The University of Memphis Interior Design Department is hostingan educational networking event today for any student interested ininterior design.
The Interior Design Trade Show will begin at 9 a.m. on thesecond floor "fishbowl" space of the FedEx Institute of Technology.The event is sponsored by interior design students and faculty, aswell as outside design professionals and manufacturerrepresentatives.
A lot of hard work and preparation has gone into this event,said second year interior design student Courtney Gauss.
"We had to research a lot," Gauss said. "We were all assigned toresearch specific (interior design) areas and to call businesseswithin those areas for sponsorship. We all had to researchfurniture and materials and finishes, but I was also assigned wallcovering."
The interior design vendors will set up at about 9 a.m. andbegin interacting with the students and others in attendance at9:30, followed by a question and answer portion, according to theInterior Design Trade Show itinerary.
Design students will help host the tabletop vendor displays,along with a representative of the various design and manufacturingcompanies, said Gauss. Corporate Express, Home Depot, Scott Fabricsand Sherwin Williams are a few of the estimated 28 vendors to bepresent at the Interior Design Trade Show.
"Events like these are extremely important to the students,"said Nikki Feilner, event adviser and assistant design professor."I have been in manufacturing, and manufacturers are the ones whoprovide the material for the designers' products, so it is veryimportant that the students get to know the manufacturers."
The goals of this event are to provide interior design andarchitecture students with a networking opportunity withmanufacturing representatives and design professionals, provide aneducational opportunity for students to learn about manufacturers,their products and services, to provide an opportunity for thedesign community and The U of M to interface with one another, andto assist in the growth of the interior design program, accordingto memorandum produced by Feilner.
"It is good to have the much- needed creative influences broughtto The University," Feilner said. "It is an opportunity to haveprofessionals on campus, and it is good when students can see howprofessionals are and how possible role models are."
Studio work from various freshmen and sophomore design studentswill be presented at the Interior Design Trade Show. Also, twosenior design students, Hope Uibernall and Goliath McPherson, willhave their final projects on display.
"The last time I did an event like this at my other college,three students received internships for that very summer," Feilnersaid. "Sometimes the students make connections and therepresentatives ask them to send in resumes and to call them at alater date. It is all about networking."
Scheduled for the end of the Interior Design Trade Show is adoor prize giveaway.
