SHOW DATES: AUGUST 25-27, 2027 SHOW HOURS: Wednesday: 12pm – 5pm | Thursday: 10am – 5pm | Friday: 10am – 2pm Contact: 503-682-5089
Speaker: Erick Harris, nursery sales director, Breezy Hill Nursery
Companies all over the world have to contend with the fact that Baby Boomers are about to sail off into the sunset. By 2030, all of the Boomers, the second biggest generation ever, will be 65 or older. Because our industry is such a special place to work, we probably have more
Speakers: Tom Marting, director of sustainable solutions, and Grace Hungerford, sustainability analyst, Growscape
This session explores rising consumer demand for more sustainable packaging materials, with a particular focus on bioplastics. We will examine the current landscape of bioplastic technologies available in the market today, including their regulatory pressures, performance, benefits,
Speakers: David Williams and Erik Dietl-Friedli, partners, Garden Center Consultants LLC
An inspiring and highly visual presentation showcasing innovative display strategies that drive customer engagement and increase sales. Learn how to design intentional merchandising experiences that convert browsers into buyers.
Speaker: Katie Elzer-Peters, CEO, The Garden of Words LLC
In this session, attendees will learn how to engage their existing customers to sell more services, higher tiers of service and raise average order value. During the session they’ll also learn and take home templates for batching their email campaigns
Speaker: Neal Glatt, founder and CEO, Neal Glatt Sales & Strategy
Employees don’t just want a job — they want a clear pathway for growth. A career advancement plan gives them a documented roadmap for developing skills, earning new responsibilities, and achieving meaningful progress in their careers. When implemented well, it creates consistency
Speaker: Neal Glatt, founder and CEO, Neal Glatt Sales & Strategy
Employees don’t just want a job — they want a clear pathway for growth. A career advancement plan gives them a documented roadmap for developing skills, earning new responsibilities, and achieving meaningful progress in their careers. When implemented well, it creates consistency
Speaker: Neal Glatt, founder and CEO, Neal Glatt Sales & Strategy
In this extended session for retailers, you'll learn to build a practical retail playbook to help your team confidently guide customers to increased ticket volumes without making customers feel sold to. Explore how customers shop, decide, and engage with your team. Learn how to use
Speaker: Katie Elzer-Peters, CEO, The Garden of Words LLC
Attendees will learn about the rise of maker spaces at retail and how a garden center can hop on board this emerging, profitable trend driven by the age 25–45 demographic. They will learn how to teach two types of garden-adjacent creative art projects that use the same low-cost
Panel: Representatives from Growscape, Monrovia Nursery Company, Smith Gardens, Al’s Garden & Home, Anderson Pots, OBC Northwest Inc., Simplot Turf & Horticulture.
A deeper discussion of today’s supply chain and how it’s affected by issues like tariffs, price, environmental legislation, and long lead times.
Panel: Representatives from Growscape, Monrovia Nursery Company, Smith Gardens, Al’s Garden & Home, Anderson Pots, and OBC Northwest Inc.
Panel discussion on basic purchasing and receiving processes and best practices from three growers and two manufacturers/distributors. Principles and processes that ensure efficient operations by securing the right product, right customer, right quantity, right condition, right place, right time, a
Learn how to overcome labor shortages, grow revenue, and optimize inventory by leveraging AI. In this session, we'll cover tactical tools and insights [read more]
Delivering a 5-star customer experience begins with cultivating a 5-star employee experience. Join Jeff O’Brien and Jon Morrison for a transformative session providing the ultimate playbook [read more]
Are your people generating unnecessary risks to your business? Do you struggle managing people risks because of limited resources? Simple mistakes can cost a company millions or even end a business altogether. [read more]
For the first time in history, five generations collide in the workforce. However, the horticulture industry faces mass retirements from the high volume of Baby Boomers in our industry. [read more]
Boost sales by providing clients with a basic, hand-drawn visual of their space. This simple, yet effective tool can be utilized by sales associates to illustrate recommendations and assist clients with understanding how to accomplish their landscape goals. [read more]
Digital marketing shapes how customers find and choose services. This session covers proven strategies to strengthen you online presence, connect with the right audience, and turn website visits into business growth. [read more]
Learn the key performance indicators that will show you how your inventory is performing. By measuring three KPIs down to the category level, you will learn where to spend your time improving your business. [read more]
As innovations in technology, automation and AI are on the rise, our ability to connect with and understand each other on a humanistic and emotional level declines. Now more than ever, emotional intelligence, or EQ, is a valuable and necessary skill in the workplace [read more]
