When Rey Rodriguez, AAF, AIFD, TMFA, of The Gypsy Florist in Austin, Texas, stepped into a hotel ballroom last week for the Society of American Florists’ 50th Annual Sylvia Cup Design Competition during SAF Palm Springs 2018, he wasn’t nervous — he was ready.
“I look at every competition as a learning workshop,” admitted Rodriguez, who worked quickly and thoughtfully throughout the two-hour competition, pausing to reflect, adjust and tweak — making changes based on his own intuition and experience, and with a little help from the stream of floral industry members watching the show. “[At one point], I knew what I wanted but didn’t feel I was achieving it in the way I had hoped, and so I worked off of the reactions of the crowd.”
In the end, his approach (and steely nerves) paid off in a big way when Rodriguez took home the coveted trophy and $3,000 prize for his designs.
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