Every 4-6 years the international floral community has a major design competition. The host country and location rotates just like the Olympics, and FTD hosted the 2019 competition for the first time in the U.S. since 1985. This floral career-defining competition featured 23 designers from around the world (one competitor per registered country) and was held March 1-3. The last competition before that was held in Berlin, Germany in 2015.
FTD Interflora World Cup Champion, Bart Hassam from Australia
More than two years ago, FTD was selected to host this year’s competition by the Interflora Board of Directors (The international governing board happens to be named Interflora, not to be confused with FTD's UK company). They chose The Philadelphia Flower Show as the venue for this year’s competition due to its large flower-loving audience of 250,000 guests during the 10-day show.
FTD World Cup was the central feature of the entire Flower Show and the designers competed live in front of thousands (the show has approximately 37,000 guests per day). There were four timed design tasks which were completed by all 23 designers, including one surprise design task featuring all American Grown flowers, on Friday, March 1 and Saturday, March 2.
The semi-finalists were announced Saturday evening following a design presentation by FTD World Cup sponsor: The American Institute of Floral Designers (AIFD). The 10 semi-finalists completed another surprise design task on Sunday, March 3. A gala dinner was held on Sunday night with the announcement of the five finalists who jumped on stage and competed live in front of more than 600 guests in the Grand Ballroom at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. The designs were judged and the World Champion was announced with the assistance of Scott Levin and Rhys Hughes.
For more information:
www.FTDWorldCup2019.com