Last night I attended a networking evening held by the lovely people at LS:N Global

For those of you that don’t know who they are - LS:N is an online consumer news and insights network set up by The Future Laboratory.  In its simplest form the guys at LS:N provide news of whats going on around the globe in fashion, interiors, architecture, design you name it they are on to it and last night they held a fascinating evening at The Connaught Hotel in London.

The topic of the evening was luxury and the way the evening was set up was a bit like speed dating.  6 tables, 6 speakers, 6 minutes all we had to do was sit and listen.

The speakers included Stephen Alden, CEO of the Maybourne Hotel Group who spoke about how luxury is becoming more meaningful in 2010.  ‘Frivolity, excess & waste’ have become a thing of the past, consumers are looking for values, authenticity and craftsmanship in their luxury brands.

This view was certainly backed up by many of the other speakers of the night.  Christopher Sharp, CEO of The Rug Company mentioned the importance of story and how consumers warm to a product and are willing to pay more for something that they know has an interesting past.

The evening was certainly very interesting and as always provided me with a great deal of food for thought.  I’m interested to see how the luxury market develops as we enter a new decade, has the age of bling really left us? I’m not so sure….

Judging by Blackburn rovers star El Hadji Diouf’s brand new gold cadillac - I would say it might take us another few years before we wave goodbye to that dear friend.