Surfaces '09 General Session: Flooring Industry Wake-Up Call!

Exciting news for those of you in the flooring business. In fact, if you're sitting on the fence, this is reason enough to take a stand and attend Surfaces...

Here's the scoop.

Surfaces has organized a General Session Panel Discussion to discuss the issues we face in the floor covering industry. These are mighty tough times. Having a conversation about it can only help floor covering professionals figure out how best to weather the most volatile economy the nation has faced in decades.

This session is such a big deal that Surfaces is delaying the start of the show so no other official events conflict.

It's titled “Prevailing Through the Current Crisis – An Industry Wake-Up Call.” Panelists include:

+ Ralph Boe, President and CEO, Beaulieu of America;

+ Tom Davis, President and CEO, Mannington Mills;

+ Tom Lape, President, Mohawk Residential;

+ Randy Merritt, President, Shaw Industries and

+ Frank J. Ready, Executive Vice President, Armstrong World Industries and CEO, Armstrong North American Floor Products.

This is such a big deal that Surfaces has identified a top notch pro to moderate the discussion. Gerri Willis - anchor of CNN’s weekend business program, “Open House” and personal finance editor for CNN Business News, the division of CNN Worldwide that produces business news for CNN/U.S., CNN International, Headline News, CNN Airport Network, CNNRadio and the website CNN/Money.com - will be doing the honors. She will ask questions, probe, invite the audience to participate and generally help make this an event unlike any other that you've attended.

I'm looking forward to hearing and participating in this live and relevant discussion about our marketplace. I hope you are, too, and have it down on your calendars.

The General Session takes place on Tuesday, February 3 from 8:30am – 10:00am.

Note that session is free if you register now through November 17. After that date, it will cost $25. So, be sure to register now as space is limited and this session will sell out. [SURFACES takes place February 3 -5, 2009 (Tuesday – Thursday) at the Sands Expo & Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.]

Two friends, Jim Gould, President of The Floor Covering Institute, and Chris Ramey, President of Affluent Insights, are sponsoring this session. Proceeds will benefit the Floor Covering Industry Foundation.

You can read the full Surfaces press release about the General Session here.

Better start preparing your questions. This is going to be a fascinating ride.

Technorati Tags: Surfaces 2009 Surfaces General Session Flooring Industry Wake-Up Call Affluent Insights Floor Covering Institute FCIF Del.icio.us Tags: Surfaces 2009 Surfaces General Session Flooring Industry Wake-Up Call Affluent Insights Floor Covering Institute FCIF

MarketingProfs Digital Mixer: Here I Come!

Time is flying! I thought I had at least another week before the MarketingProfs Digital Mixer. Nonetheless, here I come.  I'm ready. Ready to learn about SEO, social media and innovative marketing. Ready to improve.  Ready to mingle with some of the best minds around...

Imagine, Mack Collier may do me the honor of reviewing Flooring The Consumer [oh, I hope he's gentle!]. I finally get to meet Becky Carroll, and I can't wait to hear Rohit Bhargava, be inspired by Gary Vaynerchuck and many others!

[For more on what I'm looking forward to, read Ann Handley: Who's Going to Scottsdale? Christine Whittemore.]

Speaking of the best minds around, I'm about a month late sharing details about the NYC September meetup coinciding with Arun Rajagopal's layover on the way back to Oman from San Antonio... 

Present [as you can see in the photo above] were CK, John Rosen, Chris Kieff, Kristen Gorski, David Reich and me. I hadn't seen Kristen since Blogger Social and really enjoyed talking with her. John Rosen is fun to discuss politics with.  Congrats, Chris Kieff on your new position.

More timely accounts of the evening appeared in A stop on the way home and Stopwatch Marketing is a Bestseller in India!

I'm also thrilled that I had a chance to meet up with Toby Bloomberg during my September trip to Atlanta. The gracious Diva made time despite having just flown in just a few hours earlier, and taking off again to BlogWorld a few days later. [Do read her account of happenings at BlogWorld.] Thank you, Toby!

MarketingProfs Digital Mixer: I'm ready.  Here I come!

