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Cebu?s furniture expo next year will feature works of international designers who want to explore their Filipino roots for inspiration.
The designers will work closely with the Cebu Furniture Industry Foundation (CFIF) under the Kagikan Project, which the CFIF launched this year to make the show more dynamic and address the changing demands of the market.
CFIF president Angela Paulin said during last week's official launching of the furniture expo, CebuNext 2011, that the international designers are members of EPOCH, an organization of designers, whose aim is to give back to Mother Earth through their works.
As of Thursday last week, six designers had committed to the Kagikan project. They are Latorre Cruz who is based in London, England, Josef Crisanto who is based in Monaco, Martha Cech of Vienna, Austria, Wataru Sakuma based in the United States, Jinggoy Buensuceso based in Singapore and Stanley Ruiz, who is based in New York, said Christina Gaston, chairman of the design and product development program.
?Jinggoy Buensuceso and Stanley Ruiz are graduates of the University of the Philippines,? said Gaston.
?They will be closely working with us in developing designs which will also be guided by the theme, Crossing Cultures. They will be coming here and we will be closely coordinating with them through emails,? Gaston said.
Paulin said they were optimistic that the works of EPOCH designers would become the crowd drawer of the show, bringing in more people to attend Cebu Next 2011 on March 5 to March 8, 2011 at the Waterfront Cebu City Hotel and Casino.
?From 12,800 we got 23,000 e-mails now in our database of buyers because of last year's show and we are confident that we'll have more this year both from the participating companies and the buyers,? he said.
Cebu Next 2011 chairman Charles Streegan said that through the show they hope to tap new markets such as China, Australia and the Middle East which have been showing positive growth in export in the first quarter of 2010.
?These countries should not be overlooked as their economies are growing, especially China which have at least a billion people. They (China) should not be treated as competitors. I know we can do that while maintaining the United States and European market which still remain our main market,? Streegan said.
