Jennifer Guerndt, Casey Nick, Kelly Sampson, Kyle Murphy, Sarah Butts, Monica Wierzba, and Laura Meurette of Samuels Group | Environments recently attended NeoCon 2011 World’s Trade Fair in Chicago, June 13-15. NeoCon is North America’s largest exhibition of contract furnishings for the design and management of the built environment. The annual gathering of design professionals, corporate end users, and furniture dealers exhibits thousands of innovative products and resources for corporate, hospitality, healthcare, retail, government, institutional, and residential interiors from more than 1,200 showrooms and exhibitors.

NeoCon 2011 has wrapped up and Nemschoff and Herman Miller topped off a successful show by taking home a Best of NeoCon Gold award for the Oasis Overbed Table.  The Oasis Overbed Table offers convenient storage without sacrificing comfort, space and maneuverability.

“Nemschoff and Herman Miller Healthcare share the common goal of utilizing space efficiency to support the continuum of care,” said Kent Gawart, Chief Operating Officer, Nemschoff. “Receipt of this honor further confirms we have the groundbreaking solutions that put patients, their caregivers, and family first.”

Sponsored by IIDA, IFMA, Contract, Facilities Design & Management, and Merchandise Mart Properties, Inc., the Best of NeoCon Competition honors new products introduced in U.S. markets since the close of the previous year’s NeoCon, showcasing the top designs from an array of outstanding entries. The Best of NeoCon 2011 awards were selected from 327 entries in 42 different product categories. The 2011 recipients, including Herman Miller Healthcare and Nemschoff, were honored in Chicago at this year’s NeoCon trade show.

A result of an ongoing collaboration between Herman Miller and Nemschoff, Oasis Overbed Table eliminates overcrowding patients, limiting guests, or inhibiting caregivers—a major challenge to overcome in healthcare design. The Oasis Overbed Table provides dedicated compartments to organize healthcare items and affords patients a chance to own their space. Rounded edges and casters also allow for easy access and reconfiguration by caregivers.

The award winning Oasis Overbed Table is available at Samuels Group | Environments along with other great offerings from Nemschoff and Herman Miller Healthcare.  Call Kelly Sampson at 715.842.2222 to set up a consultation for your healthcare needs.

It’s NeoCon time again!  The world furniture exposition at Chicago’s Merchandise Mart has kicked off this week.  There are thousands of new and innovative products being introduced this year at NeoCon including a brand new line from Herman Miller.

Beginning in September 2011 Herman Miller will be the sole distributor of the Magis line of products in the United States and Canada.  Magis is a leading Italian furniture manufacturer of café seating, tables, stools, outdoor furniture, storage and accessories.

All week at NeoCon, you can see Konstantine Grcic’s Chair_One and Stool_One in the south lobby space of the Merchandise Mart. The Herman Miller showroom features the XZ3 Table. Workstations include Trash Cans by Jasper Morrison.

In the coming months you’ll be hearing more about Magis products created with the same authored design as all of your favorite Herman Miller products.  In the meantime, if you’re at NeoCon this week, stop into the Herman Miller showroom and check them out and look for Magis products at Samuels Group | Environments starting in fall!

Herman Miller celebrated multiple honors in Chicago at Neocon this year. NeoCon is North America’s largest exhibition of contract furnishings for the design and management of the built environment. The annual gathering of design professionals, corporate end users, and furniture dealers recognized the company in three separate awards programs, including showrooms, new product introductions, and manufacturers’ reputations among independent furniture dealers.

The annual Best of NeoCon awards for product, juried by interior design and facility management professionals who reviewed 337 entries, recognized Herman Miller Healthcare’s Compass system with a Gold award in the Healthcare Furniture category and Herman Miller’s Flo monitor arm with a Silver award in the Technology Support category.

The Best of NeoCon awards, now in their 21st year, are sponsored and organized by the International Interior Design Association, the International Facility Management Association, Contract magazine, the McMorrow Report, and Merchandise Mart Properties, Inc.

The new Herman Miller Healthcare showroom also was named Large Showroom Winner in the International Interior Design Association (IIDA) Showroom and Booth Design Competition. The award honors originality of design, visual impact, effective use of materials, and the outstanding use of space, color, texture, lighting, and graphics.

In addition to product accolades, Herman Miller also received the “2010 Manufacturer of the Year Gold Award,” presented by the Office Furniture Dealers Alliance (OFDA). The industry association for independent U.S. and Canadian office furniture dealers annually surveys its membership for their opinions on industry manufacturers. The awards are then presented in conjunction with the NeoCon gathering. This is the fourth time in five years that Herman Miller has received the top prize among major manufacurers.