Technorati Tags: MarketingProfs Digital Mixer social media Del.icio.us Tags: MarketingProfs Digital Mixer social media

Upcoming Underground Potters 2008 Pottery Show & Sale

It's that time! If you're in the New York City area, the Underground Potters are exhibiting again at:

The Art School at Old Church located at 561 Piermont Road, in Demarest, NJ, 07627.

The exhibit starts October 24 and lasts until November 14, 2008 in the Art School Cafe Gallery.

[In the neighboring Mikhail Zakin Gallery, you can also experience the Wearable Art Exhibit.]

Join the Underground Potters at their reception on Saturday, October 25 from 2pm to 4pm. It's a great opportunity to meet them and ask them questions about their work. There's also a really good chance that you'll get to speak to Mikhail Zakin...

The Underground Potters include:

Susan Bogen-Zarrabi

Alan Drossman

Itsuko Ishiguro

Ellen Mulligan

Sandy Pancrazi

Cynthia Shevelew

Ted Whittemore

I'm also happy to announce that The Underground Potters have launched their own blog. It's worth a visit to learn more about them and their pottery.

By the way, in addition to meeting the potters, you can also buy beautiful pottery! Their work is quite varied, so there's sure to be something for all sensibilities.

[Note: The Art School is closed on Sundays.]

Related Post: Underground Potters 2007 Show and Sale

Disclosure: My husband is an Underground Potter.

Technorati Tags: Art School at Old Church pottery demarest NJ Underground Potters pottery show NJ Del.icio.us Tags: Art School at Old Church pottery demarest NJ Underground Potters pottery show NJ

Blog Action Day - Poverty

Today - 10/15/2008 - is Blog Action Day. Last year, it was about the Environment. This year, it's about Poverty. Bloggers, podcasters and videocasters around the world have decided to address today the same topic - Poverty - to raise awareness and trigger a discussion. Blog Action Day is a global phenomenon. By reading this post, you, too, take part.

You might even take additional action based on what you read in this blogpost, helping make this world that much more beautiful a place for all of us.

So far, 9,512 sites, with 10,647,218 readers, have registered, including The Carpetology Blog, and started posting. And, IBNMA - the International Blogging and New Media Association [of which I am a member] - is an actively participating sponsor.

I am particularly excited about this Blog Action Day 2008.

Thanks to my sister, Nathalie Bergin Sullivan, who is Director of Alumnae and Parent Relations for the high school she and I both attended, Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School in Washington, DC, I want you to 'meet' a truly wonderful alumna of the school who is making a world of difference to fight poverty and homelessness in a place called St. Bernard Parish in New Orleans, LA.

Her name is Liz McCartney; she graduated in 1990, and she has been named a CNN Hero for being an "everyday person changing the world." Just last week, she became one of the top 10 CNN Heroes for 2008. Her work embodies the values of the Sisters of the Visitation and has inspired many to take part in her mission. Will you help her become the winning 2008 CNN Hero?

Here's her amazing story. Needless to say, it has affected many students at Georgetown Visitation:

Imagine moving from a comfortable life in the Washington, DC area to New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and dedicating yourself to helping Katrina survivors move back into their homes. That's what Liz did.

Kind of humbling to think about, isn't it?

She formed a nonprofit organization called the St. Bernard Project to rebuild their homes for free. She depends heavily on volunteers to get the work done with her.

My sister writes: "Over the past two years the St. Bernard Project has helped over 150 families rebuild homes that were devastated by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. This vital rebuilding work was completed with help from over 7,000 volunteers from across the country and around the world. Visitation has sent several groups of student, staff and parent volunteers over the last 18 months. I would love to plan a trip down there with Alumnae volunteers and have discussed plans with our Alumnae Chapter in the New York City area (with over 300 Visitation Alums) to coordinate a service trip with them down to New Orleans next spring."

If you go to the St. Bernard Project website, you'll encounter a plea for help: "We need your help to move even more St. Bernard families’ home for the holidays! Our volunteer calendar has plenty of space starting the week of October 27 through December 19.

Please consider planning your trip to da Parish this fall as we try to complete as many rebuild projects as we can in time for these residents to celebrate in their own homes. Click here to schedule your volunteer group!"

