Upcoming Educational Sessions & Sponsorships For Florists
We're hard at work locking down the scheduling for the educational sessions we'll be sponsoring in the first few months of 2015. The state associations that run these conventions and trade shows work very hard, and their events are very popular with their member florists. They also rely on sponsorships from industry vendors to provide the content. FloristWare is very committed to helping however we can.
The first sessions we're sponsoring take place at the Great Lakes Floral Expo in Grand Rapids Michigan the weekend of March 6-8. Two of them will feature Tim Huckabee, founder of FloralStrategies, author of the monthly column "Flower Shop CSI" in Floral Management magazine and one of the most popular speakers working in the floral industry today.
In addition Mark Anderson, creator of FloristWare, will be presenting two sessions on pricing, specifically a new way for florists to approach quoting weddings and events. These sessions pick up where his presentation last year, on more profitable pricing practices for retail flower shops, left off. Both Tim and Mark will be presenting on both Saturday and Sunday.
The following weekend (March 13-15) is the Northeast Floral Expo in Connecticut. We're still in process of confirming the details but we have committed to sponsoring educational content again this year.
The weekend of March 20-22 FloristWare is sponsoring content at the WUMFA (Wisconsin and Upper Michigan Florists Association) Annual Convention in Green Bay WI. The details and timing have not yet been released but Tim Huckabee and Mark Anderson have both been confirmed as speakers.
The weekend of March 28 and 29 we'll be sponsoring Rick Rivers, creator of Florist Bootcamp, at the Illinois State Florists' Association Annual Conference in Decatur IL. Rick, in addition to being one of the best and most respected marketing educators in the flower business, also owns a very successful flower shop in Ormond Beach FL. FloristWare has sponsored Rick at many shows over the years and we're very excited to be bringing him to Illinois for the first time.
Two weeks later, on the weekend of April 11-12 we'll be sponsoring content at the Maine Florists Association Spring Convention. The details have not been finalized but we will be hosting one, possibly two, sessions that will be focussed on helping the florists in attendance make the upcoming Mother's Day the most profitable ever.
May is, naturally, a slow month for conventions and trade shows in the retail floral industry but things pick up again in June and stay busy through September. We're already working on bringing more great content to florists at those events and we'll post more information as soon as it becomes available.