Coverings 2023 has an exciting lineup of new and returning activations meant to create a curated experience for all. Stimulating live installations in the Coverings Lounge, Show Floor Tours, interactive Stages, and other activations are guaranteed to add to your Coverings 2023 experience!

The Coverings Lounge at this year’s show will provide a centrally located and comfortable space for attendees to gain professional knowledge, network with peers, hear from industry leaders, and attend happy hours featuring valuable prize giveaways. The four key tenets of Coverings 2023 – “Health & Wellness,” “Sustainability,” “Outdoor Spaces,” and “Timeless Luxury” – will be focal points of the Coverings Lounge. Each tenet will be highlighted through live demonstrations, displays, relevant market trends, and numerous hands-on activities to provide showgoers with custom, memorable experiences that highlight the innumerable benefits and uses of tile and stone.

• The “Health & Wellness” tenet will be experienced through short mindfulness workshops led by Gianna Vallefuoco, an artist, National Tile Contractors Association (NTCA) Five Star contractor, and mindfulness teacher with Vallefuoco Contractors, LLC. These sessions will be appropriate for everyone, meditators, and non-meditators alike, and will teach you how to deal with job site stress, how breathing can de-escalate heated moments, and how to use a growth-focused mindset to overcome obstacles.
• “Sustainability” will be highlighted, in part, by the return of the Sustainability Wall, which will be on display in the Coverings Lounge to showcase the environmentally friendly properties of ceramic tile. This popular show floor feature will be updated from the Coverings 2022 edition to educate on the countless sustainable benefits of ceramic tile and tile’s advantages compared to other surface materials.
• D.W. Sanders Tile & Stone Contracting will work alongside Coverings to underscore the “Outdoor Spaces” tenet in the Coverings Lounge. Woody Sanders and his team will showcase a raised pedestal system by dismantling and rebuilding it daily, so all can see and learn how the advantageous system works. Pavers for this project have been donated by Atlas Concorde.
  The “Outdoor Spaces” theme will be further showcased through an outdoor seating area, featuring biophilia walls with comfortable chairs to provide a relaxing, conversational environment perfect for networking.
• The “Timeless Luxury” tenet will highlight the ways tile offers impeccable quality that delivers emblematic and experiential value in addition to functionality. Exhibitors from Ceramics of Italy, Tile Council of North America (TCNA), and Tile of Spain will display beautiful and luxurious tile installations that will be used as wine and beer bars during the happy hour events.

On display in the Coverings Lounge will be “Wally the Gator,” a 6’ x 4’ Florida gator-themed mosaic tile project designed, built, and installed by the tile artisan team of Lee Callewaert of Dragonfly Tile and Stone Works and Joshua Nordstrom of Tierra Tile. This awe-inspiring tile art was created live and streamed during Coverings 2021 and is making a first-time appearance in Orlando, Florida, for Coverings 2023.

The show floor will also include a stunning display that will be of special interest to architects and designers, known as the Art Tile Village. The Art Tile Village, located next to the Coverings Lounge in the TCNA Pavilion, will include a range of aesthetically pleasing tile art designed by local and regional experts. This space will be dedicated to artisans who keep old-world traditions alive by crafting handmade art and specialty tiles.

Art Tile Village visitors will find one-of-a-kind decorative tiles and accents that can give any project a distinctive and unique touch. Several interactive demonstrations about pre-mounting techniques, forming, decorating/glazing, and hand painting will be featured in the area so attendees can learn more about the craft.

New to Coverings 2023 is the Distributor Lounge, sponsored by the Ceramic Tile Distributors Association (CTDA). This new addition to Coverings will provide a quiet place to meet near the show floor for tile, stone, and flooring distributors and is conveniently located at the top of the South Hall escalators in room S222 (also called the Destination Lounge).

A roundup of Show Floor Tours will help you maximize your time and experience during Coverings 2023. The much-lauded Contractor Tours will return to Coverings 2023, providing tourgoers a chance to join NTCA for guided show floor explorations of the latest tools, equipment, and allied products for contractors, installers, retailers, distributors, and specifiers. Be sure to sign-up for this free tour in the Coverings Lounge early; tours will be offered on a first-come, first-served basis!

