Inaugural Icon Honors salutes best of the business

Recognizes retailers for innovation, contribution, achievement

Jenny Heinzen York -- Home Accents Today, 7/18/2010 8:35:20 AM

The first Icon Honors event was held Saturday evening in Atlanta, recognizing retailers, manufacturers and sales agencies for excellence in three categories: Innovation, Contribution and Achievement.

The sold-out event kicked off with a performance by Grammy Award -winning musician Michael McDonald. It closed with a keynote speech from noted retailer Stew Leonard Jr., founder of the Stew Leonard's grocery chain in the Northeast.

The winners of the Innovation Awards were:

* Fitzsu, Los Angeles, owned by Su and Fitz Sazama:

* Motif Modern Living, Austin, Texas, owned by Steven Lora;

• The Cordial Cricket, Chester, Va., owned by Elizabeth Howard.

In the area of Contribution, honorees were:

* Jacqueline Cambata Designs, a porcelain tableware company;

* Just Got 2 Have It!, a sales agency with a showroom at Americasmart;

* Pendleton Woolen Mills, a sixth-generation textiles producer.

Two Achievement awards were presented, one for a retailer and one for a manufacturer. Winners were Carl Kirkland, co-founder of retailer Kirkland's, and Garry Kvistad, co-founder of Woodstock Percussion.

The event also featured two Medal of Excellence honorees. The winners were the Museum of Modern Art Retail division, based in New York, and Anthropologie, based in Philadelphia.

James Douglas Glover, founder of Palmer Marketing, was honored posthumously with the Lifetime Achievement Award.

The 2010 Industry Stewardship Honor went to Peter Schauben, co-founder of rep firm Appelman-Schauben. He was recognized for his creation of Gift for Life, which to date has raised more than $4 million for AIDS research and education initiatives.

Continue to check HomeAccentsToday.com for more in-depth coverage of the Icon Honors.