Timing can be tricky when determining who makes the cut for our annual Players report, which profiles “People to Watch” in the housewares business.
Someone will invariably get a major promotion, take over a company or otherwise vault into the housewares industry-influencing limelight at or after deadline to cause our editors who nominate the Players to wish that person could have been considered for this year’s group, featured in this edition.
Industry Personalities
That begs the key question: At what point do these “People to Watch” actually become people to watch?
In most cases, the Players profiled beginning on page 13 of the August 15, 2016, issue, are industry personalities— some veteran, some new to the business— who have had a chance to at least wet their feet in expanded or new roles or in new initiatives but whose ultimate impact is still several weeks or months away from a fair judgment. We try to steer clear of declaring people Players before the ink on their new business cards or new business plans has dried. They’ll get their chance to make the cut next year.
In that spirit, we hope you can appreciate that selecting 20 Players each year representing a cross-section of the housewares business from a pool of dozens of solid candidates is no easy task. We are confident we have assembled a compelling group worth watching.
Now it’s just a matter of timing before we can accurately measure that worth.
Remembering Corwin
On the matter of timing, this year’s Player’s issue sadly corresponds to our reporting of the passing of Susan Corwin Miller, who managed the Gourmet Housewares Show for GLM from 1987 to 2008 (see story on page 58).
My first trade show for HomeWorld Business was the San Francisco Gourmet Show in May of 1990. Susan was more than happy to help initiate this fledgling trade editor into a show and into an industry. She became a valued resource and an important advocate for our efforts to cover the gourmet housewares business.
Susan didn’t just promote gourmet. She lived it through her zest for fine food, fine wine and, of course, fine people. She embodied the passion and the personal touch that define the very best attributes of the gourmet products industry and its retailers.
Lasting Influence
Although the Gourmet Show as many knew it then is but a fond memory, Susan helped draft the blueprint of dedicated enthusiasm and sophisticated style that made that show so special during its heyday and continues to influence the many trade shows across the country that now count gourmet housewares as a core business.
Industry veterans often lament the end of the Gourmet Show as it was when a certain junior editor walked through the doors of San Francisco’s Moscone Center for the first time 26 years ago. And now, we mourn the passing of Susan Corwin Miller.
So much of what she accomplished, though, remains very much alive.
Today’s HomeWorld Players would do well to take note.
