SA design’s next big thing: NEXT22

SA design’s next big thing: NEXT22 Trade Exhibition features over 25 top designers at Decorex Cape Town

The Craft and Design Institute (CDI) is proud to present its annual trade exhibition NEXT22 as part of this year’s Decorex Cape Town – NEXT22 is a South African showcase that reveals the latest furniture, lighting, textiles, fashion accessories and homeware ranges from over 25 top talents.

This is the fifth edition of the NEXT Trade Exhibition, a showcase that forms part of an export development initiative of the CDI. The CDI is a South African non-profit company with over two decades of success in developing creative people, small businesses and the craft and design sector at large.

Importers, retailers and decorators – as well as design-loving members of the public – will get the opportunity to find the new ranges from the participating businesses, who hail from across the nation and represent the best of South African craft and design. Exhibitors include a mix of well-established brands and rising stars such as A Love Supreme, Woza Moya, Douglas & Company, Meyer von Wielligh and Willowlamp, amongst others.

For the second year in succession the NEXT22 Trade Exhibition will also gain increased longevity and a wider global reach through the use of a virtual experience. A virtual tour will be hosted online after Decorex Cape Town concludes, and will give wider access to buyers, members of the trade and the public from across the globe. The exhibition has been made possible with support from the Department of Small Business Development and City of Cape Town, and the online exhibition will be free to access.

Offering a virtual experience removes concerns about pandemic-related travel restrictions. Because the costs of international travel, accommodation and transport have also been removed, there are very few barriers to entry for international trade, which widens the net so that an even greater number of international buyers and media entities can view the NEXT exhibition.

All of the NEXT22 exhibitors have been coached through the CDI’s export development programme, which has supported over 70 businesses since inception. This programme has been running for several years and was initiated and run with the support of the Dutch Centre for the Promotion of Imports from Developing Countries (CBI). The programme saw an average of over 50% increase in export sales (from 2016 to 2018 to European markets). The NEXT Trade Exhibition was launched in 2018 and has grown annually, drawing in dozens of international trade buyers from a diverse array of countries such as Denmark, France, Sweden, Italy and the US amongst others, many of whom previously travelled to Cape Town specifically for the trade exhibition.

Find the full NEXT22 catalogue online from 16 June 2022, and the virtual experience goes live in July at http://www.thecdi.org.za/next22