Every year, the Visual Merchandising and Creative Direction company, ZenGenius, Inc., designs and leads the Iron Merchant Challenge, held annually at the International Retail Design Conference. The Iron Merchant Challenge is a visual merchandising competition that includes a combination of performance art and design, team spirit, and audience participation. During this competition, some of the industries top designers and visual merchandisers battle with minimal supplies and little to no time. Each team is given a mannequin, cage, toolbox, selected materials + the secret ingredient. Then each team has only 60 minutes to design an amazing display that conveys the selected theme - with hundreds of IRDC attendees observing, networking and voting for their favorite display. This interactive activity is a great way to bring attendees together and allow them to show off their merchandising skills.

Contact ZenGenius today to learn more about creating interactive training activities, specific to your company's needs.

The Red Team, led by David Kepron, took home the victory and winning sashes at last year's Iron Merchant Challenge, which featured trash and garbage bags as the secret ingredient.