Dec 8, 2006

2007 ANLA Management Clinic ApproachingSource: ANLA

The American Nursery & Landscape Association’s (ANLA) Management Clinic will take place Jan. 31-Feb. 3, 2007, in Louisville, Ky. The Management Clinic is focused on developing the business skills of owners and managers in growing, distributing (re-wholesaling), landscaping and retailing. The Clinic fits roughly 75 sessions into three days and attracts approximately 1,000 industry professionals.

The many session will cover a range of topics, including:

• Inventory management
• Employee motivation
• Efficiency
• Merchandising
• New plants
• Communication
• Traffic flow
• Crew management
• Better hiring and firing
• Bioremediation
• Weed control
• Relational Retailing
• Cutting edge design
• Software systems
• P&L Statements
• Working with distributors
• Knowing what your customers want
• Stress management
• Making your mission match your vision
• Better ways to advertise
• The latest trends from around the world

Keynote Speakers

This year’s event features keynote speakers William McDonough, Dan Heath and Lowell Catlett.

William McDonough is an architect, designer, speaker and writer. He was recently featured in the November issue of Fortune for his proposed eco-friendly office building. A founder of the sustainable design and development movement, McDonough spent the last 30 years integrating business development and environmental stewardship to demonstrate how a partnership of commerce and nature is the only hope for sustaining human prosperity. He also created “”Cradle to Cradle,”” a design protocol for chemical benchmarking, supply chain integration, energy and materials assessment, and sustainable production processes and management systems.

Dan Heath, co-author of Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die and project director at Duke Corporate Education, will describe the traits that link sticky ideas of all kinds, from urban legends and corporate mission statements, to advertisements and proverbs. No matter what a business’ size or customer base, to be successful today, Heath says they need to be masters of getting ideas to “”stick.”” Heath, will reviews the six “”hooks”” of successful ideas: simplicity, unexpectedness, concreteness, credibility, emotions and stories.

Lowell Catlett, dean of the College of Agriculture at New Mexico State University, will share his unique perspective that the green industry needs to hear. Agriculture, specifically, will change more in the next decade than in the last century. Consumers and producers are aligning in ways that generate new agricultural markets in medicine, ecology, biosecurity, entertainment and lifestyles, creating new business opportunities.

Many More Speakers

There are numerous industry professionals and experts who will be leading sessions at the 2007 ANLA Management Clinic – in fact, there are far too many to mention all of them (and their sessions) here. To learn more about the ANLA Management Clinic’s sessions and speakers, go to www.managementclinic.org.

For now, here’s an overview of two speakers and their sessions to whet your appetite:

Mike Bills, Fitch, Inc. With more than 17 years of design, retail consulting and management experience, Bills regularly serves as a keynote speaker at industry events that focus on brand marketing, its impact on the retail environment, product design, brand communication and the importance of consumer-centric experiences. Bills’ client experience includes brand positioning, store design, brand collateral, real estate strategy formulation, consumer segmentation and brand marketing initiatives for leading Fortune 500 companies.

His sessions include :

Marketing, Sales & Service – keeping it fresh
Thursday, 10:00-11:15 a.m.
Give The People What They Want
Bills will discuss findings from his second-annual consumer study of favorite retailers and present perspective on how to define and create consumer-centric experiences.

Trends – stuff you need to know before your competition does
Thursday, 1:00-2:15 p.m.
Understanding Women as Consumers
Bills will share lessons learned and his perspective on consumer-centric retailing for female consumers, specifically referencing case study examples of how to cater to a woman’s needs, wants and desires at retail.

Jon Schallert, The Schallert Group, Inc. Schallert consults with companies as large as Fortune 100 corporations and as small as single-operator retailers. His “”Destination Business”” principles show companies how to reinvent themselves as dominant destinations, capable of drawing consumers from outside the company’s immediate marketplace. For 10 years, Schallert worked for greeting card giant Hallmark Cards, where his unique marketing techniques were publicized throughout the company as the “Schallert Method.”” Seven years ago, Schallert left his career at Hallmark and started his marketing consulting firm.

His sessions include :
Marketing, Sales & Service – keeping it fresh
Friday, 10:00-11:15 a.m.
Becoming A Destination Business I
Schallert will show attendees how their business can use his trademarked 14-point process to reinvent their garden center as a consumer destination. Understand why location, location, location no longer matters for independent business success and why waiting for “”Big Brother”” to reinvent a marketplace fails the majority of the time.

Trends – stuff you need to know before your competition does
Friday, 1:00-2:15 p.m.
Becoming A Destination Business II
Schallert will show how businesses can use his trademarked14-point process to reinvent their garden center as a consumer destination. Understand why location, location, location no longer matters for independent business success and why waiting for “”Big Brother”” to reinvent a marketplace fails the majority of the time.

Marketing, Sales & Service – keeping it fresh
Friday, 2:45 pm – 4:00 pm
Capturing Today’s Over – Marketed Consumers
Your customers have become sophisticated in repelling advertising and marketing. Learn to create an immediate sales and customer traffic increase with marketing that customers willingly believe and accept. Understand your own marketing strengths and weaknesses, and gain the ability to change unsuccessful habits.

Once again, the ANLA Management Clinic will take place Jan. 31-Feb. 3, 2007, in Louisville, Ky. Visit www.managementclinic.org for more details.