Bringing the Best Back to Hawaii: Our RESACon + Design Market Recap

We just got back from Las Vegas, and we're still buzzing (and still recovering from the 115-degree heat that kept us running from one air-conditioned building to the next — more on that in a minute). Between RESACon, a wholesale buying class, and the sheer size of the Las Vegas Design Market, this trip gave us a lot to bring home to our clients and our team.

The Work Part

Our week kicked off with two full days at RESACon, the national conference for the Real Estate Staging Association. We spent those days shoulder-to-shoulder with staging company founders from around the world — swapping systems, talking shop on how to serve clients better, and picking up ideas we're already itching to put into practice back on Oahu.

We followed that with a full day of a wholesale buying class, plus time on the floor at the Las Vegas Design Market — and if you've never been, the scale is hard to picture until you're standing in it. The World Market Center campus spans multiple massive buildings across nearly 60 acres, and twice a year the Las Vegas Market show fills them with thousands of exhibitor lines and tens of thousands of attendees. We walked away with new vendor relationships we're excited to bring into our staging and design inventory, plus a small mountain of fun swag bags to prove it.

The Big Wins

I had the honor of being named one of the Top 100 Most Influential People in Real Estate Staging. Any recognition like this really belongs to our whole team — the people who show up early, haul furniture in the heat, and care as much about every listing as I do. I'm just grateful to represent them.

And it didn't stop there. Two of our short-term rental projects were named Top Ten STR Project of the Year. Seeing our work held up next to some of the best in the industry, for projects we poured so much thought into, was a full-circle moment for our whole team.

We even got a caricature drawn of us at the awards ceremony — which is about to be proudly displayed taped somewhere in our office. :)

The Fun Part

It wasn't all conference rooms and vendor booths. A few highlights that made this trip feel like us:

• It was HOT. We're talking 115 degrees one afternoon — the kind of heat that makes you appreciate every Chipotle bowl and every minute of AC that much more.

• The Sphere. We caught The Wizard of Oz there, and honestly, no photo does it justice. If you haven't experienced it, add it to your list.

• The swag. Between the Design Market bags and everything else, we came home with our suitcases noticeably heavier than they left.

What's Next

Trips like this always send us home with more than souvenirs — we came back with new systems to test, new vendors to bring into the fold, and a running list of goals for the year ahead. We're already talking through how to put what we learned into action for our clients here on Oahu, from smarter staging systems to fresh product sourcing.

If you're a realtor, homeowner, or fellow vendor who wants to be part of what we're building next, we'd love to connect. This is exactly the kind of momentum we want to bring into every listing we stage and every space we design.