Ontario Florists Conference 2005...

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Mikey the Flower Guy

Mikey the Flower Guy

It's a GREAT DAY to live, and love!
Nov 10, 2002
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Dundas, Ontario, Canada
www.hamiltonflorists.com
State / Prov
Ontario
pictures courtesy of BBJ.....

http://www.a1florists.com/ofc

this was a very special OFC.....very warm, friendly, easy going, and a breakthrough OFC for those of us even slightly involved!!
Only one or two minor concerns were raised, and the longer this goes, the better we get......
the OFC 2005 Committee truely hope that you ALL had a blast, and look forward to you attending next year in Toronto....
As a side note, we had the highest number of "next year" registrations in OFC history, and already getting hard at work in getting things going!!
A tremendous congratulations to Janet Mcleod, of East City Flower Shop in Peterborough,Ontario, Canada, for her acheiveing one of Canada's highest florist honours..recieving the 2nd Harry Cholakis Award for her work, love, and dedication to community, and the florist industry.
ALSO, a HUGE, and MASSIVE hug to Suzy Caiger, of Ada's FlowerShop in Oakville, Ontario,Canada for probably one, IF NOT, THE VERY BEST decorating committee, we've ever had, and basically took control of things to make this year's OFC a tremendous success!!
Next year's info will be posted shortly......
 
On behalf of the vendors, I want to thank EVERYONE involved in making this year's OFC a fantastic event. The committee went above and beyond to drive traffic to the vendors' booths. We appreciate the support and the enthusiam!

The decorations were truly fantastic, and worthy of all the compliments and more. I love going to a floral conference and seeing design that really showcases the abilities of our industry.

A special thanks to the FTD "behind the scenes" crew, including Lisa Witek, Danny Cisneros, Kristy, Angela Alwin ... and I know I'm missing a couple more people who never get the glory, but without whom the event would not happen.

Looking forward to next year already!

Ryan
 
Regarding the FTD &....

OFC Committee....
Frank Stornelli tried several times to get all the FTD & OFC "labourers" together for a group shot(s), and finally threw in the towel!!
It seemed that every single OFC organizer was busy, and every single FTD person was being "occupied".....
Thank you Ryan, for being a "vendor" at this show, thank you to ALL vendors at this show, thank you to ALL participants of this show, thank you Ryan and Janis of "allowing & trusting" me with your precious Wesley...it IS the highlight of my weekend!
IF any vendors have any "concerns", about the setup, we need to know NOW...or soon!!
How was the food, accomodations, service, surroundings, ambiance, and cost effectiveness of this event in your opinion??
Thank you FTD...ALL of you, for your bottomless efforts, and TOP NOTCH planning & presentation, and for believing in us......we "owe" you much!!
We had many babies/children attend, compared to other years...IS THERE ANYTHING we can do to make this a better "FAMILY EXPERIENCE??"
 
Mikey the Flower Guy said:
pictures courtesy of BBJ.....

http://www.a1florists.com/ofc

this was a very special OFC.....very warm, friendly, easy going, and a breakthrough OFC for those of us even slightly involved!!
Only one or two minor concerns were raised, and the longer this goes, the better we get......
the OFC 2005 Committee truely hope that you ALL had a blast, and look forward to you attending next year in Toronto....
As a side note, we had the highest number of "next year" registrations in OFC history, and already getting hard at work in getting things going!!
A tremendous congratulations to Janet Mcleod, of East City Flower Shop in Peterborough,Ontario, Canada, for her acheiveing one of Canada's highest florist honours..recieving the 2nd Harry Cholakis Award for her work, love, and dedication to community, and the florist industry.
ALSO, a HUGE, and MASSIVE hug to Suzy Caiger, of Ada's FlowerShop in Oakville, Ontario,Canada for probably one, IF NOT, THE VERY BEST decorating committee, we've ever had, and basically took control of things to make this year's OFC a tremendous success!!
Next year's info will be posted shortly......
Click to expand...

Mike, Thanks for posting the link......I didn't have time to post it this morning.

If anyone who was at the conference has pictures they would like to share please forward them to me and I'll add them to the site when I have time.....That includes pictures of Infinite :)
 
BBJ (Big Bad John) said:
Mike, Thanks for posting the link......I didn't have time to post it this morning.

If anyone who was at the conference has pictures they would like to share please forward them to me and I'll add them to the site when I have time.....That includes pictures of Infinite :)
Click to expand...

I have pictures from OFC that I'm sorting out yet, I'll mail them to you tomorrow. I have a few good pictures of Ryan and Wesley, I have a really good picture of Tim Casson and a few of Frank with Ariana.

Audra
 
Any big announcements from the Wire Services made at OFC??

Thanks...
 
Mike Soenen promised to enforce the mandatory display of address in shop advertising. This should attack some deceptive non-local YP and internet ads. I don't know if this will drive people into using more fake addresses, but it's a start. He also called on other WS to playball and clean-up the industry - I'm not holding my breath on co-operation.
 
My views on OFC

First I want to mention that not all FTD Florists/florists drink. With that said some of us florists like to participate in these conference to learn new things or do a workshop. We want a OFC that will offer many things, to maximize our time, travel and money spent.

Here are my suggestions for next year. Fell free to copy it donw and pass it along to the committee.

