The World’s Leading Home + Housewares Show

March 2–4, 2025 | McCormick Place | Chicago, IL

The World’s Leading Home + Housewares Show
March 2—4 | McCormick Place | Chicago, IL

ROSEMONT, IL (June 15, 2020) – The problem of counterfeit goods, growth opportunities from having robust omnichannel consumer purchase data, how to create a great brand name and new solutions for recycling plastic are topics of upcoming webinars in the ongoing virtual education series developed by the International Housewares Association.

Educational sessions planned for the Innovation Theater and Smart Talks stage at The Inspired Home Show 2020 are being presented as free webinars for the industry over the next few months. Most programs will begin at 12 p.m. CDT.

Here are the webinars set for the weeks of June 15 and June 22:

  • Wednesday, June 17, “Are There Counterfeits in Your Supply Chain?” by Rosemary Coates, executive director, The Reshoring Institute. Counterfeits are a growing international problem. About $2 trillion in counterfeit goods will be reported in 2020. This is lost revenue to the brands as well as potential endangerment to customers. About 1-in-20 imports, mostly purchased online, are counterfeit, Coates says. She will explain what suppliers can do to protect their products from the dark underworld of counterfeiting. Register for this webinar here.
  • Thursday, June 18, “Leveraging Category Insights to Uncover Growth Opportunities” by Peter Greene, practice director, consumer durables, Numerator. Greene will discuss the importance of robust, omnichannel consumer purchase data for unlocking growing opportunities within the housewares industry. He’ll show how manufacturers and retailers alike can leverage shopper, people and category insights to grow their businesses and categories, using real case studies as examples. He’ll also touch on the impact COVID -19 has had on shopper behavior and how brands and retailers can leverage data to understand where their opportunity lies as the country begins to reopen. Register for this webinar here.
  • Wednesday, June 24, “Winning the Name Game (even during a Covid crisis) – What’s the Story Behind a Great Name?” by Stacey C. Kalamaras, Esq., Kalamaras Law Office, LLC, and Mollie Young, founding principal, Nametag. A series of letters. A word. That’s all a name is. Choose the right one, though, and it can create magic. It can change behavior. It can be the difference between success and failure. It can live for generations. Young will explain how a successful name delivers business success and Kalamaras will walk through the importance of legally protecting a brand and how the symbiotic relationship between trademark attorneys and branding agencies ensure the best results for the protection of a company’s intellectual property assets. Register for this webinar here.
  • Thursday, June 25, “Revolutionizing Materials: Teaming Up to Meet Consumer Demand for Sustainable Products,” by Courtland Jenkins, commercial director, specialty plastics, Eastman, and Phil Notheis, director of product management, Hardgoods, Camelbak. Plastics-in-the-ocean is becoming a major global crisis and consumers are turning to brands and demanding to know how they’re working to be part of the solution. Many brands have responded by setting aggressive goals for the use of recycled content in their products; but traditional recycling approaches aren’t capable of producing enough material to satisfy that new demand — and the existing recycling system isn’t set up to easily, conveniently recycle many of the plastics used in typical housewares products. And that leaves brands facing even more uncomfortable demands from consumers. Eastman has reimagined one of its current production processes and innovated a way to begin using plastic waste as a feedstock, doing it mainly with hard-to-recycle items, creating a circular approach for plastic materials. Jenkins and Notheis will walk through the plastic waste trend, what consumers are demanding and how Eastman and Camelbak are responding. They’ll share what they’re learning and make recommendations for listeners on how to bake sustainability and circularity into their products and marketing. Register for this webinar here.

Several Innovation Theater and Smart Talks programs are already posted on the Show’s website at TheInspiredHomeShow.com/education and can be viewed at any time. A schedule of upcoming webinars is available on the Show website homepage at TheInspiredHomeShow.com. All webinars will be posted on the website after airing.

In addition to the educational sessions, photo galleries for the New Product Showcase, Trending Today Preview, Inventors’ Corner exhibitors and the IHA Global Innovation Awards for Product Design are posted on TheInspiredHomeShow.com. To learn about new products that were to be at the Show, visit the Show’s online directory, Housewares Connect 365 at Housewares.org/housewaresconnect365, and select “Featured New Products for Media & Buyers.”