My sister mentions how students, staff and parents from the Georgetown Visitation community have gotten involved. As an alumna, it's inspiring to witness how the younger generations have gotten involved in bypassing bureaucracy and inefficiency to lend hand and spirit to help those who need it most.

The photo here captures Liz [kneeling, 2nd from the right] this past July in New Orleans with the members of a Georgetown Visitation July summer service trip with Director of Christian Service Kathleen Looney and Athletic Trainers Amy DeVere and Eboné Gaskins with eleven soon-to-be seniors. They volunteered with Liz to rebuild homes. For six days, from early morning to late afternoon, they installed dry wall and insulation or painted.

Despite the work being hot, messy and exhausting, it was also per one of the Visitation volunteers “one of the most interesting and gratifying experiences” she had ever had. The students got to meet the men and women whose houses they rebuilt, people who were living in FEMA trailers since Hurricane Katrina flooded the city in August 2005.

In the Fall of 2007, Coach Karen Zarchin took her hockey team to New Orleans for a 3-day service trip. As much as she and the team prepared themselves for what to expect, she said that “the devastation over two years later was awful.” However, the experience shaped her team as individuals and as Visitation women living out the Little Virtues. "Like the Visitation Founders, this group of young women journeyed with open minds and hearts full of kindness; gentleness; and thoughtful concern for others, ready to help no matter what," described the Alumnae Notes.

They encountered families that reminded them of their own. Children with similar interests and goals for the future. Not too dissimilar from the Visitation students' own lives, except that theirs had been ripped apart by Katrina. They and their families needed help putting the pieces back together.

According to Liz McCartney, asking for help is often very difficult for the families of St. Bernard. “They never asked for handouts,” Zarchin says, but they knew that they could not pack up and leave, nor could they rebuild on their own.

In honor of Blog Action Day, I encourage you to make a difference right now by casting your vote for Liz McCartney and the St. Bernard Project so she can rebuild more houses in St. Bernard Parish, New Orleans. If you'd prefer to volunteer or donate to the St. Bernard Project, I'm sure she would welcome that, too!

BTW, the Sisters of Visitation include a blogger, Sister Anne Elizabeth, who is also participating in Blog Action Day via her blog Live + Jesus! Do read her post about Spiritual Poverty.

Thank you for reading and participating with me in Blog Action Day 2008: Poverty.

------------------



-------------------
Technorati Tags: Liz McCartney St. Bernard Project Visitation Georgetown Visitation Blog Action Day Poverty social media Del.icio.us Tags: Liz McCartney St. Bernard Project Visitation Georgetown Visitation Blog Action Day Poverty social media

Creating Value or Spinning For Energy

MarketingProfs offered a fascinating webinar last Friday 10/10/08 titled Marketing in an Economic Meltdown that examined from multiple perspectives how best to create value during rough times. It was moderated by Michael Goodman and included wisdom from:

+ Gail Z. Martin discussing why "free PR" is more important now than ever before...

+ Jay Hamilton-Roth asking can you take the crisis and turn it into gold?

+ Joy Levin promoting market research on a slim-to-none budget...

+ Frank Hurtte explaining how best to present your value when the stakes are high, and

+ Ruth Stevens describing how to cut the budget: 5 rock-bottom cheap marketing tactics that work.

I anticipate having to listen to the recorded session again as several messages resonated, all of them having to do with value.

Frank Hurtte's comments were particularly provocative and had me rethinking the other presenters' messages. He asked "What value do you provide customers?" With economic changes come behavior changes. Given today's economic environment, it means you have to explain how your product decreases risk.

The lesson of value [this reminds me of Chip and Dan Heath's "Curse of Knowledge" from Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die] is to not assume that customers understand your value. You may offer technical features, great service, improved image and fast delivery -- but how does all of that translate into value for your customer? How does it increase revenue, decrease costs, reduce risk or better use assets?

When times are tough, people go back to evaluating everything based on the most basic currency. Here money. Therefore, we must translate our value into that same currency, creating a formula that makes sense for individual customers.

It comes down to presenting value and constantly reminding customers "here's what we've done for you lately and here's how we plan to drive new value for you."

