EDspaces is billed as a conference and the educational facilities' marketplace to explore how the convergence of technology, space and pedagogy impact learning. But for the contract furniture industry, it is also a place where its educational furniture products and knowledge on creating the best learning environments is on full display.
Held last week in Milwaukee, EDspaces continues to grow in size and importance for the industry. Split between top-notch educational sessions and a sizable expo showing off the latest furniture and educational products, EDspaces is not the kind of event where tens of thousands of attendees show up to kick tires. Instead, about 1,200 attendees were there looking for advice on how to create great schools, universities and classrooms. And for expo participants, that can mean business worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
The educational furniture marketplace remains strong with no imminent signs of recession, said Mark Hubbard, board member of the Education Market Association (EDmarket) and president of Paragon Furniture, a maker of K-12 furniture.
“2019 was a mixed year, but construction school starts were the highest since 2008-09,” he said. “More than 50 percent of schools have projects in 2019 and 61 percent say they started a project in 2019. Bonding has authorized $56 billion (in school construction and fit-out work) in 2019, which means there are projects in the pipeline.”
Indeed, educational furniture is a strong market. Hubbard said it is showing a compound growth rate of 12 percent a year. There is two to three years of good visibility, he said, and the market should remain strong for educational furniture.
For those showing their wares at the Expo portion of EDspaces, that is good news.
SurfaceWorks brought many of the products it purchased last year from izzy+ that fit perfectly in the educational furniture space. It is the first time the company, based in nearby Oak Creek, Wisconsin, participated in the show.
“We are here showing former izzy products like Clara, Nemo, Dewey and Penny,” said Chris Gnadt, general manager. “They are perfectly suited for the education market. We are new to the K-12 market.” The company has added a 48,000-square-foot manufacturing plant to accommodate the izzy+ acquisitions and equipment.
The show floor was busy with school districts looking for the latest furniture. That's because education and educational furniture is changing as quickly — if not more so — than the office furniture market. Schools are moving rapidly away from traditional combo desks, those back-breaking seats with tablet arms that have sat in rows in classrooms for more than 100 years. Modern schools look a lot more like the best corporate meeting spaces with desks and chairs on casters that can be moved around the room, casual seating and lots of technology.
This trend opens the market a bit for the office furniture industry as schools move away from speciality furniture. Still, it doesn't mean office furniture makers can jump in with no knowledge or experience.
9to5 Seating has studied the market for years and was at EDspaces for the second year, this time showing its new chair, Bell. It's the first chair the company has ever built for the educational furniture market, said Su Pak, director of marketing for the Hawthorn, California-based company.
“We've had a great response to Bell so far,” she said, adding the chair would be available in February or March 2020, and the company is already taking orders. “You can scale it up or down in different sizes, and we will offer it in all of our 12 plastic shell colors. What makes us different is our ability to produce the volume these schools need.”
Bell will be made in the U.S. at 9to5's state-of-the-art Tennessee plant. It will come in five sizes, covering learners from K-college, and in a four-leg or cantilever base, both of which are stackable. The cantilever base model can also be hung from the side of a table, making classroom cleanup easy.
The Expo was a blend of traditional school furniture makers like Academia Furniture Industries and Artcobell, along with those who serve both markets, like KI, Steelcase, Indiana Furniture, Muzo, Arcadia and ERG International. Other companies like 9to5, Nook and SurfaceWorks are newcomers to the market, but buoyed by the prospects of it.
The other portion of the EDspaces event, no less important than the Expo, was the educational programming. A number of excellent sessions were offered, many led by experts from the furniture industry.
Bryan Ballegeer, vice president of the education markets for KI, led a session titled “Designed for A(lpha) to Z, a Hands-On Workshop” that discussed Generations Z and Alpha and how they work differently. They are multitasking, tech-enriched collaborators who learn through individual analysis, group discussion and do-it-yourself work.
The session reviewed how education happened in the past and how Gen Z and Alpha are changing the equation. Ballegeer used the idea of design thinking to lead attendees through a process to see where the industry might want to go next.
Giovanna Ippolito, director of education at Global, taught a session about how active learning blends learning styles to create the right educational environments. She led participants through a series of questions that helped them identify their own learning styles — from visual to written — and showed why traditional classroom design works for some students and not others depending on their learning style.
In addition to the EDsessions and Expo, the event also included school tours, examples of how classrooms might be organized and social events. The keynote speaker was Tony Wagner from the Learning Policy Institute. He spoke about how schools can innovate as we transition from a knowledge economy to the innovation era.
Jim McGarry, president of EDmarket, told attendees what they are doing is important and will shape education for generations to come. He urged those who gathered in Milwaukee to take what they learned at EDspaces and apply it in schools and universities around the country.
Julie Ryno of Diversified Wood Products, who was given the EDmarket Distinguished Service Award, said: “I am passionate about this industry. There are so many people here thinking about how we can make education better for children. That's what it's all about.”
Next year EDspaces will be Nov. 11-13 in Charlotte, North Carolina.