Welcome - Grace note

What a summer it’s been! Just as we thought we would be back to normal, the news continued to change and provided no real answers about when some semblance of ordinary life would return. I remember clearly what went through my mind in early March as we were completing preparations for the International Window

Coverings Expo in Charlotte and coronavirus took hold of the country. It seemed unreal and impossible that it would move so quickly that the show would GRACE be shut down. But that’s what happened and we have had to NOTE deal with the reality. As a company, we could not sit back and do nothing. Our only option was to take the educational opportunities and resources we had prepared for Charlotte and make them available online. IWCE Virtual was born so we could still offer something meaningful to our industry. It was both exciting and frightening to venture into this new realm of technology. Virtual shows were growing but certainly not the norm in how business was conducted—until now. There were many unknowns that surfaced as we went through the process of setting up the show.

A big thanks to our wonderful panel of experts who presented relevant information in our seminar

lineup: LuAnn Nigara, Madeleine MacRae, Nicole Heymer, Darla Powell, O’D McKewan, Michele Williams, Sara Lynn Brennan, Sandra VanSickle, Ann Johnson, Cathy Tucker, Melissa Galt, Welton Hong, Roger Magalhaes and JoAnne Lenart-Weary. You were so fantastic! Thank you to our cutting-edge exhibitors for your support and promotion. And thank you to everyone who attended and embraced a new way to connect and learn. You were all pioneers and I’m proud of our industry for its resilience, enthusiasm and support.

This summer, we also recognized our first class of Window Fashion VISION 20 Under 40 Awards winners. This program is our way to recognize the up-and-coming talent that will take our industry into the future. We want to encourage the next generation to learn all of the benefits of making custom window coverings a cornerstone of their design businesses. Please congratulate our first winners on page 36.

As we look to what’s next, I hope you enjoy this issue. Our wonderful VISION Workroom Competition winners are featured. We have a beautiful how-to project for you to try and information about wood window products, a very popular category with consumers right now.

Stay safe and keep in touch! We’re here for you, so let us know how we can continue to help you.

Grace McNamara Publisher grace@wf-vision.com