thanks from maison21, public speaker ;-) and other gems from las vegas market

first, i'd like to thank EVERYONE who came out to my panel at las vegas market. a packed house with people standing in the aisles and sitting on the floor is all a speaker could ask for!

the topic of our talk was "social media and the design community: how to encourage influencers to grow your brand". it's always weird when speaking in front of a crowd- sort of an out of body experience, and i don't remember much of what was said but i do remember when moderator michelle workman asked me if i would work with a brand just for money, i jokingly responded that it depends on how many zeros there are on teh check, but my REAL answer was was, no, my reputation, authenticity, and audience, are all too important to me to jeopardize them by working with a bad product or company- or as i so politely and demurely put it, "don't expect me to polish your turd. i'm not interested".

i also want to give a big shout out to IMC for inviting me to participate in market, to gretchen aubuchon for putting the panel together, michelle workman for her awesome questions and to my buddy corey damen jenkins for gamely stepping into jason oliver nixon's patterned shoes when he was unable to participate at the last minute.

yes, that's me, on stage with a cocktail, toasting the crowd at 1:35. sue me. ;-)

while at las vegas market, a dozen tastemakers were selected to "hijack" the #LVMKT instagram feed with their favorite market finds. i was honored to share my takeover day with two of my favorite designing ladies, kelli ellis & ashlina kaposta...

and in case you didn't tune into the market feed, here are the market gems i shared (ps, there are lots more on my maison21 instagram feed too! just scroll back a bit!)

last, as i've often said, markets are just as much about people as they are about product and i LOVED the chance to spend time with my favorites like the decorista.