Attendees at last year’s Next Gen LIVE! enjoyed educational sessions tailored to their needs and plenty of time to network.
At 33, Carrie Moore is a young business owner, navigating the ups and downs and ins and outs of running her Custer, South Dakota flower shop. But she doesn’t do it alone. Not only does she have the support of the shop’s former owner, but after attending the Society of American Florists’ Next Gen LIVE! event last year, she also has a network of other young floral professionals to lean on. She isn’t stopping her career development there, though.
“I know there is still so much to learn as a young business owner,” says Moore, who was one of the first to register and book a flight to Miami for this year’s Next Gen LIVE!, slated for June 11 to 13. “And there are more people to meet to inspire me on this career path.”
This year’s event offers a brand new slate of education, a new tour option of the Miami floral scene, and plenty of networking opportunities for attendees and suppliers.
Programming By and For the Next Gen
SAF turned to its Next Gen Committee to inspire this year’s educational sessions. More information about the supply chain, digital marketing, artificial intelligence, customer loyalty and leadership ranked as top priorities.
“We wanted to make sure that this year’s education not only offers an entirely new experience but also addresses the most current needs of attendees,” says Nicole Palazzo, AAF, chairperson of the committee.
(Get more information about the event and register here, and see pictures of last year’s event here.)
Looking for Leadership Skills
Many Next Gen LIVE! attendees are young leaders who expressed their desire for education that will help them grow their leadership skills.
Corrine Heck, PFCI, of Details Flowers Software, and Adam Havrilla, AAF, AIFD, CFD, ICPF, PFCI, will team up to lead a communications “master class” where they’ll share practical steps anyone can take to enhance their communication skills and effectiveness inside and outside the workplace.
In another session, Breigh Jones-Coplin, Ph.D., of Black + Blossomed in Denver, will help attendees explore their attachment styles and how it influences their personal and professional relationships. Attendees will also learn to identify attachments styles in others, and discover how they can understand and work with different attachment styles.
Digital Marketing Deep Dive
The schedule also includes three “Social Media Savvy” sessions aimed at improving digital marketing.
Kelsey Thompson, AIFD, of Bloom Floral & Home Studio in Algona, Illinois, and founder of Petal & Profits, a floral marketing business, will focus on how to generate the right content for social channels, and help attendees create a scalable plan to develop engaging social media content.
Sarah LoBue, AIFD, of Main Street Florist in Carlinville, Illinois, will demonstrate how to plan, shoot and edit short-form video for TikTok and Instagram Reels, and how to use the most popular tools to add value to videos.
Valerie Crisostomo, of One Soul Events and founder of Black Girl Florists, will demonstrate how working with influencers can increase marketing reach, and why having a presence in your community is a key component to winning new customers.
Cultivate Customer Loyalty
In an interactive session, Derek Woodruff, AAF, AIFD, PFCI, of Floral Underground in Traverse City, Michigan, will dive into the details of hosting a successful consumer-facing event. He’ll instruct attendees how to teach customers of all skill levels to make arrangements, and plan timelines, promotions, staffing and other logistics to pull off successful workshops.
Another interactive session focuses on providing five-star customer service. Sam Bowles of Allen’s Flowers & Plants provides a playbook for providing top-quality service in any situation, and best practices for communicating service procedures and policies to staff. Attendees will be challenged to solve a crowd-sourced customer service issue and share their resolutions with others.
Act on Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence tools have the potential to help businesses in every segment of the industry streamline operations, predict sales, target audiences for marketing, create content and more. Attendees will get an overview of the different A.I. platforms and how to use them to help their business grow.
Supply Chain Education
This year’s sessions include a behind-the-scenes look at the supply chain, including a session about how hard good products are developed, manufactured and distributed.
The event, held in the epicenter of U.S. floral industry importing, also offers attendees two tour options. In addition to tours of the Miami Airport facilities where flowers are inspected by agents of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection and distributed, attendees will also have the opportunity to get a behind the scenes look at progressive retail flower shops in the Miami area.
Last year Moore toured the airport facilities, a bouquet maker and a flower distribution center and says seeing the supply chain in action was eye-opening.
“Seeing how and where flowers come into the U.S., and what they go through before getting trucked across the county to my shop, really helped me understand the supply chain better,” she says. “It’s also helped me educate my customers. These types of experiences are invaluable.”
Other attendees of last year’s said it helped them feel more connected to and passionate and informed about the industry.
“The information was transformative and the networking with other designers and wholesalers was mind opening and inspiring,” says Jessica Ratta of Arkay Floral and Gifts in Brunswick, Ohio. “I look forward to putting all I learned into our business and creating an unwavering community.”
Amanda Jedlinsky is the managing editor of SAF NOW.
