kind of the intellectual capital of the furniture business, and it seems like the natural place for us to be."
Resonating Rationale. Revington’s sterling validation of High Point resonates for all the reasons he enumerated and more. In particular, Home Meridian's investment here delivers a gratifying return on the investment, where sustainability is easier, dynamic and economical. Comparatively, High Point and the region provide an enviable low cost base of operations, especially for creating and sustaining expansive showrooms where the inherent value is self evident.
The power and influence of the High Point region to the world’s home furnishings industry is indisputable. And as a significant income producing segment, the industry’s impressive creative class may be less visible than the crown jewel of home furnishings Markets, but no one should discount how critical this segment is to the industry’s continual well being.
The economic and political power of the High Point Market and supportive creative class is a crucial fact North Carolina ’s legislators need to recognize more affirmatively and in a world class context.
Lest the legislature misconstrue High Point’s power, the Market and its attendant creative class drive significant business and enhance the attraction of the state and the cast of thousands it delivers annually as good will ambassadors. The smart people of this significant aggregate who serve the world home furnishings industry are resident voters, too, and they can and will make a difference in close elections.
As lawmakers prudently prepare to invest in keeping the High Point Market strong and competitive, they are also assuring the primary, secondary and tertiary industry support segments can continue to be a vital component of an industry known to be a renewable economic resource.
Compelling Reasons. Economic inducements notwithstanding, a compelling reason Home Meridian and other companies are locating and expanding in greater High Point is the commanding concentration of the extraordinary creative and intellectual fire power.
Without the enviable propulsion of the creative class’s intellectual productivity, the complementary Furniture Market would be diminished in dominance and influence much like the smaller, less significant and regional trade shows in Las Vegas and Tupelo.
Clearly, the added attraction and value of High Point and the region is its blessed geographic desirability. Located in the heart of North America’s most populous area, High Point is also significant logistically.
Eventually, four major interstate highways will converge in the area, a critical virtue
influencing FedEx to establish its Eastern hub at the nearby Piedmont Triad International Airport, where Hondajet recently created international attention with plans to build its innovative corporate aircraft. Infrastructurally, a vital north-south railroad link passes right through High Point, a block from the heart of the Furniture Market's constellation of showrooms.
The confluence of creativity, logistics, lower cost business opportunities has attracted distribution companies such as Polo.com to choose High Point and vicinity. Access to the region's human resources, affordable land, along with a generous helping hand from the state clearly influenced Dell Computer to build its largest assembly plant nearby in Forsyth County the home of Winston-Salem.
Intelligent Choice. People in the know are acutely aware that in the global economy — and that includes home furnishings — the world is not necessary flat. As in all global business, the furniture and home furnishings world is actually spiky, according to the economic cartography of renowned futurist Richard Florida.
The futurist’s Mercator map presents varying spikes, whose height and bulk represent specific data corresponding to important geographic concentrations or clusters of innovation, knowledge workers, entrepreneurs, patents and other measures of intelligent productivity.
High Point certainly meets Florida's criteria," says professor and economist Andrew C. Brod, director of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro 's Office of Business and Economic Research. "Based on what drives the furniture industry's huge economic impact, High Point would in fact be a significant spike, a real high point on any chart that measures the creative class."
Brod explains that High Point's spike, as it relates to the home furnishings creative class, would probably tower monumentally over Las Vegas, Tupelo, San Francisco and other areas proclaiming strength in furniture. His office at UNCG's Bryan School of Business and Economics conducted an impact study of High Point 's Market, finding the event provides a $1.3 billion economic stimulus to the state of North Carolina.
In the world of home furnishings, High Point and the region are in a rarified world class of their own! Thanks to the High Point Market and the enveloping exceptional, driven creative class who keeps the industry going.
That’s getting to the point! High Point . . . just what world home furnishings industry has been doing for nearly a century.
Hello Everybody,
High Point Office Furniture should let workers do their jobs in comfort. You feel like you are at business when you are in the office, and you don't feel tired of work. Certainly it looks professional.The costs of the furniture vary depending on the quality of the product. The High Point Office Furniture varies in quality, durability, flexibility, and usage. Handling is more important when we consider the lifespan of office furniture.
Posted by: Nataly | October 17, 2007 at 04:04 AM