It's all about business... the strategies, tactics and tools that make great things happen."

Celebrate the 10th Anniversary of
The Garden Center Group Fall Event
with four days of business building workshops,
panel discussions, garden center tour with
a vendor showcase in a real-life garden center setting.

Monday, September 27

-Hotel Check-In Newport News Marriott at City Center (see hotel reservation information below)

12:00 - Binder & Name Badge pick-up outside THE GRAND BALLROOM

2:00 - 4:00 - "Roundtable Discussion Groups"
Q&A With Your Peers & Group Service Providers
Join in on discussions ranging from POS system reports that matter most, developing seasonal sites, creating signs that sell including big print options, getting the most from site changes and more.
Free-wheeling conversations lead by people who live and breathe this stuff. Find a topic you like then get a fresh perspective at one of the other table topics. Here's your chance to ask owners, managers and advisors your questions in search of answers.

4:00 - 6:00 - "The Top 10 Internet Marketing Tools For Small Business"
John Arnold, Author of the best-selling book E-Marketing for Dummies
"I believe any marketing advice should be full of actionable information that explains the steps to take for success." Spoken like a true trainer. In fact, John is the lead trainer for our friends at Constant Contact. Take a peek behind the veil as John walks us though the 10 most important email marketing best practices and latest opportunities using other forms of electronic communication tools.

6:00 - 8:00 - Opening Reception, Newport News Marriott ROTUNDA

Tuesday, September 28
All session in The Grand Ballroom Salons I & II

7:15 - 8:00 - Continental Breakfast outside THE GRAND BALLROOM

8:00 - 8:30 - Opening Observations
Robert Hendrickson, The Garden Center Group Managing Director

8:30 - 10:00 - "The Dynamics of Family Business"
Henry Hutcheson, ReGeneration Partners
Negotiating the twists and turns of family business takes the ability to visualize both long and short term outcomes of your planning and leadership. "Family-owned businesses are wonderfully complex, integrated systems of relationships fighting against the pressures of the marketplace."
Henry's session will explain why family businesses, once successful, often fail… how to create a "code of conduct", improving communication with employees that often "feel like family" using actual case studies from independent retailers including ones in our industry.

10:00 - 10:30 Break

10:30 - 12:00 - "The Reimagined Consumer Culture"
Greg Prang, PhD, The Hartman Group
Publisher of A Brand Called Hope
Today's consumers have different aspirations than the traditions of our parents. They desire something new… something better… something to hope for. So how does a guy spending eight years in the Amazon researching fish know what's on the hearts and minds of today's consumer? Through systematic research over thousands of hours engaged with shoppers to detect shifts occurring in both the culture of consumption and lifestyle changes. This session reaches deep into comprehensive intellectual capital to create a compelling story that examines the patterns of contemporary consumer behavior and how these translate into business opportunities.

12:00 - 1:30 - Lunch & Awards Program

1:30 - 3:00 - "The Magic of Meaningful Engagement"
David Weigelt, Immersion Active, Author of Dot Boom: Marketing To Boomers Through Meaningful Online Engagement
Being an influential brand with consumers is the result of meaningful engagement, whether in line at your store or online in the privacy of their home. In either case, your brand should not only be a part of the boomer brigade… America's largest, wealthiest population the country has ever seen, it should be an influencer with a model for replicable success for any generation.
With $2 trillion dollars of disposable income at stake, this session shows how to facilitate a deeper emotional connection between your company and the generation that created today's garden center industry.

3:00 - 3:30 - Break

3:30 - 5:00 - "Selling Without Selling: Finding Your Voice, Leveraging Your Relationships and Connecting With Your Customers!"
Michael Katz, Blue Penguin Development
There are one trillion web pages… 100,000 iPhone apps and 10,500 radio stations. Our world is exploding with information, new media tools and content. But how do you make yourself heard above the din… connecting with customers so that they buy more, more often and tell their friends? Here's what the answer isn't… one more newspaper ad… another $10.00 coupon or email blast. You've already tried that and it isn't working.
"The market winners will are going to be companies that leverage relationships," says Michael.
In this session he explains how to define and develop your authentic voice, how to connect with your most profitable customers and how to create lasting relationships which add up to more business.