Apply that to Gail Martin's comments relating to marketing communications and public relations. Gail talked about extending value - showing how to use products for other benefits [e.g., think of all of the uses for humble Baking Soda and how recipes demonstrate how to combine several products for something greater than the sum of the parts] or enhancing value with seminars, articles, and press releases or through vertical partnerships. Can you proactively suggest solutions?

Jay Hamilton-Roth's comments further supported Hurtte's comments about how to present value. He referred to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, whereby unless lower needs are met, people can't focus on higher ones. Times of crisis are -by definition- emotionally unstable times. We fear for our safety. Consequently, marketing must create value by addressing the need for safety and decreased risk. He recommends focusing on needs rather than wants; on small rather than big luxuries; reframing in terms of lower hierarchy levels; dividing and conquering and measuring.

I'm still working through the notion of value and how best to communicate it in terms relevant to my customers. The challenge is that there is no longer a 'one size fits all' solution. It will vary.

However, these two stories had me rethinking assumptions:

+ Today's issue of Around the Net in brand marketing by Thom Forbes comments on a Bill Moyers interview with George Soros about the source of all of our economic woes. Soros suggests that the solution to our excessive consumerism lies in creating value around redefining energy...

+ That came on the heels of a morning TV news story about something I've wondered about when I see the rows upon rows of treadmills in action at the gym: converting all of that effort into energy. Well, I found an online reference to Conn. Gym Uses 'People Power' To Energize Building. Fitness Club First Of Its Kind As Exercise Bikes Create Electricity which must be the same story. Talk about reframing how a gym creates value for you, how your physical effort creates value for the gym, and how our consumerism can generate energy and recharge the economy...

From spinning for energy, to creating value for our customers - it's a matter of rethinking our assumptions about what we stand for in the eyes, minds and hearts of our customers.

Technorati Tags: MarketingProfs creating value Marketing in an Economic Meltdown Del.icio.us Tags: MarketingProfs creating value Marketing in an Economic Meltdown

CMO 2.0 Conversation with Paula Drum, H&R Block

In I'm a Member of Marketing 2.0. Are You?, I referred to informative and practical sessions about real life marketers using social media to benefit their businesses. In other words, CMO 2.0 Conversations.

Here follows what transpired during the first conversation in the CMO 2.0 Conversations series which took place 9/25/2008 with Paula Drum, Vice President, Marketing for H&R Block. [If you didn't catch it, you can also replay the interview.]

I learn a great deal from marketers in traditional organizations or industries - particularly when they experiment with innovative marketing approaches. Take H&R Block. They provide a critical service to consumers: support for filing taxes and financial advice. We all have to file taxes at a certain time of year. There's no getting out of it. It's stressful, and we'd rather it be done correctly with the least possible negative impact on us.

During this CMO 2.0 conversation, Paula Drum explained how the Internet has changed how consumers access information as well as what information they have available. It has transformed how consumers use technology to connect and relate to each other and companies. That transformation means that companies - like H&R Block - must market differently to reach consumers.

That realization triggered experiments with social media. Two years ago, she launched a YouTube video contest and an island on Second Life.

Last year, she created a community called DIGITS which now has 1.5 m unique visitors, extended into Facebook and Myspace, and started with Twitter. The goal is to communicate how deeply committed H&R Block is to the community and to build trust with consumers. With these experiments across different platforms, she discovered that the more relevant H&R Block, the more successful the response. Offering tax advice and related information led to valued interactions. However, off-topic [e.g., a Facebook application to find your financial match] activities were considered irrelevant.

Tax expertise and related financial implications are why consumers want to connect with H&R Block. That's what gives H&R Block permission to communicate new professional content. For example, the IRS published information about the AMT late last year, and consumers had many questions that H&R Block professionals were able to help with - a tax expert blogged about what it all meant and how rules were progressing thru government. The same happened with the recent tax rebate. People had questions about the implications of these new decisions. H&R Block could help.

As a result of these experiments, Drum has learned how important it is to integrate social media with traditional marketing programs for better customer engagement. She has also noticed benefits from involving all of the functions - including customer support - to ensure success. It's important to figure out how to be useful to people in their lives and to communicate with them as they want to be communicated with.

