Spring Breakout is bringing the first-ever traveling furniture and design show to Baltimore, Wednesday, May 19.
The show will feature commercial furniture and designs from 15 different manufacturers, there will be multiple architecture and design panel discussions and presentations, and a cocktail hour to end the show.
The event is free and open to the public. People can register for the show on eventbrite.
“The best way for designers and users to experience furniture is seeing it. It's hard to look at something online and know exactly what it is. With commercial furniture you can’t just return it if you don’t like it so it's really important that people see it [and] touch it,” said Shaina Phillips, an organizer of the Spring Breakout roadshow.
Commercial furniture is specifically designed for use in business interiors where it will be used regularly by large volumes of people.
Phillips shared that for so many of these companies it is really impactful to get in front of the customer. They have one company in particular that makes mobile sensory pods and she said being able to sit in it, feel the drop in pressure, experience the use of controlled lighting in person versus looking at it online, offers a completely different experience to the customer.
The annual Neocon event, the most important event of the year for the commercial design industry, was postponed for 2021. Following this Phillips and others got together and decided they needed to find a way to get out again instead of what they have been doing for the past year of zoom calls and virtual displays.
Phillips said it’s really about coming together as a community and allowing people to experience these things in person.
Flock Freight, one of the show's sponsors, is taking everything in a 53-foot semi-truck going city to city with them. There are eight stops in total starting in Dallas and ending in Chicago.
Spring Breakout is partnered with the American Society of Interior Design (ASID) and they are looking to target the design market, both commercial and interior design, and also have it open to the larger community to enjoy.