Garden retailing is like a train moving down the tracks to a new destination and the constant evolution of trends and management needs requires you to stay on the train in order to meet the changing needs of the consumer. Garden retailing has experienced major growth in new customers and sales since 2019. [read more]
Speaker: Aaron Allison, Co-Founder, SBI Software Aaron will share insight, industry research and best practices to solve Growers real-time inventory availability woes. Solutions that he
Speaker: Helen Lawson, Retail Partnership Marketing Coach, Monrovia Nursery Company Want more help with your marketing to boost your sales? Your branded plant partners can
Speaker: Aaron Allison, Co-Founder, SBI Software Streamlining the process from production to order allocation and fulfillment is a challenge creating business processes and using technology
Speaker: Katie Tamony, Chief Marketing Officer and Trend Spotter, Monrovia Nursery Company Want to know what home gardeners are thinking? Every year, Monrovia conducts large
Speaker: Todd Downing, Co-Founder/Managing Partner, BEST Human Capital & Advisory Group Do you currently have the right people on the bus? Are you concerned with building your
Co-Presenters: Chris Cimaglio, Managing Director, PivotPoint Business Solutions Todd Downing, Managing Partner, BEST Human Capital & Advisory About 75% of business owners will likely exit
Speaker: Lloyd Traven, President/CEO, Peace Tree Farm LLC For years we lamented as an industry about needing a national marketing campaign, that national spokesperson or
Speaker: Danny Summers, Managing Director/Chief Instigator, The Garden Center Group Garden retailing is changing. It's like a train moving down the tracks to a new
Speaker: Curtis Jones, Co-founder and Former Co-owner/President, Botanical Interests Inc.
The co-founder and former co-owner/President of Botanical Interests Inc., Curtis Jones, speaks out about how his and his business partner Judy Seaborn’s personal values influenced the success of Botanical Interests seeds in a stagnant seed packet market and changed the direction of packaging in horticulture. Curtis will describe the new and unique direction Botanical Interests has taken in order to further educate the gardener, increase brand loyalty, and support their retail stores. During the presentation, Curtis might sneak in a funny or harrowing story about the 28-year journey they experienced.
Speaker: Andony Melathopoulos, Associate Professor, Pollinator Health Program, Oregon State University
There is considerable 'buzz' about Millennial-aged consumers and the shift in their plant buying preferences. Analysts have suggested that Millennial's are inclined to 'cause purchasing' and value additional environmental or social benefits. In this seminar, Andony will talk about research to specify how pollinator benefits should be displayed on plant labels and some strategies to maximize the benefits of different nursery plants to pollinators.
Speaker: Bridget Behe, Professor Emeritus, Michigan State University
Recent studies with real consumers in both the lab and retail environment give great insight into how consumers shop in the store. This presentation is packed with helpful tips to create more shoppable displays and merchandising information to generate higher sales.
Speaker: Katie Tamony , Chief Marketing Officer, Monrovia Nursery Company and Former Editor-in-Chief of Sunset Magazine and Sunset Books
In this seminar, Katie will present 10 effective ways to communicate the value of your products or services to a demanding consumer in today’s market. Using examples from Monrovia and other premium brands, Katie will share insights and success stories that will help you retain customers in the long term and grow your perceived value.
Speaker: Chelsea Ibarra, Deputy General Counsel, másLabor
Free Session (Open to all attendees)
This session will cover the ins and outs of the H-2A program for growers. The session discusses the program’s requirements, barriers to entry, and best practices for employers, including pertinent current events. As the labor landscape continues to be difficult, more and more businesses are turning to H-2A to solve their shortages.
Speaker: Chris Sheesley, President, In-Accord
You're surrounded, but don't give up. Being a member of an organization inevitably places you in situations of conflict, but there are ways to reduce its negative impact on you and your coworkers. The savvy response to the uncomfortable messiness of workplace discord is to develop keener insights and skills. Through this engaging presentation, you'll gain easy-to-remember and easy-to-apply mindsets and tools to be an effective resolver whether you are a participant or in a position to be helpful to others.
Speaker: Danny Summers, Managing Director/Chief Instigator, The Garden Center Group
Garden retailing has experienced major growth in new customers and sales since 2019. As we look forward to 2024, Danny will share insight of the The Group's 150+ Garden Centers performances and the Best Practices Benchmarks from The Group's Annual P&L Studies of 2020, 2021, and 2022 plus additional observations and trends to help you prepare for 2024–and beyond.
