design:retail - March 2015 - (Page 12)

editor's note 012 Connect the Dots ALISON EMBREY MEDINA EXECUTIVE EDITOR alison.medina@emeraldexpo.com @dretaileditor I REMEMBER THE FIRST networking event I ever attended. I was just a few months out of college, attending a happy hour at a swanky little bar in downtown Atlanta for a group called "ED2010," a social group of up-and-coming junior magazine editors and freelance writers with the common goal of wanting to land our "dream editing job by the year 2010." (For the record, I did!) I arrived alone, ordered a drink and mingled with a few semi-interesting people, chatting about their semi-interesting jobs. Thinking this whole networking thing was a huge bust, I asked for my tab and started to put on my coat. That's when it happened. "You're Alison Embrey," I heard a voice say. I turned around and saw a girl about my age, looking at me like she was trying to ﬁgure out my middle name. "Excuse me?" I replied. I had no clue who this girl was. "You're Alison Embrey from 'The Red & Black,' right?," she asked. "Yessss...." Turns out she recognized my face from a column I used to write for my college newspaper. We attended journalism school together at The University of Georgia, but never crossed paths. She had all my columns cut out and still kept them in a folder in her desk (in a non-creepy, word-nerdappreciating kind of way). We shared the same MARCH 2015 DESIGNRETAILONLINE.COM apartment complex our sophomore year. She had just started a new job. I had just started a new job. We both liked white wine. Four years later, that girl stood beside me as a bridesmaid at my wedding. And nearly nine years after that-just yesterday, in fact-I gave her name to another magazine friend looking for a strong senior editor. We've passed each other's names out back and forth several times throughout our careers, in fact. And still have yet to actually ever work together. (Except on wedding planning, that is.) Networking is a strange and powerful thing. When you hand over that business card, you have no idea whether it will be tossed into a trashcan the next morning, or if it will be your ticket to a dream job calling 10 years later. At design:retail, we feel networking is a crucial cog in our role as the connectors of the retail industry. We bring you content through the print magazine and online, but we also bring people TOGETHER. That's why you see us hosting events nonstop throughout the year, and why we are so excited about GlobalShop coming up later this month. In case you are in need of some new industry contacts-be it for a new project, reinvigoration or inspiration-consider attending our design:retail Latin Dance Party, hosted by CNL mannequins at the fabulous Ling Ling Club inside Hakkasan Nightclub at MGM Grand. (For more information and to register, be sure to visit designretailonline.com/ cnlmannequins.) We like retail design. You like retail design-and so do all 20,000-plus of our readers. Go ahead and take advantage of this awesome network of industry camaraderie and put on your best nice-tomeet-you smile. Bring a fat stack of business cards, shake a lot of hands and clink plenty of glasses-you never quite know where your next business lead- or bridesmaid-will come from. Illustration courtesy of THINKSTOCK http://www.designretailonline.com/cnlmannequins http://www.DESIGNRETAILONLINE.COM

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of design:retail - March 2015

Editor’s Note
Show Talk
On Trend
We Love This!
Designer Picks
Innovation
Postcard
Before & After
How’d They Do That?
Have You Heard?
Perspectives
Visual Eye
Searching for Steve Jobs
Markopoulos Award 2015
GlobalShop 2015: The Ultimate Show Guide
Las Vegas Retail A look at
McMillanDoolittle
PIRCH
WH|BM
T2
Verizon
Hedonism
Design Leaders Listing
Products
Backstory

design:retail - March 2015