Editorial

A Good Year Past, A Better One Ahead

by Howard Shingle,
Carolyn Silberman

To maintain a leading position an industry must stay on top of and ahead of business developments that will impact the success of its members. Sometimes events are immediate and critical, sometimes they are long-range and visionary. This past year the industry was faced with a potentially devastating safety issue involving the inner lift cords on horizontal blinds. It could have been devastating to the industry in terms of a product recall, repair, re-design and loss of consumer confidence, but more importantly it could have been devastating to the families and children—our dearest customers—who purchase and use these products with the full trust that the manufacturers, fabricators and retailers stand behind them. The solution to the lift cord hazard is simple and so effective. The industry moved—virtually en masse—to solve the problem and to eliminate it. When the news officially broke to the public in early November, thousands of new horizontal blinds already had cord stop devices installed in them and free retro-fit kits were available with instructions on how to make existing products safe. Over the course of several months, the window coverings industry had acquired an image of consumer safety advocate through a concerted, pro-active position. For full details, see our Safety Supplement, "Safety First," beginning on page 51. Meanwhile, there are plenty of complainers out there who insist on saying there's never anything new in the industry, it's just the same companies doing the same things year after year. Those people are wrong. This spring, April 26 to 28, Draperies & Window Coverings presents A Whole New World, an educational conference for technology, interior fashion, opportunity and marketing. This conference addresses both the immediate and long-range plans of individuals and companies in the window coverings industry. D&WC's well-known top industry speakers and columnists along with many added experts will present new seminars and programs to take our industry to the next level. To get an idea of where this conference begins check out pages 11 through 14 for speaker information and seminar topics. But what's there is only half the story. Next month we will present our new faculty of technical speakers with a new range of topics for building business success into the future. It's an event you won't want to miss.

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