Herman Miller’s award winning commercial interior solutions are available at Samuels Group | Environments.  Give us a call at 715.842.2222 to find out how these products can help your business.

With NeoCon 2010 wrapped up there isn’t a whole lot more to say about this year’s experience. Just in case you weren’t able to get to Chicago for the big event, we wanted to give you this link to some great videos of the Herman Miller showroom and their offerings at NeoCon 2010.

Featured are an overview of the Herman Miller showroom with Cindy Donn, Senior Manager of applied knowledge, a video featuring Herman Miller’s new healthcare offering Compass, North American Sales Director Matt Tedesco describing the Thrive portfolio, Herman Miller’s offerings for education and a video detailing the Geiger line.

Herman Miller’s NeoCon experience was a great opportunity to see what Herman Miller is all about and what Herman Miller has planned for the future. But these videos go beyond showing you what Herman Miller displayed at NeoCon. Work has become much more complex with mobile technology and the necessity of getting large groups of people communicating. This makes meeting people’s needs more complex and the videos help you see how Herman Miller gets it done.

http://www.hermanmiller.com/discover/get-your-neocon-on-2/

With NeoCon 2010 wrapping up last week, we saw a variety of new innovations and products at the Merchandise Mart in Chicago.

Herman Miller unveiled their newest healthcare product, Compass last week and it promises to strengthen Herman Miller’s already strong place in the healthcare industry.

After acquiring Nemschoff, a line of healthcare furniture about a year ago, Herman Miller added to their already impressive line of healthcare products with the Compass System.   Compass is a modular system of interchangeable components for patient rooms, exam spaces and clinical areas.  Options for Compass can range from the ER to the Exam room.  Examples of the wide variety of applications that are available with Compass can be seen here:

http://www.hermanmiller.com/Compass-System-Visualizer

Compass helps healthcare facilities deal with the rapid speed of change involved in the industry and is designed to create a more effective healing environment by being seamless and cleanable which eliminates the spread of infection.

You can check out the Compass page at HermanMiller.com to get an overview how Compass can be an integral part of your healthcare solution.  For a more in depth look at how Compass can be a value to your organization, call Kelly, your Herman Miller Healthcare representative at Samuels Group | Environments at 715.842.2222!

More NeoCon news!  Geiger will be moving into the Merchandise Mart and joining the Herman Miller showroom at NeoCon.  Geiger International, a designer and manufacturer of modular wood casegoods and architectural furniture for private office and commercial interiors will reveal new side seating and conference seating options at the show which runs from June 14^th-16^th at Chicago’s Merchandise Mart.

The interesting new products in the world of commercial furniture being unveiled at NeoCon aren’t limited to Geiger, Herman Miller will be unveiling a new table line with the ability to access power and data for budget conscious businesses.  Additionally, you’ll see improvements to the Vivo and Intent lines that Herman Miller already offers.

With NeoCon is only three weeks away we can hardly wait to see these new offerings from Herman Miller and Geiger!

Herman Miller recently published a research summary entitled Patient Rooms : A Changing Scene of Healing, which details how the healthcare environment is rapidly changing.

http://tinyurl.com/275hphv

Business realities, changes in technology and advances in procedures are all shaping the scope of Healthcare as we enter the second decade of the 21^st century.  The design of patient rooms needs to keep up with these changes, integrate new technologies and conform to new healthcare methods and procedures.

The article states that new patient rooms can cost a facility as much as $1.5 to 2 million dollars per bed and renovations can be even more expensive making the accommodation of new technologies a costly proposition.  Adding to this is the changing way in which patient rooms are used.  Technology is making what once were major surgeries requiring hospitalization into outpatient procedures as this trend continues hospital facilities will serve primarily patients who need acute care.

Utilizing the knowledge gained in this research summary Herman Miller has developed an entirely new patient room system.  Compass, Herman Miller’s new healthcare system, will be unveiled at the 2010 NeoCon World Trade Fair in Chicago June 14-16^th.  Compass will address all of the findings of the study and be an integration of new technology and the new healthcare landscape.

In addition to the new Compass Healthcare system, Herman Miller will be featuring a standalone healthcare showroom.  Also featured at NeoCon will be their newly acquired Nemschoff line.  The inclusion of Nemschoff into the Herman Miller line allows them to take a more holistic approach to healthcare.