Sarasota, Fla.—Broadlume, the parent company of FloorForce, Creating Your Space and Bridgeway Interactive, has announced former professional football coach and an American auto racing team owner, Joe Gibbs, as its keynote speaker at FloorCon 2021. The event will be held Nov. 17–18 here at the Hyatt Regency.
Gibbs was head coach of the Washington Football Team of the National Football League (NFL). During his first stint with the Washington Football Team, he led them to eight playoff appearances, four NFC Championship titles and three Super Bowl victories over 12 seasons. Gibbs, who is the only head coach to have won Super Bowls with three different starting quarterbacks, is widely regarded as one of the greatest coaches in NFL history.
After retiring at the end of the 1992 season, Gibbs switched focus to NASCAR, forming the team Joe Gibbs Racing, which has since won five NASCAR Cup Series championships. Gibbs was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1996 and was named to the NFL 100 All-Time Team. Gibbs was also inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2020. In fact, Gibbs is the only person to have won a Super Bowl and a NASCAR Cup Series Championship, and he is also the only person inducted into both Halls of Fame.
John Weller, chief innovation officer at Broadlume, said there are both business and life lessons to be learned from Gibbs. “He has been successful both on and off the field, and he can offer an inspiring message to attendees,” he said.
A well-rounded program
FloorCon 2021 is the first in-person event that Broadlume, the flooring industry’s largest provider of technology that helps flooring retailers navigate the digital landscape, will host. The event will feature education, hands-on training and thought leadership crafted to help flooring retailers embrace technology and position themselves to succeed in an increasingly digital world.
“This is designed to be a truly retailer-centric show,” said Jeff Bieber, vice president of marketing. “Dealers will leave Sarasota with a competitive advantage and the playbook to immediately grow their business in 2021 and beyond.”
The in-person conference, which follows on the success of FloorCon 2020—which was held virtually last year—is being positioned as a celebration of the independent flooring dealer amid dramatic change in the retail industry.
“At FloorCon we will unveil an all-in-one platform built to change the way consumers shop and buy floor covering, the way manufacturers feature their products and differentiate their products and how retailers can provide an elevated consumer experience that separates them from their competition,” Weller noted. “All of those things, collectively, will be showcased at FloorCon.”
A key focal point of FloorCon 2021 will be a strong emphasis on helping floor covering retailers further embrace digital marketing strategies, especially as it relates to interacting with consumers early on in the flooring research phase as they shop online for floor covering. While this phenomenon is certainly not new, the trend has accelerated as a result of shifting consumer habits in a COVID-19 environment.
The ability of the average floor covering retailer to evolve during these challenging times and changing retail climate will be key to their success now and in the future. FloorForce, with its thorough understanding of these overarching market trends, says it is uniquely positioned to help floor covering retailers navigate these waters. “We are a company that’s really thinking about this all the time,” Weller explained. “We constantly strive to share tidbits of information as much as we can.”
To that end, a big part of the FloorCon 2021 educational program will entail providing retailers with the necessary tools and knowledge to make sure they approach prospects with the right messaging for the current times. As Weller explained: “The biggest issue pre-COVID-19 was, ‘Hey, everything is moving to digital.’ When the pandemic hit, we were all sitting in our houses, locked down, and the dealers were like, ‘We can’t shut down our business. How can we help these consumers have an experience in shopping for flooring that’s similar to being in a store without coming in the stores?’”
But as the world begins to turn the corner on the pandemic, flooring retailers face the prospect of consumers moving more of their disposable dollars to things like dining out, vacations and leisure, for example. Coupled with all the shipping and logistical challenges on top of the labor shortage the industry at large is facing, that presents a whole different set of issues for the flooring dealer. All this requires dealers to become more nimble, not only in terms of messaging but also how they work on a day-to-day basis.
FloorCon 2021 promises to help attendees find solutions to pressing issues and more through a robust and relevant offering of educational sessions, information sharing and networking opportunities. Show organizers said they also plan to unveil exciting ways to engage the consumer in-store while further simplifying the online shopping process.
To learn more about the conference, keynotes and other speakers, educational sessions and how to register, visit here.
