Furniture Works provided a great opportunity for designers to showcase at the NEC in January 2007. Production-ready prototypes were selected by a panel of industry specialists to appear in a specially commissioned space on the Isos Collection stand, entitled ‘The Waiting Room’, exposing them to potential manufacturers, distributors and retailers.

The selection took place in December 2006 when the panel judged over over 80 new products on their commercial appeal, uniqueness of design and potential for manufacture. Out of these pieces, 13 production-ready prototypes were selected. The judges included Tomoko Azumi, Max Fraser, Pascal Fulton-Dowers, Greenwich Village, Dan West, Icon, Peta Levi MBE and Andrew Vaughan, CMP Information.

The Waiting Room designers were: Pedro Osorio Silva, Jackie Choi, Tom Price, Andy Gray, Miguel Cunha, Isabelle Moore, Victoria Creevey, Markus Bergstrom, Dylan Freeth, James Harrison (Kinmod), Peter Masters and Peter Umgeher. Products included lamps, tables and chairs, a sofa, coat stand, bench and a rocking chair.

One success story from The Waiting Room was the re-introduction of James Design to SCP, the renowned London manufacturer and retailer. James Design, who exhibited their double rocking chair, had interest from many retailers at the show and have since entered into a collaborative partnership with SCP to develop a new product.