Kicked off by Floriexpo's Event Director, Lauren Streeter, the program began with a Designing in 2024 presentation with Derek Woodruff from Floral Underground, as he detailed what is inspiring 2024 designs and where to begin when you set out on a new design. Questions that then defined the roundtables included where do you begin when designing and what products or tools can you not design without.
During the Spotting & Purchasing for Trends segment, Beth O'Reilly from Dutchess Bouquets outlined tips on trend spotting and ensuring your purchases are the ones that your consumers want. Networking questions included ones that outlined what it means to decipher which trends will resonate with your brand and which you can leave behind.
Emma Coupe from Marks & Spencer detailed the importance of merchandising to make the sale, detailing the important of experience. In the store, displays are what catch your eye, which means intriguing signage can draw a consumer's attention and encourage them to make a purchase. She outlined key examples of what this can look like and then participated in discussions that explored displays and marketing that have major "WOW" factors.
During the Developing & Executing a Successful Marketing Campaign session, Vanessa Leite and Steve Dionne from That Flower Feeling shared how they've developed and executed successful national floral marketing campaigns. Discussions focused on building a strategic marketing campaign and what it means to get people to buy into your campaign for support.
The Making Social Media Work for You and Your Business segment from Yvonne Ashton at MAYESH outlined the endless opportunities that social media can open up across the floral industry. Attendees heard tips & tricks suitable for anyone at any level including various design and scheduling tools as well as strategy. Groups then discussed some tools that marketing teams have found useful and what it has meant to get messages posted as part of a large corporation.
Many of those insights were connected to the How to be Successful with an ECommerce Business segment, where Liza Roeser from Fifty Flowers drew parallels from the experiences of businesses navigating the challenges and opportunities in the ever-evolving online marketplace. She also examined the lessons learned by traditional stores branching out into e-commerce, including problem-solving approaches and effective marketing and management strategies tailored for the digital sphere.
During the lunch keynote, design lessons from across the globe were explored on multiple levels by Mark Frank, from Mark Frank Styling, Emma Coupe from Marks & Spencer and Corey Harbour from Natural Flowers. The panel discussed which of the new design trends are realistic to bring to the American consumer, how has the American consumer evolved their appreciation and adoption of global design trends, how can organizations foster cross-cultural learning in design practices and much more.
After returning from the break, Lisa Letch from Shaw's / Star Market and Nadia Pregoni from Stop & Shop led a Floral Buyer Pain Points & Successes session, where they explored strategies for sourcing new products and finding reliable suppliers. They also discussed best practices for managing responsibilities and expectations with remote staff. Their discussion included talking points around strategies to identify reliable new suppliers and methods to forecast holiday inventory needs.
The final Floral Bootcamp session was a high-level look at what's now and what's next in the floral industry. Speakers from every session participated in different ways as part of a dynamic discussion with attendees to explore everything from AI to which new zinnias to grow this year and what is keeping industry professionals awake at night.
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