MIFF Industry Networking and Young Design Talent Mission in the Northern Region

What a better way to stay in touch with long-distance friends by paying them a visit. Recently, the Malaysian International Furniture Fair (MIFF) team, led by founder and chairman Datuk Dr Tan Chin Huat, made a two-day roadshow stop in Penang from August 22 - 23 to network with industry friends from the northern region and strengthen its search for young design talent for MIFF 2020.

Over 50 industrialists attended the networking dinner that was held at The Light Hotel in Seberang Jaya and among the guests was Mr Hendry Kong Wooi Keat, president of Penang Furniture and Timber Industry Association and its committee members. Also in attendance were major exporters and long-term exhibitors of MIFF.

Also present to update exhibitors on MIFF 2020 preparations was MIFF’s General Manager, Ms Karen Goi. One of the updates includes MIFF 2020’s extensive international marketing and promotion initiatives, where exhibitors can benefit from maximising brand exposure in the global market.

Dr Eric Leong, Chief Judge of the MIFF Furniture Design Competition (FDC) was also present to share his views with guests on new market trends and how to navigate the millennial consumer market with a presentation titled ‘Millennial Consumer Behaviour’. 

In his presentation, he touched on the fact that millennials (Gen Y and Gen Z) are quickly becoming the most important consumer group in most types of businesses including furniture as they have high buying power. It’s vital for businesses to understand this group of consumers especially about what they want in order to meet the kind of experience they are expecting. 

"The millennial consumer is the future market for the business and they are looking at both online saving and offline retail experiences hence in order to win their attention we need to look into the O2O (Online to Offline) business model" #DREL #DRELquotes

As mentioned by Dr Eric Leong, millennials growing up with access to information at their fingertips has influenced their buying behaviour. This unique group are powerful trendsetters as they have the ability to influence and tend to shape the thinking of other consumers on brand and product perception. Hence, businesses should transform to change customer experience and customer service to be more Millennial-friendly that includes by going digital.

Young Design Talent Mission in Penang

On 23 August, the MIFF team continues the roadshow in Penang to meet design lecturers and professionals to discuss the MIFF Furniture Design Competition 2020 theme “Kids Wonderland” and the Best Mentor Award that introduced earlier this year. 

7 lecturers from 5 design institutions in the northern region attended the briefing to get the latest updates on the competition and its activities – the annual FDC seminar series which is to be held on 26 September 2019 in Kuala Lumpur.

Special awards for the institution which was introduced in FDC 2019, namely ‘Best Institution Award’ and ‘Best Mentor Award’ will once again to be presented in 2020. The awards are aimed at encouraging more participation from institutions in Malaysia to increase more quality product design submission.

Datuk Tan hoped FDC would yield innovative ideas as demand for children furniture was on the rise and could potentially become a strong export segment for the local industry.

MIFF launched the young designer contest back in 2010 to sustain the future of Malaysia’s export-oriented furniture sector. FDC has discovered several promising talents who were allotted space to market their products under the Millennials@Design gallery in MIFF since 2018.

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Read the event’s news coverage below:
Bernama   Utusan   Oriental Daily   Nanyang Siang Pau 

Notice: Online visitor registration for MIFF 2020 will open on September 2019. Stay tuned for more updates!