Over 90 participants from Europe and beyond, as far as South-Africa, visited The Netherlands to take part in Fleuroselect’s International Home Garden Conference on 22nd and 23rd of September in the Aalsmeer area. This year’s topic was ‘The Consumer and the Retail Experience’.
Takii Trials and Intratuin Insights
The event was co-hosted by Takii and Pieterpikzonen. The Japanese breeder Takii, celebrating 25 years in The Netherlands, highlighted its oriental vegetable breeding. The delegates received a tour of the seed cleaning / storage facilities and visited the extensive vegetable trials in De Kwakel.
At pictorial packet printer Wesselink, partly owned by PieterPikzonen, the delegation could observe the latest technology in offset seed packet printing. Especially the brand new ten colour printer caught the eye of the delegation. During a visit to the Cruquius store, Intratuin explained the Dutch garden center chain’s structure and vision on promoting and selling plants. Both visits were organised by PieterPikZonen.
The Retail Experience versus Consumer Trends
The two main speakers were particularly well received by the audience. Nancy van Kleef from VIRetail addressed the ongoing changes and challenges in the shopping experience. Whereas marketing used to focus on transferring information in a one way direction, today it is all about standing out from the crowd by storytelling and sharing emotions. Trendwatcher Richard van Hooijdonk looked at new media and techniques that will drastically change our way of living and communicating in the future.
Sunflowers, Cosmos and Tomato
The Business Unit Home Gardening presented the outroll of the “2015 – Year of the Sunflower” and “2016 – Year of the Cosmos/Tomato” campaigns. All the developed marketing materials for these three campaigns are available free of charge on www.homegardenassociation.com.
Fleuroselect & The Home Garden Association
Fleuroselect tests, protects and promotes new flower varieties. The international membership includes breeders, producers and distributors of ornamental varieties.
The Home Garden Association has been created under the Fleuroselect umbrella to promote home gardening as fun, easy, economical and valuable. At the annual Home Garden Conference, participants can gain inspiration from expert speakers and network with colleagues to create business opportunities. For more information, please contact info@fleuroselect.com.
Source: Fleuroselect