6:00 - 7:30 - P&L Reception
By invitation open to 2009 P&L Study participants

Wednesday, September 29
Real Life Retailing Tour

6:15 - 7:30 - Continental Breakfast in the Rotunda

7:30 SHARP! - Motor Coaches depart Newport News Marriott

White's Old Mill Garden Center - Chesapeake, VA
For over 50 years, White's Nursery & Greenhouse has strived to perfect the art of grower/wholesaler/retailer. With over 20 acres in production, the company has become known as one of the nation's premier growers of florist quality, seasonal color. Owner Norm White set a record for being a five time cover story for Grower Talks magazine. In one article, Vic Ball said… "You've got to see it. Near-perfect uniformity and quality, spic-and-span cleanliness of it all- the epitome of growing."

This attention to detail spills over to the newly renovated garden center located in a quiet neighborhood of Chesapeake, Virginia. Our stop will include a behind the scenes tour of the production area for those interested in the grower's side of the business with a focus on how the garden center uses seasonal color and exclusive color-combos to set them apart from the competition.

McDonald's Garden Center - Virginia Beach, VA
The Nursery Retailer of the Year
Of the three McDonald Garden Center locations, our visit takes us to the Virginia Beach site opened in 1980. The garden center creates a retail environment similar to the lifestyle shopping centersso popular with developers today. Converted from a horse farm to multi-division garden center, shoppers are guided from the entrance
courtyard through a series of plant departments and free-standing buildings including the Williamsburg Gallery that ties in to the areas historical connection.
The stroll under mature trees and past display gardens adds to the village atmosphere so unique to this location.

Famous for their Myrtle Money promotion that has been adapted by numerous garden centers around the country, McDonald Garden Center also hosts a number of Fall events including a hugely successful benefitfor a local children's hospital designed around scarecrows. Our visit will focus on using site-design to create shopping environments that become part of the garden center's character and customer reward programs, another industry staple with a long history of success at McDonald's.

Norfolk Botanical Gardens
Lunch/Tour

Anderson's Home & Garden Showplace - Newport News, VA
Preferred Vendor Showcase/Educational Programs
Reception
Anyone who has been involved with a major expansion project at their garden center knows it can be a daunting task. But taking on a complete redesign of the entire property in the midst of tough economic times calls for more than just being up for a challenge.
The new Anderson's Home & Garden Showplace is the result of many years of planning and confidence that the public wants more from their shopping experience than the traditional garden center provides. Incorporating a full-service café, fudge shop, gift and home decorating accessories to a center known for their expansive plant selection fulfills that goal.

Owner Clark Anderson believes… "Our goal is to create a shopping experience that equals or exceeds that of other types of retail locations. We want people to come to Anderson's to browse, eat, shop and enjoy the whole experience and stay for hours in they desire."

With a 15,000 square foot showroom, new greenhouse, sit-down café and room for over 250 cars, the newly designed center creates a shopping experience positioned to appeal to gardeners and anyone looking for an alternative to the traditional style of retailing they find at other places.

Each stop will include plenty of time for photos as well as Q&A sessions with owners and managers regarding operational issues.

No "drive by shooting" schedule here... this tour puts you in the middle of how these centers position themselves to stand out in their market.