Her advice for getting internal support around innovative marketing programs includes:
+ for the ROI audience: be sure to start small; position early efforts as test/learn opportunities.

+ for the Brand audience: explain the importance of moderating the interactions, but not for opinion. It's important to realize that all of these conversations are happening. The decision we have to make as marketers is whether to be part of the conversation or not.

+ for the legal audience: involve those parties early on. Offer case studies showing how other organizations have been successful.

The lesson from all of this: pay attention to your customers, where they are, how they are communicating/obtaining information, what they value you for. Participate in your customer community with content your customers value.

Chances are that -even if you are doing this offline- you will need to be doing this online, too .

NOTE: Don't forgot to register for the next conversation in the CMO 2.0 series taking place on 10/9/2008 [i.e., tomorrow]. It's with Jay Gillespie, VP of Marketing at Fiskars, who created the Fiskateer community and Spike Jones, the Firestarter at Brains On Fire. Register for this conversation now.

Technorati Tags: Paula Drum H&R Block Marketing 2.0 CMO 2.0 Conversations marketing social media Del.icio.us Tags: Paula Drum H&R Block Marketing 2.0 CMO 2.0 Conversations marketing social media

I'm a Member of Marketing 2.0 - Are You?

If you are passionate about the future of marketing, consider becoming a member of the Marketing 2.0 Group, created by Francois Gossieaux from Beeline Labs, to explore the future of marketing [and go where no marketers have gone before!]

Francois is no stranger to innovative marketing. I first met him in 2006 at the Corante Innovative Marketing Conference at Columbia Business School, and his Emergence Marketing blog - encompassing "Thoughts on marketing, innovation, social networking, new products and the impact of technology on all those thingies" - is full of insightful cutting edge marketing observations.

With now over 850 members, the Marketing 2.0 Group expands discussion about the future of marketing. More specifically, Francois has launched informative and practical sessions about real life marketers using social media to benefit their businesses. The first series, called CMO 2.0 Conversations, is underway.

+ The first conversation took place 9/25/2008 with Paula Drum, Vice President, Marketing for H&R Block. It was fascinating. If you didn't catch it, you can also replay the interview.

+ The second takes place on 10/9/2008 with Jay Gillespie, the VP of Marketing at Fiskars, who created the Fiskateer community and Spike Jones, the Firestarter at Brains On Fire. I expect this conversation to be even more fascinating! Register for this conversation now.

+ The third is scheduled for 10/23/08 at 2 pm EDT with Barry Judge, the CMO of Best Buy.

+ The fourth will take place with the CMO of HP [date TBD].

Excellent reasons for joining Marketing 2.0!

Visit Marketing 2.0

Technorati Tags: Francois Gossieaux Marketing 2.0 CMO 2.0 Conversations marketing social media Del.icio.us Tags: Francois Gossieaux Marketing 2.0 CMO 2.0 Conversations marketing social media

What Makes Your Brand Come Alive?

The Brand Alphabet originally uploaded by InThePictureDesign.co.uk [do visit the

original as you can test how well you recognize the brands behind the letters...]

Consider an alternate question to What Does Your Brand Stand For?  Instead, ask yourself what makes your brand come alive?

It used to be that the right product or service was enough to validate the existence of a brand.  Now, in addition to an unique product or service, the brand must convey an intensity of commitment to the end user's experience with that product or service. Google comes to mind. Lego, too, even Apple.

Those brands come alive because they connect with and listen - as Anna Farmery succinctly defines in When I ask you to listen to me - closely to end users.  And, they take into account feedback. By doing that authentically and respectfully, the brand truly engages users or consumers in an improved brand experience and the brand grows.

[Another take on listening is Tesco's Sir Terry Leahy's advice to "Think Customer – reset your business to what customers need right now. Customers can change faster than companies." You can read the full review of his speech on Paul Dunay's blog.]

However, a brand can't be an abstract concept existing in a void. To engage with human beings, it must have dimension, presence, intelligence and all of the human qualities that we seek when we associate with people.  In other words, it must be real, it must have warmth. It must be alive.

