The customer, the manufacturer, the prescriber, the fairs … Who? Actually, we are not very sure. It is probably a joint task, a common development, a road in which we all go hand in hand. The customer manifests some needs, the manufacturer has a potential, the prescriber creates some ideas, and the fairs exert the role of shaker, a place where all this shakes in a few days to result in a combinated. If all goes well and the parts are understood, the result will be excellent.

The subject is like the egg and the hen: no hen there is no egg, but if there is no egg, where does the hen come from? Here, as in the great majority of cases, we do not know very well where the innovation begins.

It is clear that, first of all, there is the hotelier who has real needs that are manifested to him day by day. These are changing and vary over time: social evolution, changing habits, new trends, guest behavior … The hotelier can demand a specific product or, on the contrary, simply manifest the need.

Then, following the chain, we find the prescriber: interior designer, architect… He is the one who translates the subjective need into a product with specific characteristics (according to his point of view, of course) which demands to the manufacturer. In some cases, this demand is limited to a catalog or to an already existing repertoire and, in others, the product does not exist as such and must be created.

Finally, the manufacturer receives the demand of the prescriber or the hotelier. Normally, the manufacturer tries to satisfy the demand with a catalog, with products already made; that is, to adapt the demand to what he knows how to do. However, perhaps the most interesting (and the differential value of many companies dedicated to this sector) is not to offer what we know to do but what we could do. Instead of catalogs, offer possibilities. And this is why it is gratifying and illustrative the contact we establish with customers and prescribers at fairs like the ones we have just attended in the last month: Hostelco and InteriHOTEL.

Just arrived from InteriHOTEL – which ended last week – we are full of ideas, proposals and new solutions to offer. Because richness was not in what was shown (that too) but in the potential of the capacities …