Although NYCxDESIGN 2019 begins in May, the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) is already looking ahead to the future. The scope of the 12-day design festival continues to grow, and as a result, the EDC has announced the selection of an outside operator.
SANDOW, the parent company of Interior Design, Material Bank, and other resources for designers, will take over for the EDC as the celebration’s operator in 2020.
NYCxDESIGN, now in its seventh year, attracted more than 330,000 visitors across 400 events last year and generated over $109 million in sales. The EDC claims that in order to keep growing the festival, it needed to pass off the operations management aspect. The department issued a public Request for Expressions of Interest in the summer of 2018, and ultimately selected SANDOW, in part because of the company’s vast media reach. It’s expected that SANDOW will be able to use its media portfolio to both thoroughly advertise the event as well as expand the types of programming available in New York.
At a press conference this morning at the Parsons School of Design, Adam Sandow, CEO and founder of the eponymous company, took the stage to laud the decision and affirm his company’s commitment to strengthening the ties that the EDC had worked hard to make. SANDOW has been involved with the festival before; Interior Design has been an NYCxDESIGN Awards partner since 2016, and Luxe Interiors + Design has partnered with high-end interior showcase ICFF since 2015.
Of course, the decision to hand a city-run festival over to a private corporation has raised questions about what the 2020 iteration will look like. The festival’s programming is led by a steering committee of New York–based designers, educators, institutions, and officials from the city, so the agenda and key NYCxDESIGN events are unlikely to change. The EDC is currently educating SANDOW on the day-to-day logistics of running the event to ensure a smooth transition, but until planning for NYCxDESIGN 2020 begins, it remains to be seen what the itinerary will look like.