Speaker: Bridget Behe, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, Michigan State University
There is more to pricing than simply calculating costs and mark-up. Bridget will discuss some pricing strategies and share some research-based findings on how consumers react to pricing in communications. Price increases are always a concern. The presentation includes some ways for you to consider increasing prices that consumers will accept.
Speaker: George Grant, GGSPro Technical Specialist, Griffin Greenhouse Supplies
Whether a grower is working internally with their cultivation team or externally with cooperative extension personnel, product vendor representatives or technical specialists often rely on some form of virtual communication (e.g., cellphones, emails, or video conferences). We are all familiar with the saying, “a picture is worth a thousand words,” but knowing what picture to take and what information to gather before reaching out for consultation is important in diagnosing an issue correctly and efficiently. The objective of this presentation will be to build a checklist growers can use for gathering valuable information once they have identified an issue in their production setting.
Speaker: Nutmeg Minneboo, Lead Ecological Designer, SymbiOp Garden Shop and Landscaping
The way that we install and manage spaces in the landscaping industry has a large impact on the health and well-being of local ecology. Managing pests, plant diseases, water infiltration, and choosing plants for landscapes all directly affects local birds, pollinators, beneficial insects, and our local watershed. In this presentation, we will dive into ways we can learn to read the landscape. We will learn what to do when landscapes are out of balance and pests and diseases arise. Learning tips and tools for improving balance in a landscape naturally can help us protect local ecology.
Speaker: Philipp Laagland, Country Manager USA, ADR Bulbs Inc.
Join internationally recognized flower bulb expert Philipp Laagland as he shares his knowledge about setting trends and current struggles within the industry. This session will examine the working flower bulb life circle from farmer to the homeowner in The United States and new landscape designs and retail concepts using flower bulbs.
Speaker: Wei Zhang, Vice President of Research and Development, TreeDiaper
Urban trees tend to struggle because it is not an ideal growing condition between pavements and buildings. Underwatering and overwatering are the most common causes. Water prescriptions are developed to address this problem, but too much of the water is wasted. The most important factor for tree survival is the soil moisture, not how much water is dumped onto the root ball. New methods of increasing plant available water and stabilizing soil moisture will be discussed.
Speaker: Dr. Ann Chase, Co-founder, Chase Agricultural Consulting
Dr. Chase, a nationally recognized industry expert in her field, will discuss the most recent research results on industry standards, as well as newly available products for disease control on woody ornamentals. She will focus on what’s new, including Postiva, Avelyo and Seido and the benefits of products like KleenGrow and biocontrol products. She will also describe the best way to use all of these products in effective rotations.
Speaker: Paul Golden, Commercial Greenhouse Sales Manager, Prospiant Inc (formerly Nexus and RBI Greenhouses)
For many producers and retailers, the past two years have led to record-breaking sales and new challenges that come along with rapid growth during a time of unprecedented supply chain issues. Present conditions require operations to have a fresh new look at how they are building their greenhouse business. The practices and strategies of the past might not apply to modern-day needs. With ever-increasing labor challenges operators are having to ask themselves if their existing greenhouses layout, design, equipment, and processes are most labor efficient and how they should design their new operations going forward? This session will cover changes in trends in wholesale greenhouse production as well as technological improvements.
Speaker: Alison Kutz, Biocontrol Advisor and Owner, Sound Horticulture
Where does the rubber hit the road? Many growers have now determined where the use of biocontrols in their greenhouses makes sense — or not. In this presentation, we will be reviewing the latest tactics for aphid control which will cover banker plant management, mycoinsecticides, the expanding array of beneficial insects, and predator mites on the horizon.
Thank you to our sponsors:
Wednesday, August 25
Show Hours: 12–5 p.m.
Seminar Hours: 8:30 a.m.–3:30 p.m.
Thursday, August 26
Show Hours: 10 a.m.–5 p.m.
Seminar Hours: 8:30 a.m.–3:30 p.m.
Friday, August 27
Show Hours: 10 a.m.–2 p.m.
Seminar Hours: 8:30 a.m.–3:30 p.m.
MAILING:
29751 SW Town Center Loop W.
Wilsonville, OR 97070
888-283-7219 | 503-682-5089
Farwest@OAN.org
The Oregon Association of Nurseries (OAN), a non-profit trade association that represents more than 600 individual nursery stock producers, retailers, landscapers and related companies serving the nursery and greenhouse industry.
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