Maison & Objet has announced plans to replace its physical Autumn 2020 edition with a digital fair.

Set to run from 4-18 September, the online alternative will be underpinned by the digital networking expertise that the Maison&Objet teams have acquired since the launch of the MOM digital platform in 2016.

“Although there are encouraging signs of the pandemic beginning to decrease, we believe there are still far too many uncertainties regarding the travel conditions for international exhibitors and visitors,” comments Philippe Brocart, Managing Director of Maison & Objet.

“Furthermore, the lack of clarity regarding the ability to hold large gatherings in early September in France has played a major part in influencing our decision to call off the September edition of Maison & Objet, despite the fact that 80% of stands had already been reserved by April 2020.”

“Our teams have spent the past few weeks shaping out plans that will allow brands to present their new collections and continue engaging with buyers and specifiers,” Brocart continues.

The Digital Fair

The aim of the initiative is to maintain an active relationship between brands/designers and buyers/specifiers with a view to driving year-end orders, as is the case each September. The Digital Fair will combine two core elements: Digital Showrooms on the MOM digital platform to enable products to be showcased, and Digital Talks on the Maison & Objet website to deliver content and inspiration.

Digital Showrooms

Initially launched in 2016, MOM is an online platform that connects brands with 400,000 international buyers. In September, Maison & Objet will be giving those buyers the chance to discover all the latest collections in a new showroom format mirroring the way in which stands are presented at the fair.

Digital Talks

Maison & Objet’s talks programme will offer inspiration and analyse the latest trends, bringing together the industry’s top creatives, trend researchers, architects, designers and makers. The series will comprise conversations, articles, product selections and interviews, either in podcast format or streamed live.

Paris Design Week

Each year for the past decade, Maison & Objet has also organised Paris Design Week, a design-led experience that runs alongside the trade fair. Across five different districts, each with their own identity, the festival extends an open invitation to explore the City of Light through the prism of design.

2020 will be no different, with new finds being celebrated throughout the French capital’s showrooms and featured in its design, fine crafts and lifestyle stores, accompanied by pop-up installations in public places.

This year’s Paris Design Week is keen to help the industry keep powering forward by getting design-geared Parisian businesses back on their feet. The show will also be part of France Design Week, a new national initiative spearheaded by the French Agency for the Promotion of Industrial Creation (APCI – Agence pour la promotion de la création industrielle) that will bring design events to cities across the country.

Maison & Objet 2021

The ‘Work!’ and ‘Projects’ show sectors, originally scheduled for September, will now be part of the first 2021 edition – held from 22-26 January – as well as an installation by Designer of the Year Franklin Azzi.

“The lockdown we have experienced is set to accelerate the transformation of workspaces,” adds Brocart. “The Work! show sector will directly reflect those changes, enriched with designs that were elaborated during the crisis period and becoming a veritable hub for reinventing the modern-day workspace.”

Maison & Objet has also joined forces with Fabernovel and Morning Coworking to launch ReSpace, a think tank to explore post-Covid workspaces, which will be inaugurated this September following a virtual talk series set to run online from 10 June to 8 July.