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Chicago, my kind of town. Last week I had the chance to go back my old stomping ground of Chicago for the International Home & Housewares Show! I was going as part of the QVC Sprouts panel where I, and several merchant colleagues, would be hearing from inventors as they presented their products.

As a bit of background: The QVC Sprouts program is one way we identify and (possibly) usher in new products for our QVC product assortment. As you can imagine, this was going to be FUN!!

Here we are on the schedule (look at the far left hand side).

I introduced QVC and my panel colleagues.

 And here is the intrepid QVC Panel – Julie Campbell, Me, Christine Dunn, and Katherine Herbst

Here is one of the presenters… can you guess what she’s presenting?

Linsey was presenting her product for a 13-slot hard-boiled egg maker.

And we saw Elliot and his Tortilla Toaster.

And Jeannine was standing in for the inventor of the Cibo.

Tal and his partner presented the Shlocker… a combo lock box for items in the shower.

Those are just a few of the new product ideas we saw. The show was abuzz with demonstrations.

Top Chef celebrity Richard Blais was just one of the celebrities presenting products.

We got a chance to sample the creations…chocolate chip bread pudding… yummy!

The place is HUGE, so we did a LOT of walking. But lo and behold a massage station. Christine and I had to experience the foot massage, and the massage chair.

Mary Beth Roe was attending the show too, so we had the chance to catch her between meetings.

In the evenings we had team dinners, like this one with the great folks from Dyson.

I was leaving Chicago before the rest of the team, so I had to gather us all together for one final pic.

Before I sign off though, I have to leave you with a few pics from my favorite city…

What do you think of the new product ideas? Do you have any you would like to share?

I look forward to hearing from you,

Rachel