Filling three halls of McCormick Place in Chicago April
10-13, 2008, for the first time, the annual Kitchen/Bath Industry Show &
Conference (K/BIS®) brought together nearly a thousand exhibitors and more than
45,000 attendees, the show’s largest-ever turnout.
Owned by the National Kitchen & Bath Association (NKBA),
the four-day conference and expo featured must-see new products, innovative
design ideas and the latest trends in kitchens and baths.
“Attendance at this year’s K/BIS continued to be strong,”
said Sara Ann Busby, CKD, president of the NKBA. “The increase in attendance
supports what we have been saying all year — kitchen and bath professionals are
still thriving, and the optimism and strength of the industry was tangible in
Chicago.”
Big-name exhibitors at this year’s show included Sears,
Kohler, BSH (Bosch, Siemens, Thermador, and Gaggenau), LG Electronics,
Sub-Zero/Wolf, Moen, GE Appliances, Viking Range, Broan-Nutone, Grohe, Dacor,
Haier America, Electrolux along with many other well-known brands.
New products could be found at exhibitor booths and in
one-stop, must-see destinations on the show floor, including the NKBA/Meredith
Design Idea Center (DIC) and the New Product Pavilion.
In addition to the new products and designs being displayed
and honored, the biggest and most talked-about trends were on display in
manufacturer’s product lines and in the NKBA’s conference sessions. The
conferences offered attendees many educational opportunities to keep up to date
on emerging trends in design, business leadership, and technology, and one of
the most buzzed about topics at K/BIS was “going green.”
The courses covered everything from residential green,
universal design and healthy designing to color trend forecasting, advanced
lighting technology, and new materials for countertops. This year’s NKBA
opening keynote speaker, Christine Todd Whitman, former administrator of the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and New Jersey’s first and only
female governor, discussed sustainability and environmentally friendly kitchen
and bath design from an environmental, social and political perspective.
Next year’s show will be held at the Georgia World
Congress Center in Atlanta from May 1-3.
