By Moe Lastfogel
Director of Sales and Marketing for The Retail Observer

Wow, here we go again. Shows, shows and more shows. The next three shows are
a great way to start off the New Year. CES, Las Vegas Winter Market and Design
& Construction Week. The introduction of new products and the networking
available over the next 5 weeks will be amazing and I for one can’t wait.
CES takes place January 7-10 with a multitude of events both before and during that are
going to keep us in a whirlwind. With press events starting on the 5th and going through the
7th and then 3 full days of trying to take in the entire show, it will be a challenge to catch it all.
I personally am looking forward to all of the new connectivity products that are hitting the
market and seeing how manufacturers have progressed with glasses-less 3D TV. I know my
feet will be tired.
January 26-30 will be another exciting Las Vegas Winter Market. This year nearly 1.1 million
square feet of new and expanded showrooms spanning furniture, home decor and gifts has
been added. Over 1,200 new and expanded exhibitors and thousands of new product
introductions. For this show, I will definitely need walking shoes.
The Design & Construction Week with the International Builders’ Show (IBS) and the
Kitchen & Bath Industry Show (KBIS) co-locating will also take place in Las Vegas February
4-6, along with the International Window Coverings Expo. I thought I’d share with you a list of
the manufacturers in the appliance category that are showing:
Air King, Brew Express, Broan-Nutone, Electrolux, BSH Home Appliances, Dacor, Falmec,
Fhiaba, Fulgor Milano, Kalamazoo Outdoor Gourmet, Liebherr, Napoleon Fireplaces & Grills,
Rangecraft Manufacturing Co., Scotsman Ice Systems, Summit/Danver, True Professional,
Vent- A- Hood, Viking Range, and Vinotemp.
Just to name a few! Of course, this list will be old by the time the show rolls around. Expect
to find even more manufacturers; some you may know as well as a few you don’t, will be onsite
or at offsite locations which seem to be happening more at many shows. With these three
events merged here in Las Vegas, we can now see and talk with exhibitors from every part of
the industry during the same week. Thank goodness I’ve decided to buy new shoes!
I look forward to reporting on these events in the upcoming months and showing you all of
the new products and innovations that The Retail Observer is on the lookout for! Just remember
that the best way to see what’s being offered is to be there yourself and if you’re at a show and
see me, please stop to chat and tell me what you think.

Eliana Barriga
Publisher and Managing Editor for The Retail Observer

For years, I was one of those people who started my new year with new business goals.
And like “those” people, I found myself in April back to the drawing board to layout new
plans that were more realistic and attainable. However, deep inside, I knew that the goals
I originally set out for myself could have been reached if I just stuck to my original plan. That’s
when I began to reflect on why so many “other” people seem to soar on the wings of their
aspirations while others stay grounded frantically flapping and getting seemingly nowhere.
According to David Allen, author of Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity,
most of us have anywhere from 30 – 100 projects on our to-do list at any one given time. YIKES!
Makes sense why so many of us struggle with prioritizing our lists. But he argues that even if we
were given more time, most of us wouldn’t accomplish more than we are right now and would
only fill the extra time with feeling more overwhelmed and anxious.
Let’s get real, when it comes down to it, we all have the same amount of time each day. To be
exact, 24 hours, 1,440 minutes and 86,440 seconds. All the great minds in history had the same
amount of time too – from Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein to Leonardo da Vinci – and they were
able to accomplish wondrous achievements with limited technology and some with the added
responsibility of raising 10 or more children. So, time is clearly not the issue!
We can only reach a level Allen calls “sophisticated spontaneity” when we stop keeping
things in our heads and begin systematically choosing what to focus on and how to spend our
time. I found that getting everything out of my head and into a workable system so that my mind
and time are free to focus on the task at hand has taken me a lot farther than previously
misguided New Year’s resolution lists.
Whatever way you choose to free your mind to make the most of your time this year, I recommend
that you forget your resolutions, if you truly want to go from proficient to productive!