Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Another Nursery/Landscape EXPO has come and gone, yet the beautiful booths, the fun, and the new connections we have made are fresh on our minds!

Here's a look at the 2009 EXPO!






















Monday, August 17, 2009

Thanks for a wonderful EXPO! Safe travels and we'll see you in San Antonio 8/19-8/22, 2010.

Sunday, August 16, 2009

EXPO Alert: industry professionals FREE admisson to EXPO from now until 3pm! Take advantage of last minute show specials.
EXPO Alert: Reminder--no exhibit material may be removed prior to 3pm today.

Saturday, August 15, 2009

TNLA EXPO BOOTH AWARD WINNERS




Pavestone


Southwest Wholesale Nursery

Twyford

Caribbean Pottery

Color Spot

DFW Aquariums/Universal Rocks

WELCOME RECEPTIONS AND PARTIES







Images of EXPO


EXPO Alert: Congrats Greenline Booth Award Winners: Twyford, Southwest Wholesale and Color Spot
EXPO Alert: Congrats Hardline Booth Awards Winners--Caribbean Pottery, DFW Aquarium/Universal Rocks & Pavestone!
EXPO Alert: looking for a job or have a job opening? Visit Job Link board at Main entrance.
EXPO Alert: Don't forget about the PAC Lounge 40 and under Happy Hour today at 3p. $100 donation to the PAC.
EXPO Alert: Need dinner reservations? Visit the restaurant table at Main Entrance and they'll make the call to the finest restaurants!
EXPO Alert: Don't forget about the lunch buffet from 11:30a-1:00p with live music! $18
EXPO Alert: Booth awards are taking place at 11am! Best of luck to all exhibitors! We'll announce when we know :)
EXPO Alert: Education Sessions begin at 8:00am! See you there!

Friday, August 14, 2009

EXPO Alert: first day of trade show is in the can! See you at the Opening Reception at 6:00p.
Ice vending machines are located along the perimeters of the Exhibit Hall for plant watering needs!
EXPO Alert: Join us at our Welcome Reception tonight at 6p at te Hilton Anatole. Let's go to ancient Rome!
EXPO Alert: Don't forget about the Education Sessions taking place today and tomorrow in the Education Lounge!
Gourmet Lunch Buffet at EXPO -$18 11:30-1:30 in Exhibit Hall

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Education Conference Begins!

Thursday's Education Conference was informative, empowering, and extremely beneficial to attendees who learned, became motivated, and networked with other colleagues in our industry.











Exhibitor Set-Up is Booming!

Huge trucks are unloading 20 foot palms; piles of bricks are turning into lavish walkways; and stark booths are morphing into lush forests. What does this mean?? The 2009 Nursery/Landscape EXPO is here!

Below are photos of exhibitors designing and setting up their booths as they get ready for tomorrow's big opening day!















Lunch Keynote Address: Dr. Neil Odenwald today at 12:30p

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Envisioning the Show!
























At this time of show prep, it is hard to envision how beautiful the show will be. It seems we make a big mess before it all comes together. See you there!

Thursday, July 23, 2009

It is the courage to continue that counts!

"It is the courage to continue that counts!" - Winston Churchill

I recently heard that saying and realized very quickly it sums up the spirit of EXPO and the Green Industry. I believe that in stressful times people tend to rally. They like to rally together. It is at EXPO that the Green Industry in the South Central United States comes together. That is a good thing.

The show is coming together nicely. We saw the t-shirt sample yesterday. It is very nice and clean. The color is a light tan. The floor plan for 2010 booth sales has been finalized. Booth Sales will hopefully be active. We also have the artwork for the 2010 show that will be unveiled. It is gorgeous. Th etheme for next year was taken from the 4 pillars that San Antonio has adopted for tehir city - People, Pride, Passion, Promise. That is our show, as well!

Lots of things happening at the show this year. It is a place where courage rallies through the gathering of people. See you there.

Thursday, July 9, 2009

PROCRASTINATION

Some people admit they are procrastinators. Others want to deny it. Some people don't have this problem, but find those who do procrastinate a huge source of frustration. I am probably one that falls in between. There are certainly things that I do quickly and without delay. There are other things that you have to drag me to the rodeo kicking to just get my attention.

Websters Dictionary definition of procrastinate is "to put off intentionally and habitually." Wow, that sounds menacing. Although many put off till tomorrow what we know should be done today, we don't.

