About 150 architects and designers visited our New York City showroom on July 21 for First LOOK, an annual event for the contract furniture suppliers making up a couple floors of the New York Design Center.

It's always a pleasure to attend these events, share our latest and hear what interests architects.

This year we had a lot to showcase. The showroom got a whole new look with new flooring. We added a gorgeous sign to our space created right here in our factory. We brought in new large scale prints of concept illustrations and photos. We shared copies of our new Arbor and Overview brochures (available in digital form on our website). And we shared lots of new samples, including a porcelain we are now offering as a tabletop surface.

The porcelain certainly generated discussions as did some of our other samples and our images and brochures, but best of all was really getting to show our products.

We talk about our Arbor and Summit table lines a lot in this newsletter. The Arbor is multipurpose room table with legs that remove so tabletops, legs, fixture boxes and more can be stored in incredibly compact upright carts. The Summit is a high-quality conference table with a top that tilts and casters that extend so it can be moved around into new configurations, through doorways and into elevators, and nested and stored.

But it isn't really until architects and clients get their hands on the Arbor and Summit that they truly can appreciate the uniqueness, quality and diversity of these products. Having people come to the showroom where we have both the Arbor and the Summit provides that opportunity to see and use the tables and, wow, were people impressed.

We also have a second, new, hands-on feature at the showroom. We created prototypes of our new, revolutionary Covert Glide and apron power systems. The Covert Glide is a brand new WallGoldfinger design that involves a small power and data box under a table. It pulls out, you plug in, let it go and it retracts back out of sight under the table. It's perfect for a table with a thin edge. The apron power option we're showing has a retractable lid to hide the power box when not in use, allowing your table a seamless look.

I thank all who came out to see these new technologies, our products and our newest samples and marketing materials. If you were unable to make it and are in or near New York, I encourage you to visit the showroom. It gives not only a glimpse into what we do, but that hands-on approach that is so valuable when choosing your next office furniture.

If you're not in the area, I encourage you to visit our website. One architect who came from as far away as Texas to see our showroom called our website "inspirational." We've worked hard to add lots of images to the site that show our past clients' creativity. As this architect observed, if you're looking for a little inspiration for your own furniture design, our website is a great place to start.

Sincerely,