SUPPORT FOR NEW HOUSEWARES EVENT

Exclusively Housewares is supporting the inaugural Housewares Conference & Innovation Awards, which will take place on Tuesday, 27 March 2012.

The new event will bring together the best elements of the Product of the Year Awards and Britain's Best Retailer Awards with The Housewares Conference. The result will be a day packed with content created exclusively for housewares professionals - informative, inspirational and with plenty of opportunities for networking.

The venue is Oxfordshire's Heythrop Park - a magnificent and historic country house set in 440 acres of parkland.

Amongst the speakers at the conference will be the internationally-acclaimed chef Heston Blumenthal OBE, famed for his ground-breaking approach to food and cooking. His best-known restaurant, The Fat Duck, in Bray, Berkshire, boasts three Michelin stars.

Blumenthal will be joined in the speaker line-up by Paul Grierson, business development manager for new formats with John Lewis Partnership; Dexam managing director Roger Morgan-Grenville; Carol Paris, operations director with Garden & Leisure Group; David Eggison, managing director of the Colanders cookshop and ecommerce business; and Gary Gordon, joint director of the Kitchen Kapers cookshop chain. Conference chair is former BHETA housewares director Pam Plant.

The day will also see the accolades handed out in the new Retail Innovation Awards - recognising the very best retailers in our industry - and the Housewares Innovation Awards - honouring the top new products. Both are now open for entries, with a deadline of Monday, January 9 2012.

You can also book your place at the event now.