The Home & Home+ Conclave – A knowledge Platform That Unites The Furniture & Lifestyle Industry

12th Jan 2023 proved to be a day that set the path for a confluence among the various facets of the home interiors fraternity and, an acknowledgement that a platform that spoke for the furniture and lifestyles industry, was much needed.

Going by the response from the industry, this conclave, a knowledge platform encouraged by Creaticity, has proved to be an essential need, addressed. They saw the making of a benchmark event with about thirty industry captains talking about their success journeys and expressing their views through diverse sessions crafted to provide knowledge and encouragement to the industry, at large. 

The Conclave, held at the prestigious RITZ CARLTON, Pune, was truly a coming together of the industry that paved the way for assimilating industry information, knowledge sharing, networking, and general camaraderie among the stakeholders of the industry. The conclave encouraged people to ask questions and seek answers. The Home & Home+ Conclave saw a unique blend of manufactures, importers, retailers, logistic partners, tech companies, architects, and interior designers, as well as many other support services for the industry.

Industry has a new identity: Opinion Poll says Home Lifestyle Creaticity, the energy behind the Home & Home + conclave also felt a need to establish Home Industry in a more organized

manner and context. During a poll conducted at the conclave, on what the industry should be termed, almost 50 per cent voted for the industry to be called Home Lifestyle. Other options offered were 2) Home Interiors 3) Home & Interiors 4) Home Improvement.

A need to start addressing this industry in future as Home Lifestyle industry was mentioned by Creaticity and talking more about this Mahesh. M, Convenor HH+ and CEO Creaticity said, “ raison d’etre“ was to establish an authentic and organized wisdom sharing platform that acts as a source of meaningful conversations to further the progress of the Home Interiors category/industry in India.

It was a day when the entire Home Industry came together to share knowledge on topics that were informative, thought provoking, insightful as well as diverse, in its scope ranging from consumer trends, manufacturing, imports, consumption forecasts, Online & Brick and Mortar as channels to communicate and connect with consumers for that “touch and feel” experience via physical and digical mediums and much more deeper insights ranging from product to styles to channel distribution to last mile delivery technologies.

Right from the opening thoughts from the Conclave Convenor Dr. Mahesh M, followed by the Keynote address by Ms. Alessandra Tracogna of CSIL Milano, the place was charged with an energy that was almost electric, and a sense of excitement and anticipation.

Alessandra provided sharp insights on the status and perspectives of the global furniture market with a focus on India. She says India is outperforming other Asian players in terms of speed of market growth also, that the potential for growth is excellent because Indian per capita furniture consumption is still comparatively low.

The second Key Note (post lunch) was delivered by Ms. Kavitha Rao – MD Accenture.A report that was crisp and concise Kavitha spoke about COLLAB and how the various stakeholders need to come together to create a seamless process for the manufacture or procurement of products based on current trends and consumer requirements. The quest is to create the right collaboration.

The star studded speaker panel included the who-is-who of the furniture industry and standing tall among them were Industry leaders from Ikea India Erik Jan Middelhoven who heads Home Furnishings & Retail Design for India, Ashish Shah, Founder & COO Pepperfry.com, Gita Ramanan, Co-Founder & CEO, Design Café, Mahesh Shah, MD Praxis Home Retail India (Home Town), Neerav Jain, Founder CityFurnish, Rajat Wahi, Partner Consulting, Deloitte India, Subodh Mehta, Sr. Vice President, Godrej Interio, G Shankar Ramm, Joint Managing Director, Peps India , Neeraj Bansal from Recliners India, Mohanraj Jagannivasan from Duroflex, Rama Harinath- Prolance amongst others.

The Conclave is a novel initiative undertaken and encouraged by Creaticity, arguably India’s first and largest source of Branded Interior Solutions with nearly 100 regional, national and global brands under one roof, providing start to end solutions including space planning and interior design and last mile delivery and execution.

The Home & Home+ Conclave should be commended for its foresight and for its timing, as the reports shared by CSIL (an independent research organization based out of Milan), the foremost authority on world furniture, shares figures, that shows a steady climb and, predicts substantial growth for this industry, in the coming years. The need of the hour is for the industry to come together and figure out new ways to build an organized ecosystem that would sustain this growth and, the Conclave is just ‘tailormade’ for it.

The event also witnessed the launch of the MEGA TRENDS Report a research initiative by CSIL Milano & Creaticity that highlights six Mega Trends that would be the main influencers in the coming years. This Report was shared with the delegates and invited guests, at the conclave. As part of their knowledge sharing initiative, this exclusive report is made available on request, at Creaticity.

The full day event was broadly structured as a diligent mix of interesting sessions and formats namely:

The conclave had two Keynote speakers, one in the morning session titled ‘BEYOND’ and the other, post lunch, titled ‘COLLAB’, where audience listened to industry experts sharing powerful insights and trends that will nurture future direction and collaboration. 

The forenoon keynote was delivered by Ms. Alessandra Tracogna, Senior Partner, CSILMilano, a renowned research firm that has been providing deep research insights for 40 years in nearly 100 countries and COLLAB being addressed by another renowned speaker with in-depth industry knowledge, Kavitha Rao, MD at Accenture.

‘THEN & NOW’ (8 sessions) This was about success journeys of eight stalwarts from the industry. They take you through their journey so far and, share their learnings.

‘TOMORROWLAND', (2 grand panel talks) A court where Industry captains took positions on a range of industry-related topics. This segment featured the advisory panel members as session speakers along with other industry stalwarts.

‘THIS & THAT’ (One special sessions) where one manufacturers & one Importer sat across each other and discussed their perspectives and shared practical world wisdom on industry and its various nuances.

There was warm and heartfelt gratitude expressed to three doyens of Indian Home Lifestyle industry, namely Mr. A.K. Goel – Former MD, Hettich India, Mr. Rajesh Mahajan – Owner, Maspar Industries and Mr. Anil Mathur – Former COO, Godrej Interio.

These legends shared insights gathered by them over the years, on how Home Lifestyle was shaping up and, its potential to become the next big industry, while sharing knowledge on ways and means to collaborate and take this industry forward The entire fraternity saluted these industry veterans for their immense contribution in making the industry, what it is today.