The leading Asia-Pacific region flooring exhibition reaches local and international clients and industry professionals through onsite and virtual digital opportunities. DOMOTEX predicts the events’ reach will exceed the 83,000 unique visitor count recorded for the 2020 inaugural hybrid event.
Booth tours, product presentations, conference webcasts and the third Global Flooring Festival with its ‘match-making’ zone to link buyers with brands join the 6th Flooring Without Borders (FWB), a virtual reality space which presents brands that cannot be present IRL due to travel restrictions. FWB is the first platform in the industry that combines onsite and online brand representation to connect buyers and brands in a professional yet effortless and engaging way that encourages sales. The event’s digital presence is the second iteration of Global Flooring Connect, an online platform to experience trends in flooring, rugs and carpets.
A new event for 2021 is Mystery Box—VR+ Interior Design Gallery where five ‘up and coming’ Chinese interior designers are given a ‘mystery’ box of flooring samples provided by international brands. The designers have a limited amount of time to integrate their flooring materials into virtual space designs that range from residential to retail. Visitors can immerse themselves in the spaces with VR glasses.
DOMOTEX asia/CHINAFLOOR continues to place an emphasis on developing new audiences, a strategy that aligns with the growth of the Chinese public’s interest in interior design. The welcome knock-on effect for the handmade rug and carpet industry is an increased interest in luxury contemporary rug design by international brands and designers, and those designed and made in China by luxury Chinese brands like Hanrad International Limited (see ‘Drawing inspiration’, COVER 58).
Past editions of DOMOTEX asia/CHINAFLOOR have included Treasures of the Orient to engage Chinese interest in antique rugs, the Chinese Original Carpet Design Show that recognises the Chinese public’s interest in ‘designed and made in China’ as opposed to ‘made in China’, and COVER magazine’s Luxury Brands carpet show in association with the DOMOTEX asia/CHINAFLOOR team that presented a highly curated range of international premium rug brands to the Chinese market. Continued recognition of this national growth in interest in luxury rugs is the foundation for the theme of this year’s 6th World Flooring Forum & 24th China Flooring Industry Summit conference: ‘Cultivating New Industry and Empowering New Growth’.
