It was a HOT one last month at the Las Vegas Summer Market. Triple digits outside but it was cool and comfortable on the 15th floor in the SSA Showroom. Business was brisk on Sunday afternoon and Monday. There were still new buyer groups coming in on Tuesday and Wednesday, but not as many as during Winter Market. 323 buyer groups were recorded at the SSA this Summer (which does not reflect those buyers spotted who came in “incognito” with supplier badges) - up about 12% from Summer 2018.

The SSA Sponsored educational even “Customer Engagement” was well attended. Sandwich fixins were available for those who listened to two excellent presentations. If you missed it, click here to watch the video presentation and see the picture gallery.

Pat Kunish - SmartWerks, Brian Davis - The Bedroom Store and SSA Board Member, Tambra Jones - SSA Executive Director, Shawn Doane - Speaker/SmartWerks and Ty Bate - Speaker/Podium

Some of the SSA exhibiting companies had this to say about this year’s Summer Market:

Dave Perry stopped during his rounds in the showroom to chat with Brian Phillips - Swiss Bliss

Jason Spar – Tru Blanket
Thank you for the opportunity to be in the space. It was good in connecting me with potential dealers and wholesale partners. Still in the follow up phase to see how much business we actually write.

Manu Kapur – GHCL Limited
Heartiest congratulations for a wonderful event. Our team was truly excited about participating in the show and was really pleased with the outcome.

Mark Schwartz – Blue Ridge Home Fashions
Summer Market absolutely met our expectations. We made some new connections and were impressed with the amount of traffic in the room. Overall, a great experience! Definitely $$$ well spent. And I met some really nice folks

Curtis Spain - Bedding Technologies Ind.
Traffic was down for us but our appointments showed up and we did meet possible new dealers. We will have new items for the winter market and be more proactive for appointments, as I expect better participation of dealers. The business climate in furniture is flat, but mattress sales are constant and we will focus on items to complement this market segment for the upcoming Winter show.

Sue Diamond - The Futon Shop/TFS Sleep
Summer market felt very dead. Some appointments showed up and some did not. It felt like I mostly saw fabric and component suppliers.

Juan Gonzales - BestRest LLC
We met expectations because we programmed meetings ahead of time and we had other visitors. about 75% of the meetings we asked for came by. this was a trial run for january and we felt it went well. we want to build upon what we did at this show.

Juan Gonzales chats with the ladies from Wright Global Graphis

Ryan Chilvers – CannaBeds
My show was great, thank you Tambra for everything. Top notch organization you have there, we will be back in January.

Butch Craig - Sleep and Beyond
Once again Would like to say a Big Thank You to and your team that make sure we all were ready for The Vegas 2019 Summer Market. Sleep & Beyond had the best Best Vegas Summer Market in eight years. I always will say 80% of success is showing up and 20% Follow up. The order writing and adding new buyers were strong. I do believe that the Specialty Sleep Association and it members are like family working together to create a good environment.

Ryan Chilvers - Cannabeds is all smiles with Larry Wolfe and his team

Butch Craig at Sleep and Beyond holds court every market

Brice Hata - Remarkable Pillow/TMI Molded Foam
It was about what I expected for Summer. We got a few good leads and all our appointments showed up. We have a new pillow introduction for Winter 2020.

Peter Laurens - Arcusbeds/Baltica Natural
Summer Market exceeded my expectations. Although overall foot traffic seemed a bit less than in the previous winter show, for us it was great--we received more visitors than we expected. The response to our new, redesigned Natural Classic mattress was so good that we might swap out our current Natural Asana for a redesigned version for the January Market.

Brice Hata explaining the perks with Remarkable Pillow

Peter Laurens explaining what’s inside Arcusbeds

The team at Sleep In Motion was busy busy this summer

Brian Davis - The Bedroom Store - is listening intently to what I Love My Pillow has to offer