Thursday, September 30

7:15 - 8:00 - Continental Breakfast outside THE GRAND BALLROOM

8:00 - 9:30 - "When It Comes To HR"
Jean Seawright, Seawright & Associates, Inc.
With a multitude of labor and employment bills in Congress that impact small businesses to new and unusual challenges in the workplace, it's definitely time for an HT updatefrom Jean. To help keep you up-to-speed with the latest HR issues, Jean will provide abroad overview of multiple topics… from the often overlooked communicable diseasesin the workplace, social networking risks and realities, new handbook policies every business needs, pending legislation that will change your HR practices and more!
As with the long-standing tradition that makes Jean one of The Group's most valuable and respected Service Providers, you'll leave with practical ideas, critical tips, new policies to put in place and a vital knowledge you need to successfully manage and lead the HR functions of business.

9:30 - 10:00 - Break

10:00 - 11:30 - " Survivor Skills For Proven Success "
If the past few years of business have taught us anything it's that companies with the best management skills somehow find ways to out maneuver event the most hostile of retail environments. We thought it would be beneficial to hear how centers in The Goup confronted a few key challenge areas and share their results.

Survivor Skills: Strategies Sid Raisch Horticultural Advantage The centers featured here are ones that devises plans for dealing with a number of defining issues over and above the economy hurdles.	Survivor Skills: Finance Steve Bailey Steve Bailey Consulting Increased margins, increased profit and better financial success during an economic meltdown? A few centers pulled it off and here's how they did it.
Suvivor Skills: Marketing Robert Hendrickson Solutions csi While some companies pulled back on marketing, others took a more aggressive approach. There's a sampling of some of the best examples Group centers put into play.

11:30 - 12:30 Lunch

12:30 - 2:30 - " The Road To Remarkable"
Doug Stephens, Retail Prophet
Consumers have less time and more stores to choose from. Success in retail comes down to being remarkable and standing out from competitors. Remarkable businesses develop a loyal following, uncontested market space and ultimately survive the test of time. The Road to Remarkable will spark your organizations' imagination and provide proven strategies to move your business from ordinary to extraordinary.

"The Road To Remarkable Retailer of the Year"
Jeff Baggaley, Color Company - London, Ontario
When you grow up in a family business, the typical transition is to
some day join the firm. Instead, Jeff set out to open his own paint and home fashion stores. Today he operates five successful locations providing customers with the same level of high-end product and personal service found at the best garden centers.
"The world of colour and home fashion is constantly evolving. Styles and trends are changing more rapidly than ever before. Our commitment to customers is to stay on the cutting edge of these changes to ensure they're always right in style".

Depart For Home

Travel Information Hotel Information: Newport News Marriott at City Center 740 Town Center Drive Newport News, Virginia 23606 (757) 873-9299; fax (757) 873-9298 To book online use the link below www.Marriott.com/phfoy Enter Group Code: GCOGCOA For reservations call (866) 329-1758. Ask for The Garden Center Group Block Group Code: GCOGCOA Fall Event attendee to receive the discounted rate of $109 per night. Reservation deadline is September 3, 2010. Transportation: Newport News Marriott does not provide hotel shuttle service Newport News, Virginia is service by 2 airports Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport (PHF) - www.nnwairport.com Approx. 5 miles from Newport News Marriott Estimated taxi fare one way $15 Visit website for taxi and airport shuttle information Norfolk International Airport (ORF) - www.norfolkairport.com Approx. 25 miles from Newport News Marriott Estimated taxi fare one way $60 Visit website for taxi and airport shuttle information *** please be aware that the travel time to or from the Norfolk International Airport can vary greatly depending on the time of day due to TUNNEL TRAFFIC. Plan accordingly.

 

Registration Information Fall Event Registration Fee $479 per person if payment is received in full by August 20, 2010 $499 per person if payment is received after August 20, 2010 Registration with payment received after September 10, 2010 will be accommodated based on availablility of space. Cancellation/Refund Policy Cancellations will be accepted in writing only and should be directed to Wendy Hendrickson via fax (410) 313-8068. Before September 3, 2010: Full refund September 3, 2010 to September 17, 2010: $250.00 refund After September 17, 2010: No refund

Watch for Official Fall Event '10 brochure by mail in April.
Click to download Quick View Schedule
and Registration Form