IHI Conference: Conversations in the Partner Pavilion
From new products and emerging technologies to conversations with manufacturers and service providers, the Partner Pavilion at the Independent Home Improvement Conference (IHI Conference) brings together many of the people and ideas that help independent retailers move their businesses forward.
Open Wednesday and Thursday from 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., the Partner Pavilion offers retailers a relaxed place to connect with manufacturers, service providers and industry partners. The pavilion encourages attendees to slow down, ask questions and spend time discussing the products, services and ideas shaping independent home improvement retail.
Whether retailers are searching for a new product line, exploring operational tools, evaluating technology or
reconnecting with longtime vendor partners, the Partner Pavilion provides an environment where conversations often become just as valuable as the products themselves. That atmosphere has become one of the hallmarks of the IHI Conference. Retailers can discuss merchandising strategies, compare notes with peers, learn about emerging technologies and hear directly from manufacturers about new products and programs.
Service providers are available to answer questions about everything from retail operations and marketing to software and business solutions, while manufacturers gain valuable insight into the everyday challenges retailers face. The Partner Pavilion reflects the more collaborative spirit of IHI.
Attendees can move at their own pace, revisit exhibitors throughout the conference and continue discussions that began during educational sessions or networking events. For first-time attendees, the pavilion offers an easy introduction to the conference community. For longtime IHI participants, it has become a familiar gathering place where friendships are renewed, partnerships strengthened and new business opportunities discovered. It’s where many of the conversations that begin during conference sessions continue—and often lead to practical ideas retailers can take home and put to work.
PRODUCTS CHOSEN BY RETAILERS
The Partner Pavilion is also home to one of the conference’s most anticipated annual displays: the NHPA Retailers’ Choice Awards. Celebrating its 60th anniversary in 2026, the Retailers’ Choice Awards recognize the year’s best, most creative and most innovative products. Sponsored by the North American Hardware and Paint Association, the awards program has been an industry tradition since its debut at the National Hardware Show in 1966.
What continues to distinguish the program six decades later is its judging process. Rather than relying on editors, product experts or industry analysts, NHPA assembles a panel of independent home improvement retailers to evaluate new products introduced throughout the spring market season. Judges visit wholesaler and distributor buying markets, along with the National Hardware Show’s Concept to Commerce, looking for products they believe would perform well in their own stores and resonate with fellow independent retailers.
Their evaluations go beyond eye-catching packaging or clever demonstrations. Judges consider whether a product solves a real customer problem, offers merchandising potential, fills an emerging market need or provides a unique opportunity for independent retailers to differentiate themselves.
Once the spring markets conclude, the judges meet to compare notes, discuss their nominations and select the year’s Retailers’ Choice Award winners. This year’s judging panel included Ash Ebbo of Clement’s Paint; Katie Prus of Abbotsford Paint and Decorating; Franklin Cloninger of Triangle True Value Hardware; RJ McDaniel of B&B Hardware; Diana Newton of South Bay Hardware; Emily Wood of Wood’s Ace Hardware; Katie DeMaris of DeMaris Hardware; Brookelyn McClellan of Hardware Sales; Joe Franquinha of Crest True Value Hardware and Urban Garden Center; Jared Brown of Aubuchon Hardware; Karen Mayer of Busy Beaver Building Centers; and Megan Menzer of Newton’s True Value.
Attendees can see all this year’s winning products together in a special Retailers’ Choice display inside the Partner Pavilion, creating an efficient way to discover products that have already earned the endorsement of experienced independent retailers. Manufacturers will also be available to answer questions and demonstrate why their products stood out among hundreds of introductions during the spring buying season.
For retailers walking the pavilion, the display serves as a curated collection of ideas worthy of a closer look. Rather than sorting through every product introduced throughout the year, attendees can begin with items that have already passed perhaps the industry’s most meaningful test: the approval of their peers.
Together, the Partner Pavilion and the Retailers’ Choice Awards capture what makes the Independent Home Improvement Conference unique. The event is built around meaningful conversations, practical ideas and relationships that extend well beyond the conference itself. Whether those conversations begin over a new product, an innovative business solution or a chance meeting between longtime industry colleagues, they reflect the collaborative spirit that continues to define the independent home improvement channel.
