WithIt Announces WOW Award Nominees
Furniture World News Desk on
2/3/2016
Women in the Home and Furnishings Industry Today (WithIt), an organization dedicated to the development of professional women, announces the nominees for their annual WOW awards.
The annual awards recognize business leaders nominated by their peers who have contributed to the success of the home furnishings industries and have demonstrated significant impact on their companies, the industry, or both. WithIt has presented the honors since 1999.
Connie Post of Affordable Design Solutions by Connie Post will be honored with the organizations’ Legacy Award. Post’s lifetime of contributions to the industry and her leadership among women for more than 35 years embody the qualities of this category, the highest award bestowed by WithIt.
Post is most well-known for her extensive work with retail design, re-branding and re-merchandising. Her work produces exemplary sales growth for retailers and has made her the go-to person for retail design in the home furnishings industry. Post is also an author, television personality and highly sought after key-note speaker. Off stage, Post focuses her efforts on mentoring young professionals and volunteering for organizations including WithIt, City of Hope and ADL.
In addition to honoring Post, WithIt will present WOW Awards in four additional categories: Education, Mentoring, Leadership and Future Leader.
The Education Award recognizes an individual who has put forth significant effort to educate associates, retailers and consumers about home furnishings. This year’s nominees are Patricia Bowling of American Home Furnishings Alliance, Susan Lorenz of Kravet Furniture and Christi Tasker of PuTTin’OuT.
The Mentoring Award honors a company or individual for their efforts to foster advocacy, development and promotion of women in their company and the industry. Mentoring Award nominees are Lisa Ferguson of Décor Mentor, Leslie Carothers of The Kaleidoscope Partnership and Renee Loper-Boyd of International Market Centers.
WithIt created the Leadership Award to recognize the contributions of a woman over age 40 who has demonstrated successful leadership in her company, WithIt and the home furnishings industry. Leadership Award nominees are Irene Crowell of Ashley Furniture Industries, Katherine Juckett of Telescope Casual Furniture and Marilyn Durning of STORIS Inc.
The Future Leader Award honors a woman in the industry younger than 40 who has demonstrated outstanding achievement and the potential to become an industry leader. 2016 nominees for this award are Emily Martin of Lexington Home Brands, Stephanie Lena of Somerton Dwelling and Marissa Kashani of Louis Shanks of Texas.
The WOW awards dinner will be held Friday, April 15, 2016, at 6:30 p.m. in the IHFC International Ballroom. Tickets can be purchased at www.withit.org. Individual tickets are $150; a table of 10 is $1,500.
Emceeing the event is designer, author and makeover television personality Libby Langdon. Langdon is a longtime WithIt member and former board member who carries her own licensed collections with Braxton Culler, Crystorama, Tiger Rugs, Casart Coverings and Bradburn Gallery.
The design and décor for the evening is being developed by Gary Inman, Vice President of Hospitality for Baskervill, a top 20 hospitality design firm based in Richmond, Virginia.
More about WithIt: WithIt was formed in 1997 for women in the home and furnishings industries in order to support their multi-dimensional career paths. The not-for-profit network is based in North Carolina and supported by leading companies across the industry. WithIt’s purpose is to encourage and develop leadership, mentoring, education and networking opportunities for professional women in the home and furnishings industries. The WOW Awards are produced by WithIt in partnership with International Market Centers (IMC) and is sponsored by leading industry brands.