In What Does Your Brand Stand For?, Tim Girvin left a comment asking what a brand's leadership stands for, "Meaning, literally, the ... person that lies at the heart of the enterprise -- what's the character that enlivens the soul of the organization?"

What a relevant question!  What or who gives a brand soul -- another human characteristic, by the way --?

Efrain Mendicuti in Growing Out of Your Brand makes a wonderful case for small businesses where an owner can more easily "reflect... their personal values onto their brand; which is probably the best position to be in. Why? Because the business owner can make sure those values come across all their marketing and communication efforts. This is something that larger organizations have a hard time doing." The brand is alive because it reflects the owner's beliefs and values. The owner lies at the heart of that organization.

Larger organizations complicate the process. In fact, that's often the challenge for a brand transitioning from an entrepreneurial environment to a more established one. Many fail. But, many don't. They save the soul and manage to infuse all those within the organization with the magic, so that each individual can contribute to the integrity of the brand experience and extend it consistently to end users outside the organization.

There's a serious social dimension to brand building.  The brand must reflect some aspect of an original vision or soul, but unless it connects with others, it cannot come alive.  In coming alive it establishes relevance with others, making it strong enough to grow beyond the original concept. It becomes further infused with warmth, personality and character of such strength that it comes alive for many others. 

But, there's still the transition from single brand energizer or motivator or soul infuser to multiple keepers of the flame which must happen successfully, with focus on what the brand stands for in the mind of end users...

Putting all of this into perspective and keeping in mind these unsettled times, I was struck by this 9/30/2008 article titled Consumers: Banks Are Bad, But My Bank Is Good by Aaron Baar. The article offers an upside down take on how consumers perceive bank brands: in general banks are bad; specific banks are good.

My take on that is that when a brand becomes infused with soul, with personality, with authenticity, it connects with its audience [here, the local bank]. When the brand becomes too abstracted and disconnected from the day-to-day, it loses meaning and takes on negative traits.

Per the article "banks--both as individual institutions and the banking industry--need to be proactive to regain consumers' trust. "This is the financial version of the Tylenol poisonings... The trust is going to come from the ways companies like Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase are behaving, putting customers ahead of absolute profitability.""

Only by focusing on how your brand can be meaningful to others, can it come alive.  That makes me think of David Wolfe's Firms of Endearment and Lewis Green's newly reborn book How To Grow A Business By Putting People First.  Outward focus shares your brand's value.

If your brand truly stands for something, if it truly engages others, if it truly listens and puts others first, then it will come alive and grow beyond your wildest dreams.   That's a living brand.

Technorati Tags: brand experience brand marketing Del.icio.us Tags: brand experience brand marketing

Register Now For Upcoming 10/15 & 10/16 2008 BRITE Events

In case you haven't heard, Columbia Business School’s BRITE series of conferences on branding, innovation, and technology will be taking place again this October with two events.

+ The BRITE CMO Summit is scheduled for October 15, 2008 from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm .

+The BRITE Workshop on Online Communities occurs the next day, October 16, 2008 from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm at Columbia University in New York City.

I participated in the February 2008 series as a guest blogger. You may have read my accounts of the events in previous posts. More specifically, The BRITE '08 Conference, BRITE '08 - Univision & Maryam Banikarim and BRITE '08: Nickelodeon's Pamela Kaufman on Brand Building...

I'm delighted that I've been re-invited. I plan on attending the BRITE Workshop on Online Communities which will feature the following speakers:

+ Marisa Bangash, Co-founder, Uncensored Interview.com
+ Richard Binhammer, Sr. Manager, Conversations, Communities and Communications, Dell
+ Aliza Freud, CEO, SheSpeaks
+ Thomas Gensemer, Managing Partner, Blue State Digital (myBarackObama.com)
+ Francois Gossieaux, Partner, Beeline Labs; Senior Fellow, Society for New Communications Research
+ Melinda Lee Co-founder, Uncensored Interview.com
+ Sylvia Marino, Executive Director, Community Operations, Edmunds
+ Natalie Mizik, Gantcher Associate Professor of Business, Columbia Business School
+ Ed Moran, Director, Deloitte & Touche LLP
+ David Rogers, Host, BRITE conferences; Executive Director, Center on Global Brand Leadership
+ Olivier Toubia, David W. Zalaznick Associate Professor of Business, Columbia Business School

If you'd like to attend either event, consider using either of the badges below for a 10% discount to the events.

