Articles
Stine Grubbe: “If you work in retail, Formland is a must”
arrow_backTo the overview16 January 2023
There are some people who are a firm fixture at Formland. In the same way as an inspirational Greenhouse, design talents at Creators Community and inspiring talks on the Speak Up stage. Stine Grubbe is one of those people. She and Formland share a long history. She visited the trade show for the first time back in 1990, when she was a trainee in the paint retail sector. After a detour into other industries, she returned to the retail sector around 2008. This also meant that Formland once more added big two crosses in Stine Grubbe’s annual calendar – one for the Spring trade show and one for the Autumn trade show.
“If you work in retail, Formland is a must – both as inspiration, but also to support the initiatives of these kind that we have in this country. This applies regardless of whether you work behind the scenes at the trade show or come as a visitor. It’s generally important for the industry that we have Formland, because it puts Denmark on the world map as a design nation,” says Stine Grubbe, who is a retail and visual merchandising expert.
Her current role at Formland began eight years ago, when she became seriously involved in the trade show. It all began with a presentation on the Speak Up stage. One presentation became several, and Stine Grubbe and Formland hooked up with each other. Under the previous project manager at Formland, Mai-Britt Risvig Flyvholm, Stine Grubbe became an ambassador for Formland. As an ambassador, you help make the trade show visible to the world at large and participate in committee and evaluation meetings with the trade show organisers, to ensure that Formland can always improve.
High for several days
At Formland Autumn 2022, the retail expert took on responsibility for a new zone: Concept Zone. It was a kind of trend zone for concept development combined with mini-workshops in visual merchandising.
“It was a kind of test area that first time, but the area was well received,” says Stine Grubbe, who was surprised by how instructive the process was for a seasoned visual merchandiser like her.
It was the first time Stine Grubbe had been involved as an exhibitor at the trade show, and she says that she felt high as a kite for several days after the experience.
“See you at Formland”
Stine Grubbe runs a solo business in her day job, so it’s not every day that she expands her network and meets people who share her interests.
“It’s great to be part of the community around the event. It’s great to be part of the team – both with the other exhibitors and the Formland organisers. Formland is a community where everyone’s more or less in the same boat,” says Stine Grubbe, continuing:
“For me personally, the trade show is particularly enjoyable, as I run my own business, so on weekdays I’m too busy for networking meetings and coffee dates. That’s why I end many of my conversations by saying, ‘see you at Formland’, because I know that we’ll meet up there.”