Various Trends Tours provide an opportunity to experience relevant exhibitors and product displays based on specific areas of interest or expertise. 

• Trends Tour: Sustainability, April 19, 2:30-3:30 p.m.
  This tour provides the opportunity to discover the latest sustainable products and uncover insights regarding new trends and solutions for green building. Participants will compare current tile trends for sustainability; examine the sustainable benefits of tile; discuss the life cycle and carbon footprint of tile compared to other project materials; and review available environmental certifications, standards, and technical performance requirements for tile and installation materials.
• Trends Tour: Health & Wellness, April 20, 2-3 p.m.
  Followers of this tour will join their colleagues on the show floor to examine all things current in the tile and stone industry regarding health and wellness. Attendees will gain a deeper understanding of the many health and wellness benefits of tile by comparing, viewing, and discussing new design-build trends and solutions for health and hygiene.
• Trends Tour: Luxury in Practice, April 18, 2:30-3:30 p.m.
  Participants will discover the latest luxurious tile and stone trends and learn about new products and opportunities to deliver the beauty and luxury demanded by clientele. This tour will teach how companies leverage the pillars of luxury to elevate their brands, how to identify different pillars of luxury, and how these pillars separate brands from the competition. 
• Trends Tour: Outdoor Spaces, April 20, 3-4 p.m.
  This guided excursion will lead attendees throughout the show floor, highlighting products that create beautiful and durable spaces that expand living beyond the indoors. Those on tour will be able to identify the global color and architectural trends for outdoor living spaces; review technical performance requirements of tile best suited for exterior projects; contrast different tile and installation products and their uses for outdoor spaces; and compare current tile trends for exterior applications by viewing a wide range of tile examples. 
• Fabricator Trends Tour: New and Innovative Products from the Marketplace, April 18, 2:30-3:30 p.m.
  Fabricators following along will learn how to evaluate stone products and machinery on the show floor and ask focused questions to get the answers they need. This tour is also designed to guide fabricators in discovering new, innovative products; help them understand the role of long-term planning in relation to product selection and implementation; and teach them how to calculate the return on investment of new tooling or equipment additions for facilities.
• Tour: Building Your Installation Truck, April 19, 2:30-3:30 p.m.
  This new tour will teach attendees about the tools and technology that make installers’ lives easier on the road. This custom-crafted tour will provide participants with the tools they need for a proper installation truck and teach them about new technology and programs to help stock their trucks. 

Coverings is enhancing its popular lineup of interactive Stages for 2023 to feature all the latest and most important updates from tile and stone industry leaders. Trends, solutions, live “how-to” classes, and other relevant content will be available on three stages throughout the show floor, offering attendees the latest innovations in products, techniques, and business processes for the tile and stone industry.

• The Fabricator Stage, a new 2023 stage addition, will enable attendees to gain insights from experts in the stone and fabrication industry through short and engaging presentations and demonstrations. Programming provided in conjunction with the International Surface Fabricators Association (ISFA) and Rockheads Group, two Coverings 2023 partners, will focus on the most relevant topics for tile and stone fabricators, supplying information and ideas needed to move attendees’ businesses forward and complete their next projects.
• The Trends & Solutions Stage will return to Coverings for its second year to highlight everything at the forefront of the tile and stone industry. This stage will feature short presentations from those launching new services, providing business solutions, or showcasing new product trends. Visitors to this stage will hear from exhibitors and industry professionals as they offer a deep dive into the latest product trends, innovations, and solutions.
• The Installation Innovation Stage will headline live demonstrations, allowing showgoers to see precisely how to install a wide variety of new products and learn techniques to ensure highly successful tile and stone installations. Visitors can check out the Installation Innovation Stage each show day to hear from pros about new materials, industry standards, methods, and best practices for delivering superior tile installation. Demonstrations will be delivered by NTCA and TCNA members.

Explore the Coverings website for more information about the lounges, stages, tours, and other special programs at Coverings 2023. Register to attend Coverings 2023 at no cost by visiting coverings.com.