BRITE CMO Summit:

BRITE Workshop on Online Communities:

And, if you attend the BRITE Workshop on Online Communities, please let me know. I'd love to see you there.

Technorati Tags: BRITE Columbia Business School social media marketing Del.icio.us Tags: BRITE Columbia Business School social media marketing

The Carpetology Blog Roundup - September 2008

September represents such a time of transition here in the Northeast. From vacation to back-to-school, from warm to cool, from outdoor-relaxed-living to indoor-more-serious-pursuits...

It also marks the beginning of many firsts. I attended my first back-to-school night at my daughter's school and met her first grade teachers. I've watched her first three soccer practices and am readying myself for the first 6pm game on Friday evening. So far, no rain - just seasonably cool. Does that mean ski pants or just jeans for me? Definitely socks, probably not yet a hat.

Fall has officially arrived. Even the trees are cooperating with a few magical suggestions of orange and red...

Time, then, for The Carpetology Blog Roundup for September, 2008!

[If you are new to Flooring The Consumer, The Carpetology Blog is the official Wear-Dated blog about all things carpet... design, inspiration, care and stories carpet-related. Please do check it out and let me know what you think... ]

During September, here's what happened at The Carpetology Blog...

First, I'm most proud that Carpet and The Carpetology Blog Are On a Roll! Why? Because carpet and the stylishness of carpet are in vogue. Have you noticed? The Baltimore Sun certainly has. I'm not too surprised as I've been having a field day getting up-close-and-personal with more fashionable carpet styles than I ever expected to! Consider a 'Tailored Frieze' Carpet Style. For that matter, check out A Foot's Perspective - Episode 12. I love what my Mom created with two different carpet styles.

What's particularly exciting is that consumers are rediscovering the brilliantly stylish output of the many creative and talented people who contribute to the flooring industry. It's definitely time to banish the boring sea of carpet sameness! Consider this example of intense creative inspiration: Nature Inspires Invision's Altered Elements Carpet Collection. Or, what about the sources of trend concepts that go into colors and carpet style trends - as Ann Hurley describes in A Foot's Perspective - Episode 13 about Maison & Objet. Those types of observations are what led to Black Around The World which is one part of Color Folio 2008: A Field Guide to Color Around The World.

In addition to celebrating the stylishness of carpet, I decided to feature the FCIF and draw attention to what The Floor Covering Industry Foundation does.

Fall can mean allergies, which may lead to lots of advice -- some good, some not-so-good. Carpet advice relating to allergies often falls in the not-so-good category which Paul Friederichsen addresses in Beware of Autumn Allergens… Advice for Carpet.

As you walk through your children's schools, do appreciate the good that carpet offers when Carpet Goes Back to School. I noticed carpet in two sections of my daughter's classroom: one in the reading nook and another in a collaborative work area. In both cases, the carpet defined the space, added to the intimacy of the space and improved the acoustics.

There's humor - Bud Light Does Carpet - and I hope you are following the Red Carpet Reporter Contest results. If not, then Meet Red Carpet Reporter Franchesca Ramsey.

Finally, if you haven't already, Please Vote For Us! Vote For Carpet! The Forrester Groundswell Award entries are still available for voting and comments until late October. [Here's my original entry: My Forrester Groundswell Awards Submission and another plea to Please, Will You Review Our Groundswell Entry?]

Thanks for reading.

Have a wonderful October!

Previous Updates:
+ The Carpetology Blog Roundup - August 2008
+ The Carpetology Blog Roundup: July 2008
+ The Carpetology Blog RoundUp - June 2008
+ May Carpetology Update
+ Carpetology Update - April 2008
+ The Carpetology Blog Update for March
+ The Carpetology Blog Update
+ Big News: The Carpetology Blog

Technorati Tags: The Carpetology Blog Wear-Dated carpet marketing Del.icio.us Tags: The Carpetology Blog Wear-Dated carpet marketing