BIID Awards Sponsor: Design Central Q&A

Established in 2016 by Cath McCubbin, herself an interior designer, Design Central was conceived after a conversation with a regional trade representative, who, when meeting with Cath at March Design Week in Chelsea Harbour, told her she was the only person from “the North” he had seen in three days.

Her reply was that the industry needed to do more regional events and his company challenged her to organise one. If she organised it, they would come… the very first Design Central was held six months later.

PLEASE TELL US ABOUT DESIGN CENTRAL AND WHAT’S COMING UP AT YOUR NEXT EVENT?

Design Central are now the largest regional interior trade event organiser in England, covering The North West, South West, and Essex. A professional and well-respected business within the industry, we offer our exhibitors attractive venues in which to display their collections and our visitors an easily reachable and cost-effective way to see many suppliers under one roof.

It is their philosophy that Trade events like these should have a great selection of exhibitors, be inspiring, educational, free to attend and Regional!

Our next event is 26th and 27th September at Capesthorne Hall in Cheshire, then March 2024 at Coombe Lodge, near Bristol and April 2024 at Down Hall in Essex.  With over forty-five exhibitors and seventy different brands available to catch up with in September, our visitors will be busy! We are excited to be working with the BIID in Making Design Regional! Look out for Daisy from the BIID at our September event.

CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT SOME HIGHLIGHTS TO LOOK FORWARD TO?

We are delighted to have Mind the Gap, Bella Figura and The Sculpts with us this year. The Sculpts have supplied tiles to the Manchester Museum project that is currently on the BIID Interior Design Awards shortlist.

 “Talk Space” is back at Capesthorne Hall and featuring the Interior Design Business Podcast with Jeff Hayward and Susi Rumbold. The panel discussion for this event “Is Interior Design too London Centric?” will I am sure have a great audience and participation in the following Q&A.

I personally am also looking forward to a talk by Frank Holmes, a specialist decorator who has one of the largest collections of Lincrusta panels. He will be giving an insight into his work on preserving and installation.

Our Design Central App is something we are very excited about this year, and it will enable our visitors to have the full exhibitor list, floor plan, event registration for future shows’ Directions and maps to venue, 'Memories' - for guests to take photos at the show, 'Favourites' - guests can bookmark exhibitors they want to visit or reference post show, and live stream event videos.

The Design Central event/resource guide will still be available as many designers like to use these to show clients images or as an office resource guide.

WHAT ARE YOU MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO ABOUT THE BIID AWARD CEREMONY?

Attending!! Unfortunately, last year I contacted COVID days before and missed out on a great event, as everyone informed me…

We are very excited about the ceremony, the fact that we are a sponsor, the fabulous venue and of course meeting the finalists and seeing their projects.

Find out more and book tickets for Design Central now.