The most recent edition of Modenus’ BlogTour wrapped up last month after covering furniture show IMM Cologne in Germany. Here are a few event and product highlights from the trip, shared by “Life in Sketch” blogger Tina Ramchandani.

“We Are Social” was an international blogger meet-up organized by Holly Becker of Decor8. Becker, along with a group of panelists, discussed the direction social media is headed and how bloggers can leverage it to fit their needs. Becker said, “Promote yourself once, promote others twice.” This theme was evident amongst most of the panelists, emphasizing that social media must actually be social.

Costas Voyatzis of Yatzer pointed out the importance of quality over quantity. He said, “Build trust and they will click.” Bloggers are responsible for the content they produce. It’s tempting to toss out information multiple times a day, but it’s the quality of the information that readers will come back for.

Will Taylor of Bright Bazaar emphasized the fact that no one is an expert at everything. He advises that the key to growing a brand is to collaborate with others who are experts. Enlist the help of someone who has the knowledge that you do not.

Other panelists included: Stefanie Luxat of Ohhh… Mhhh…, Frederik Frede of Freunde von Freunden, Micle Mihai-Cristian of Freshome and Ferdinando Napoli of Archiproducts and Archilovers.

As far as new product introductions, Miele’s new product line, Generation 6000, launched at Living Kitchen with a fully functioning café installed at the booth serving steamed entrees, desserts and coffee.

One of the most inventive launches was from Siemens, which created a new cooking system, Free Induction, which detects the location of the pan on the stove and heats it in that location. With one large cooking surface, a larger pan can heat as evenly as a smaller pan.

An obvious trend in furniture at IMM was bold color. Much of the furniture and accessories were saturated in bright hues.

Outside of the furniture fair there were many events being held in Cologne. At the MAKK an exhibit called “Isn’t It Romantic: Contemporary Design Balancing Between Poetry and Provocation” is running through April 21st. Curated by Tulga Beyerle, each scene balances typically romantic ideas by adding something unexpected.

After four nights and three days in Cologne, the BlogTour group headed to Amsterdam for one final day of design inspiration. Meet the Blogger, along with Eigen Huis & Interieur, created a walking tour of Amsterdam’s design shops. With a limited amount of time the group was able to pack in the following shops: Hotel Droog, Kabinet, Frozen Fountain, Vroonland & Vaandrager, Store Without a Home, Sukha, Moooi, and Hutspot.

At Mooi, they were introduced to product designer, Vroonland Vaandrager. His extension chair was a hit with the bloggers. While researching how people used chairs he realized that many didn’t have a place to store their handbag or coat. He copied the shape of a standard chair and added hooks to make the chair more functional. He is also in the process of creating variations of the chair so it can be used in other ways as well.

The last stop on the walking tour was a newly opened shop, Hutspot, where they met bloggers from the Amsterdam area.

“After three days in Cologne and a full day in Amsterdam, I along with the rest of the BlogTour team, returned home inspired and energized,” said Ramchandani.