ATLANTA–AmericasMart Atlanta and the Gift & Home Trade Association (GHTA) will sponsor an annual gift and home industry honors program to celebrate extraordinary manufacturing, sales and retail achievement.
ICON Honors: Celebrating Global Innovation is set for a July 2010 premiere at AmericasMart’s Atlanta International Gift & Home Furnishings Market and Atlanta International Area Rug Market.
ICON Honors becomes the first international program fully embracing the gift and home categories in an independent recognition of exemplary achievement in product manufacturing, product sales representative businesses and retailing.
“The creation of ICON Honors forever changes the home and gift industry’s definition of superior achievement in a business born of innovation and rich in entrepreneurial vision and energy,” said Jeffrey L. Portman, Sr., AmericasMart president and chief operating officer. “ICON Honors marks a new era in how we recognize and reward those whose passion and performance set the glide path to a future bright with promise. It affirms our continuing stewardship of the industries we serve and the work of those whom we most admire.”
ICON Honors will celebrate—across all home and gift categories and business lines—innovation, contribution and achievement in the manufacturer, sales representative and retailer sectors.
The initiative aligns with GHTA’s evolving mission and vision, said Doug Cofiell, GHTA president and president of the Ivystone Group. “GHTA has, from its inception, embraced gift and home as complementary entities with unmatched crossover potential. We champion that convergence and believe ICON Honors to be the one defining event designed to applaud landmark achievement on a global basis,” he said.
ICON Honors nominations will follow an open process with independent judging and evaluation sustaining full objectivity in selection of honorees. A press release from AmericasMart said the ICON Honors will celebrate innovation, contribution and achievements. Innovation includes technology applications to market share, product design, packaging design, sustainability and branding; contribution includes independent retail community trailblazer impact/influence, cause-product impact/influence, industry-building impact/influence, community betterment/improvement achievements; achievements includes top newcomer recognition, individual professional accomplishment, collective business accomplishment and life accomplishment.
The introduction of ICON Honors sets in motion a sequence of developments including selection and seating of judges; nomination procedures and processes; call for entries; and a significant expansion of the program to include national and international sponsors from the design and media communities.