Surfaces Sourcebook 2008 - January 2008

By Brian Hamilton & Darius Helm

This year, Surfaces is back to its original schedule, from Tuesday, January 29, to Friday, February 1, with the show floor opening on January 30. As of late December, the expo was already 97% sold out with about 1,000 registered exhibitors.

New to Surfaces this year are several pavilions on the lower level. The Product Pavilion is for exhibitors who have their own booths but want to showcase particular products, and over 50 companies will have products there. The Hand-Crafted Tile Pavilion includes booths for producers of hand-crafted ceramic and porcelain tile, with at least 15 exhibitors. And the Decorative Concrete Pavilion is showcasing the latest trends in concrete flooring, also with at least 15 exhibitors signed up.

There will be lots of brand new exhibitors at this year’s expo, with about 25% of all exhibitors showing at Surfaces for the first time. The biggest players, Shaw, Mohawk and Armstrong, will not be attending, along with a handful of others, including Amtico, Domco, Karastan and Marazzi. New introductions from these players are covered in a separate article, starting on page 40.

The Surfaces Sourcebook offers brief previews of many of this year’s offerings, and we’ll follow up in March with a comprehensive review of the highlights of the show.

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