Orlando, Fla.—The weather was downright chilly by Florida’s standards—even for late January—but the reception was warm and toasty inside the Rosen Shingle Creek here last week for the 2025 Shaw Flooring Network (SFN) kickoff.
The biennial event drew a packed crowd of roughly 4,500 people, which included the children and family members of retail store owners. Moreover, approximately 1,000 unique SFN accounts were represented here—that’s nearly 80% of the total SFN membership. While it wasn’t a “record” in terms of total overall participation (the 2023 SFN conference also welcomed hundreds of virtual attendees), it was a strong showing nonetheless.
“In 2023 we set a record because we had both live attendees and virtual attendees, but this time we have more people attending in person,” said Dani Brock, director of retail marketing, Shaw Industries. “We broke the record of live attendees from last time to this time.”
So many SFN dealers signed up for the event, in fact, that Shaw had to book an overflow hotel nearby for 100 customers as the Rosen Shingle Creek was filled to capacity. “We’ve never done that before,” said Danny Crutchfield, vice president, Shaw Flooring Network. “Usually we’ll have five or six, so we have to move off property just because we don’t have room. But this time there was a record number off property that we just did not have the capacity for.”
To accommodate attendees, Shaw organized a shuttle bus schedule between hotels.
Another big difference this year, according to Shaw, is more attendees from the same businesses and/or families wanted to participate. “This time we had more people than usual who wanted to bring more numbers of family members,” Crutchfield said. “Some attendees brought in 10-12 people, whereas normally they would bring four to six. We even had one customer who had 23 people on his registration!”
That level of interest, Shaw executives agreed, is possibly reflective of the younger generations expressing a desire to enter the business. “We spoke to a dealer who’s getting older; he brought 14 people—some of who represent the next generation,” Brock said. “We love to see that because they’re second generation working on third-generation store owners.”
That’s an observation that Shaw executives witnessed repeatedly over the course of the convention. It was a particularly refreshing thing for Ben Liebert, executive vice president of Shaw’s residential division, to see—with SFN ’25 marking his first dealer conference. “My heart is so full when I see one, two, three generations of a family here at convention. People were pulling out of their phone and showing me pictures of their children. And then I’m seeing 15-year-olds, 15 years later, that have been coming to this show for their entire life. That is just so amazing and inspiring.”
Liebert, who came to Shaw from another industry altogether—and from another state— remarked on the familial vibe that flooring retailers exuded throughout the event. “In late 2023, I, along with my family, made the decision to start a new journey to join the Shaw family. What I didn’t realize at the time, it was so much bigger than the Shaw family. It’s the flooring industry family. This is a special industry and a special network.”
It’s no surprise, then, that the theme for this year’s convention—Believe—reflected: a) the faith that Shaw has in its retailer members; b) the confidence that SFN retailers have in wanting to grow and be better in all aspects of their lives and business; and c) the encouragement that members provide one another.
“People have embraced this theme more so than any other SFN event we’ve had,” Crutchfield told FCNews. “Believe is more than just a word. It starts with believing in yourself, then you have to go out and do the work. There’s power in the word, in how it’s going to move us forward. It speaks to the core of who we are as a Shaw family and SFN network. People really gravitated toward that.”
Case in point is Doug McCool, owner of McCool’s Flooring, Kokomo, Ind. He recounted a situation where he was having a particularly challenging week in the office. He didn’t feel comfortable calling on a local retailer for advice, so he reached out to an SFN member in California—Jay Glatman—for help. “Jay talked to me and said, ‘Don’t worry, Doug, I believe in you.’ And he helped me work through the issues I have having.”
Another SFN council member, Sam Locher, vice president of business development for Massachusetts-based AJ Rose Carpet & Flooring, also attested to the camaraderie exhibited at the show. “Convention is always amazing,” he said. “There’s a great amount of effort put into it, but it’s a labor of love. Shaw is unlike any other organization I know.”
The value of SFN membership goes beyond the close relationships between retailers. SFN council members say it reflects the faith and trust that Shaw puts in its retailer partners when developing new products, programs and initiatives. Rather than taking a “top-down” approach to new rollouts, Shaw actively seeks out the input of its valued member partners.
Emphasis on the word “partnership.” The objective, according to Shaw, is to develop closer relationships that are not simply transactional. As Liebert explained: “Partnerships are two- way conversations. That’s how we build trust and relationships. Are we asking you the right questions about your business? What’s important to you? What are your ambitions? What are your goals? And then our teams are going to deliver a co-developed, tailored solution to make your dreams come true. Because we believe when you win, we win. That is the definition of partnership.”
(Look for more coverage of the SFN convention in upcoming editions of FCNews.)
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