ALEXANDRIA, VA — The Society of American Florists’ 1-Day Profit Blast is back for the first time in over a year. The event will take place at the BWI Marriott in Baltimore, Maryland on Tuesday, November 9.
Sponsored by DV Flora, the program will cover sustainable holiday designs, recruiting and retaining employees through incentive plans, and social media and email marketing automation. There will also be time for networking and a Supplier Showcase, where floral industry vendors share their newest products.
The three educational sessions will provide solutions and strategies to help florists solve the biggest issues facing the industry.
“Everything we’re hearing – from SAF member surveys, to the recent roundtable discussions with SAF’s volunteer leadership – indicates that the tight labor market is a top challenge for our industry, forcing some businesses to have to turn down orders,” says SAF CEO Kate Penn. “We’ve recruited a combination of speakers who bring ready-to-implement solutions that allow florists to capitalize on the high demand we’re experiencing despite their smaller teams, and also create systems for recruiting and retaining talent.”
The nationwide labor shortage, which doesn’t appear to be improving, paired with the upcoming holiday season, and surge in demand for flowers are leaving many retailers short staffed and short on time for tasks such as designing and marketing. It was important to event sponsor DV Flora to provide sessions that would help florists flourish, says John Richards, vice present of sales.
“A lot of them don’t have the staff and the time” to bring in new designers and train them to make easy, profitable arrangements, Richards says. “If they can learn some things in that regard, they’d have a better chance of success.”
The design session, led by Kevin Ylvisaker AIFD, CFD, PFCI, will teach florists new and efficient ways to produce and sell holiday arrangements at a profit. Ylvisaker will share his favorite time-saving tools and demonstrate techniques. His session will also put an emphasis on using sustainable materials.
Accountant Derrick Myers, PFCI, of Crockett & Myers Associates, will share how and why incentive plans can help achieve business goals, and how to identify areas in a business that an incentive program could improve. Myers will talk about how incentive plans can be scaled for businesses of different sizes, and even structured for different positions within the business.
Melanie Spilbeler, of FreshPath Marketing, will teach florists how to save time on marketing by streamlining promotional planning processes, automating email marketing, and using content calendars and other tools to focus social media marketing.
Valerie White, owner of Flowers by Val in Fredericksburg, Virginia, says she’s missed in-person events and jumped at the chance to attend.
“Education is so important,” White says. “I just feel that we’ve all kind of been in this lull for over a year. We haven’t been able to go to educational events.”
As a business owner who also designs, White is looking forward to Ylvisaker’s session to give her inspiration for the holidays.
“I have to be top-notch, on my game designing,” White says, adding that her designs aren’t just about aesthetics, but also “about what I am buying and if it is profitable.”
Registration for the 1-Day Profit Blast in Balitmore is open now. Tickets are $159 for SAF members, and $199 for non-members. Additional registrants from the same company cost $119.
About The Society of American Florists
The Society of American Florists is the association that connects and cultivates a thriving floral community through training, education, marketing resources and advocacy. Our vision: The power of flowers in every life. For more information, visit safnow.org.
