Society of American Florists Convention
After twenty years in the Floral Business, Flowers From The Rainflorist finally had the opportunity to take part in the SAF convention in Palm Beach at the Breakers Hotel 
this past week. What a treat to be able to meet up with old friends and to meet new ones…some of us only knew each other through forums but we have chatted online for years, so to meet face to face was really awesome. Although the name Society of American Florists would lead you to believe that it is only open to the retail florist, wholesalers, growers, suppliers, educators and independent designers from around the world are members.
I was able to attend several conferences but the most informative was one led by Renato Cruz Sogueco, Chief Information Officer of the Society of American Florists, who led the group in a hands-on “blog” crash course…….it was so informative that my note taking wore my pencil down to it’s nub…yes a pencil in the high tech world of blogging. Kind of funny isn’t it…must be an age thing.
During the convention, new varieties were submitted from Floral Farms across the world to the SAF Outstanding Varieties competition for SAF and were judged on performance, foliage, fragrance, durability and color….the room was so powerful in it’s beauty that many other guests staying the hotel asked to be allowed to come into the room to enjoy the view. There were many “ohhs and ahhs” and it brought many of the attendees back to earth on the importance of how flowers impact consumers. Eufloria Flowers received the Best In Class ribbon for their new spray rose Flash Night. Just beautiful! 
And Green Valley Floral won Best in Show for it’s beautiful Oriental Lily Robina. 
I’ll be posting the dates over the next six months when we are able to have these beauties available to us.
Just walking to each seminar was a visual treat as Professional Florists from all over the country come to these events and donate their time and lots of energy to creating awesome designs. A few that we saw the first morning were in the corridor leading tto the morning breakfast and one outside our first roundtable.
Other seminars that I was able to attend were Digital Deadbolt, Thinking on Your Feet, Sustainability, Idea Swap and new products on the market.
I was able to meet the new CEO of FTD, Mark Goldston and listen to his new perspective on the growth of the company. He is youthful and it was invigorating to listen to his perspective of our industry.All in all the Convention was well worth traveling up to Palm Beach. Next year will be the Societies 125th Annual Convention and will be held at the Sheraton Wild Horse Pass Resort Phoenix, Arizona.