Jun 4, 2016

Have You Made Your Plans? By Tim Hodson

It’s hard to believe, but Cultivate’16 is just a little more than a month away.

Cultivate’16 will take place July 9-12, at the Greater Columbus Convention Center in Columbus, Ohio. The theme for this year’s conference and trade show is “The New Now” to provide the strategies to help you deal with the changes taking place in our industry.

More than 10,000 horticulture professionals are expected to attend Cultivate’16 this year. These attendees represent all segments of the industry and come from all 50 states and 24 countries

And when they get to Columbus they will have the opportunity to participate in more than 130 educational sessions that are being offered. The roster of speakers will be tackling some of the toughest greenhouse production issues as well as today’s most crucial business topics.

More than 600 exhibitors will be on the 8-acre trade show floor displaying the latest products, new plant introductions and services .

There also will be two different Learning Tours —a Greenhouse Tour that will visit three growing operations (Thorsen’s Greenhouse, Foertmeyer & Sons Greenhouse and Millcreek Gardens) and a Nursery Tour that will visit three diverse nursery operations (Decker Nursery, Acorn Farms and Smith Gardens) in the Columbus area.

This year’s keynote speakers have been selected to help “Cultivate Inspiration.” The speakers are Jeremy Kingsley who will talk about how “Inspired People Produce Results” and Scott Steinberg, will discuss how successful people are “Leading with Innovation.”

And there are mutliple networking opportunities (both formal and casual) during the four-day event for you to meet new industry contacts or catch up with existing ones.

Have you made your plans to attend Cultivate’16 yet? If you have, I hope to see you there — GPN and Lawn & Garden Retailer will be in booth #1501.

If you haven’t, what are you waiting for? It will be here before you know it.

To learn more about Cultivate’16 or to register, just go to www.cultivate16.org.

— Tim

P.S. The deadline to enter Lawn & Garden Retailer’s Merchandiser of the Year competition is THIS Friday. If you know a retail operation that created a unique and innovative merchandising display this year, then tell them to get their camera and take some pictures so they can enter this contest. Click here to learn more about the competition.