Steelcase Receives Seven Best of Neocon Awards at Neocon 2008
NeoCon Awards Recognize Outstanding Design Innovation in Furniture Systems, Seating, Table and Worksurfaces
June 9, 2008 – Chicago, IL – Steelcase Inc. (NYSE:SCS), a global office environments manufacturer, today announced that the Steelcase family of companies won seven Best of NeoCon awards, including three Gold awards. Products recognized include a furniture solution, a technology conference solution, healthcare furniture, drapery fabrics and height-adjustable tables, all of which are on display at this year’s NeoCon 2008 World’s Trade Fair for Interior Design and Facilities Management in Chicago.
“Receiving Best of NeoCon awards is a highly-esteemed industry accolade and Steelcase is honored to obtain this recognition,” said James P. Hackett, president and CEO of Steelcase Inc.
Best of NeoCon 2008
Sponsored by Contract magazine, Merchandise Mart Properties, Inc. (MMPI), the International Interior Design Association (IIDA), the International Facility Management Association and the McMorrow Report, the Best of NeoCon awards recognize the top new products introduced at NeoCon. Steelcase Inc. received a total of seven Best of NeoCon Awards, taking home three Gold awards, three Silver awards and the Innovation Award.
Among the recipients of the Gold awards are c:scape™ and media:scape™, its newest series of furniture and media solutions, which won in the furniture systems category and conference table category, respectively. Designed to help people connect and collaborate quickly and seamlessly, the solutions connect people to other people, to information, to their tools and to the culture of their organization.
Specific components of the c:scape™ solution include the beam – which routes power and supports the furniture components, the desk – which slides forward to reveal a built-in connection zone that provides users with full and easy access to the technology, storage and privacy, including personal, shared, modesty and expandable screens.
media:scape™ is a shared space that merges furniture and media specifically to help teams access and share information. Ideal for high performance teams who are technologically reliant, media:scape users connect laptops to a retractable, puck-shaped button. This “puck” allows users to instantaneously show and share information from their laptop computers while creating a more inclusive work environment for teams and allows for egalitarian meetings.
An addition to the Alive Seating™ portfolio, cobi™, a table–based collaborative chair, won the Silver award in the conference chair category. The chair is part of a new category of collaborative seating from Steelcase that combine aesthetics with performance to facilitate innovation. Compact and lightweight, cobi dynamically supports a wide range of postures with only one manual adjustment for seat height. An intuitive, weight-activated mechanism provides support by automatically responding to the user’s movement.
In addition, Details, a Steelcase company, won a silver award in the height-adjustable table category for the Walkstation, a height-adjustable workstation with an integrated treadmill. The Walkstation is the first product from the FitWork™ category of products designed to bring healthy habits to sedentary workers while they are actually working. The Walkstation also received the Innovation Award for technology support.
Rounding out the list of winners for the Steelcase companies is Steelcase Health’s Sonata, which was honored with a Gold award in the healthcare furnishings category. Sonata is a healthcare solution that offers a patient personal space, easy access to belongings and close proximity to partners-in-care and care providers. Finally, Designtex received a silver award in the drapery fabrics category. The Best of NeoCon 2008 awards were selected from over 350 entries in 39 different product categories.
About Steelcase Inc.
Steelcase, the global leader in the office furniture industry, helps people have a better work experience by providing products, services and insights into the ways people work. The company designs and manufactures architecture, furniture and technology products. Founded in 1912 and headquartered in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Steelcase (NYSE:SCS) serves customers through a network of over 600 independent dealers and approximately 13,500 employees worldwide. Fiscal 2008 revenue was $3.4 billion.
Contact
Jeanine Holquist
616.698.3765
Jholquis@steelcase.com