Three plant-focused seminars will run over the course of the show: Tuesday 25 June will see the first seminar at 10am and the second at 3pm, and the final seminar will take place at 10am on Wednesday 26 June.
The line up of speakers kicks off with a seminar from James Wong the Kew-trained botanist, BBC science presenter and obsessive foodie grower, sponsored by Suttons. Visitors will hear James’ unique take on the future for Grow Your Own. He’ll offer ideas for retailers to inspire a new wave of excitement in this product area that has generated so much interest over recent years. Using his own hands-on experience in growing a wide range of unusual plants,
The second seminar will be given by Michael Marriott, Technical Manager at David Austin Roses. Working for nearly 30 years with what is probably the best-known brand in plants, Michael will share his vision on how to capture the imagination of customers, how to build and promote a brand, how to sell a dream – not just a plant – and how to grow sales in the plantarea. “It all comes from knowing what your customers want and giving it to them!”
In the third and final seminar Adam Pasco, the former editor of BBC Gardener’s World magazine, now running his own media and consultancy company, will present his views on what the public will be looking for from their gardens and garden centres in the year ahead. Adam will review the trends we’ve seen over recent years and where he sees these going for 2014 and beyond. What do garden centres need to do to get customers buying more plants? What role can the media play and how best can retailers reach out to people still to buy plants and see their garden reach its potential? These are all questions that Adam will tackle, leaving his audience with plenty of inspirational ideas for their own business.
