Nominations Due April 22 for Retailer Excellence Awards
Nominations for the NYIGF-sponsored Retailer Excellence Awards (REAs) are being accepted through Friday, April 22, with 2011 Award winners scheduled to be announced in New York City, on Sunday, August 14, 6:30 -10:00PM, at The Lighthouse at Chelsea Piers. Applications and nomination forms are available online at www.nyigf.com.
Presented by Gifts & Decorative Accessories magazine, and sponsored by the New York International Gift Fair® (NYIGF®), the REAs recognize excellence in four retail categories including Gift Store Design/Redesign; Marketing Achievement; Visual Merchandising/Display; and Store Events, as well as for individual achievement (Rep of the Year and Industry Rising Star). As part of this very special evening, Gift For Life, the gift and home industry’s only charitable organization, also bestows its prestigious annual “Industry Achievement” Award.
Launched in 1951, the Retailer Excellence Awards today are the gift and home industry’s oldest and most prestigious awards. “This is a special evening when we recognize innovative retailers for their hard work, great ideas and dedication,” said Dorothy Belshaw, NYIGF director and GLM senior vice president. “NYIGF is proud to sponsor the Awards and to recognize innovation and inspiration from within our industry.”
Retailers who won awards in 2010 are: bluecashew Kitchen Pharmacy,Rhinebeck, NY; Poppy, Columbia, MO; Leon & Lulu, Clawson, MI; Swagger Gifts, Cary, NC; Jenss Decor, Amherst, NY; and Taigan.com, Brentwood, TN. Rep of the Year honors went to Julia Elliman of Goetz Incorporated; and Lindsay Phillips of Lindsay Phillips Inc. was recognized as Industry Rising Star.
Retail category applications and nominations forms can be submitted by retailers or by manufacturers’ representatives; nominations for “Rep of the Year” can be submitted by retailers only; and nominations for “Rising Star” are limited to individuals or companies who have made their mark in four years of business or less.
NYIGF runs Saturday, August 13, through Thursday, August 18, 2011, at the Javits Center and Passenger Ship Terminal Piers 92 and 94 in New York City. NYIGF is the nation’s premier gift, home and lifestyle marketplace, with 2,800+ exhibiting companies featuring an extraordinary breadth and depth of design-driven home fashion products and complementary giftware. Some 35,000 attendees from all 50 states and more than 85 countries worldwide are expected. Information and registration is available online atwww.nyigf.com.