As the excitement of last week continues to push us through to the end of the year, let’s take a quick look back over the few days of BDNY 2022, including the kickoff party on Saturday. This year certainly was one that had a return to the energy of years prior, with attendance close to 17,000 people on Sunday.
ISHP and the BDNY Kickoff Party
The event starts off strong with a big welcome to New York on Saturday with the ISHP Fundraiser followed by the BDNY Kick-off party. The International Society of Hospitality Purchasers (ISHP) is dedicated to a high standard. This year the focus of the fundraiser was to support the AHLA Foundation program to help the fight to end trafficking in the hospitality industry. As part of that event, Leo Novik of Fil Doux Textiles was awarded the ISHP Vendor Quality Award. Directly following the ISHP Fundraiser, we now move into the BDNY Kickoff party, and the official start of the event!
Day 1 – A Strong Return
The first day of BDNY 2022 starts off strong, and the energy is pure electric. According to the numbers we heard, there were 6,000 exhibitors and 11,000 visitors, for a total of approximately 17,000 people in attendance! It’s safe to say that this year the event returned in full force. Everyone from vendor to hotel owner was thrilled to be back and together in one space, bringing about the close of the year. Each person we spoke with was acknowledging of current issues, but still optimistic about the future of the industry and where we’re heading in the coming years.
During the BD Briefing: Ask the Clients panel, the panelists discussed many things including the industry’s ability to embrace technology and adapt. Regardless of what the future of digital space holds in for us in terms of the Metaverse and virtual reality, the design industry has been working in the digital space for years to create designs. We’ve been testing those limits as technology has progressed, and if that is a direction where the world is heading, our industry will be ready to leap sooner than others. More to come on this specific panel in a future article.
Sunday night is full of separate evening events, dinners, and parties. We hosted our own party alongside some incredible sponsors at Peak Restaurant and the Edge at Hudson Yards. More details about that and some images can be found on our social media sites recently and in the next few days.
Day 2 – The Excitement Continues
On Monday, we all gathered once again for a second day and final day of the conference. There are many more panels in addition to the ones featured on Sunday night. Some of the key topics discussed all weekend were regarding sustainability, designing specific spaces, a few current issues including supply chain and labor, as well as some future outlooks.
In years past, Monday has typically been a slower day, with a noticeable drop in attendance in the afternoon. This year, however, we noticed that there wasn’t really a drop until close to the show ending. A few vendors and exhibitors that we spoke too expressed the same thought.
Final Thoughts on the Conference
BDNY is one of the biggest shows of the year that encompasses the entirety of the industry, not just a specific portion of it. It also happens towards the end of the year and is, for a lot of people, their marker for the beginning of when the focus on the current year comes to a close but before the next year truly begins. This year, the show floor was lively, each panel discussion had a full crowd, the exhibitors were all excited and mentioned how busy their booth had been, and everyone seems optimistic for the future. We’ve definitely weathered a few big storms over the last few years, and while there are still some hurdles remaining, and will always be some difficulties, there is no doubt that we will make it through together.
If you made it to BDNY 2022, what were your thoughts? How did this year compare to previous years?