First. I would like the convention to finish by noon or 1 o'clock sunday. This will help those people who have to travel a long way to get home a decent time. October and November are two dangerous months of animal to venture on the highways because of the hunting season. Many accidents happen at night. I will elaborate more on how we can finish at that time.

Second - Let's start with Friday night. Have registration from 7 to 9 p.m. in the trade fair. I found it very crowded around the trafe fair during the show, so try to give them more room. Have the bingo game with our registration and we can start friday night ot get our stamps. Suppliers should be told not to stamp more than one place. THe reason for the game is to visit all suppliers. If they stamp more than one place, it takes away from that supplier. Maybe ad a place for workshop also. Maybe a special sticker or stamps could be used for workshop/design show. Make this a finger food gathering/event. Cash bar Eliminating 2 breakfast may pay for this event. This will also eliminate the trade fair for sunday morning. Maybe some of these trade vendors would like to offer a friday nigh special.

Third - Sat morning was pretty boring and I was ready to get going. I would have love to see a workshop sat morning instead of going to a mercury program which it was no use of me going to. Sat afternoon, another workshop/design/merchandiser show.

Fourth - Sat evening, as much as I like to participate in the murder mystery, how about getting your motivotional speaker there. Get her to speak about 1 hour max. The rest of the time is for people to talk and socialize. YOURS BIGGEST crowd is SAt night. Use it as your potential. Most people did not want to participate during the murder mystery.

Fifth - Sunday morning, Skip Breakfast Start your last design show at 9:00 am. Most people are late getting up in the morning anyway. At 11:00 offer brunch. During this time, offer your auction or over stock to the participant.
Waiting till 4, people just wants to leave.

Sixth - THanking sponsors/vendors. Their names should be mentioned at each workshop/design shows and during the supper sat night. ALL vendors put mega money on doing this and their names should be mentions often. It only takes a few minutes before any event. I know all designers get paid for their time and travelling expenses, but I would like to see a small gift after their presentation be given to them with a thank you card.

Offer something for the kids to do on Sat. afternoon. Maybe a babysitting type service could come inn and do things with the kids.

Try to keep all all venues as close as possible to each other.

Advertise to non FTD Florists often. Making sure you don't have to be a FTD florist to participate.

Workshop could be as easy as what OASIS did at their booth. They had a new product and they could have easily did a workshop for people to work and learn. Depending on workshop maybe a minimal price could be charged to cover cost of material.

I would like to thanks the committee that work so hard to do this show, Frank S. and his crew at FTD that put this together.

Thank you for letting me voice my opinions and I hope to see more.
Luc
 
FTD should look in their ball court before they talk about the other wire service. BOTH are bad at blaming the other one. IF Mike wants to be a leader then show us to clean house. He has a choice to clean all of those order gatherer/deceptive florist from his book and He would gain the respects of many florists and maybe even gain new one like myself.
Now that is a movie by itself! I am not holding my breath that will happen. They would have to shut down ftd.com etc.
Luc
 
Infinite said:
Mike Soenen promised to enforce the mandatory display of address in shop advertising. This should attack some deceptive non-local YP and internet ads. I don't know if this will drive people into using more fake addresses, but it's a start. He also called on other WS to playball and clean-up the industry - I'm not holding my breath on co-operation.
Click to expand...
Why did my B.S. Meter just shoot into the red zone?

Will 'shop advertising' include OG's that don't have shops? Or will they enforce that rule that the 'real company' needs to include its name and address on each site?

If he follows through, it would be a refreshing change. But, I'm not gonna hold my breath either.
 
Infinite said:
Mike Soenen promised to enforce.... He also called on other WS to playball and clean-up the industry - I'm not holding my breath on co-operation.
Click to expand...

(edited)

Funny...TF said the same thing with regard to "co-operation"...

Don;t hold your breath folks...we need every one of you.
 
I have avoided all "design schools" and "florists conventions" for more than 25 years...until last year's OFC at Niagara Falls. I got so much out of that event, from a business, design, and social point of view, that I attended the one this year. And what do you know, it was even better!

My single regret is that there was not enough time to talk to every one I wanted to. The decorations made me proud of my industry and I learned a lot from taking a close look at them. The motivational speaker was the best and funniest I have ever heard and I wished she would have talked another hour. I vote for her return next year...she was only getting started! (Sorry Luc, but I would not want to be "educated" at the dinner table next year...only amused or entertained.)

It would have been nice if we could have held our hotel rooms until the events were over, but it was a small inconvenience compared to the overall success of the event. And did anyone mention it was in downtown Toronto next year? I am looking forward to it.
 
Paul said:
My single regret is that there was not enough time to talk to every one I wanted to. The decorations made me proud of my industry and I learned a lot from taking a close look at them. The motivational speaker was the best and funniest I have ever heard and I wished she would have talked another hour. I vote for her return next year...she was only getting started! (Sorry Luc, but I would not want to be "educated" at the dinner table next year...only amused or entertained.)
Click to expand...

I'm with you. My Saturday was packed full of floral geek goodness and supper was really the first opportunity I really got to sit down and chat with other florists. If I could change anything, I would give a bit of a break between sessions and I would have started Friday. I came out of Saturday feeling slightly shellshocked and I ended up skipping the dance thingie entirely.

Audra
 
Where will it be in Toronto? I attended last year, missed this year, my understanding there will be no convention next year for ftd? but this event will happen correct? That's great, says a lot about attendence and information being worth the weekend, hope to attend next year. Thanks!
 
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