People all over the country are making money off of the fact we procrastinate. Nike's motto - Just Do It! They'd have to change it if we had already done it. There are speakers I have received information on as well as one I have heard on procrastination. I have to admit I even bought her book. This lady holds webinars, consults, speaks on, writes book about and gets interviewed about procrastination. Good golly - a woman with a cause that makes money.

Well, there is one thing I hope you are not going to procrastinate about and that is registering for the Nursery/Landscape EXPO. You knew that was coming!! Click on the Hot Links button and register NOW, TODAY - not TOMORROW!

Monday, June 29, 2009

GUEST BLOG FROM DR. CHARLIE HALL!

What’s in Your Wallet?
By Dr. Charlie Hall
Texas A&M University

I borrowed the title of this month’s column from Capital One’s new tag line. If you’ve seen their commercials, they use this tag line to convey to their potential customer base that their credit card services offer greater security and fraud protection than competing products in the marketplace. In marketing lingo, we would call this their unique selling proposition, or simply value proposition.
One topic that generates much discussion is how to create a compelling value proposition that would accentuate a grower’s competitive strategy in the face of this economic downturn. The problem is that many a company goes to market without having fully defined its customer value proposition. Instead, growers tend to market a nice list of "powerful" benefits (which their competitors most likely state they have too).
The underlying purpose of a value proposition is to identify and satisfy an unmet need that your target market possesses. An effective value proposition describes what you do in terms of tangible business results for the customer. However, it's more than a statement of offer or a buy-line. It's a commitment to deliver a specific combination of resulting experiences, at a particular price, to a group of target customers, more profitably and better than the competition.
For a customer value proposition to be uniquely persuasive, it must be distinctive, measurable, defendable, and sustainable. It is critical to define and support the value proposition in such a way that your customers will pay more for your product than the competitions’ product, or substantially more customers will desire your product over the competitions. Developing a value proposition is the most difficult and time-consuming of all marketing activities. That's probably why so many companies go to market without one clearly articulated.

Hear more from Dr. Hall at the Education Conference on Thursday, August 13, as well as on Friday morning at 8:00 a.m. before the trade show opens.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

HEY, There's NO REGISTRATION FORM!!

Well, by now most people have received the first mailing of the Nursery/Landscape EXPO attendee brochure. Hope you like the poster! Please hang it up, frame it - whatever - to create the show buzz! Some of you may have noticed we didn't include a registration or housing form in the brochure. Don't be alarmed. All you need to do is go online and click on HOT LINKS. Go to the attendee or exhibitor registration and download the form you are used to or click online registration and go from there. If all else fails, we will fax a form to you. We want you to come. We will be accommodating. Let us know.

By the way, if you really do want to frame the poster, I have some unfolded brochures that would be ideal for the project. E-mail us at expo@nurserylandscapeexpo.org.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

GUEST EDUCATION BLOG FROM EDUCATION CONFERENCE SPEAKER

Ecologically Performative Landscapes and The Green Industry
David Hopman, ASLA
The University of Texas at Arlington

Nature in Complex Cultural Environments

Performative theory has been applied to many facets of social theory including economic theory, and regionalism in architecture. Simply stated, it is the notion that a thing becomes what it purports to be through actions and behaviors. The term is applied here to landscapes in complex cultural environments with environmental features that are used to mitigate or even to enhance the environmental footprint of the landscape. These landscapes are a recognition that designers should no longer separate “natural” areas from the places where people actually live and work.

“Idealizing a distant wilderness too often means not idealizing the environment in which we actually live, the landscape that for better or for worse we call home. Most of our most serious environmental problems start right here, at home, and if we are to solve those problems we need an environmental ethic that tells us as much about using nature as about not using it.”
In a performative landscape, the designer creates what Michael Pollan has called “second nature”. It is a man-centered nature that seeks ecological balance but recognizes that any natural ecological system in a complex urban environment is “man centered” and subject to all the decisions involved in its inception. The projects illustrated in my presentation for the TNLA conference take an incremental approach to environmental benefits with a design of man created nature that is self-examining and self-questioning.
Addressing the actual conditions of our lives means that any, including small, movements towards future viable practices are environmental benefits worth pursuing. Peter Berg refers to the frame of mind necessary to address these actual conditions as “living in place” and “reinhabitation”. Living in place means keeping a balance between “human lives, other living things, and the processes of the planet”…Reinhabitation means working with and restoring the ecological relationships of a place and establishing a socially and environmentally future viable landscape. Berg considers this type of landscape the minimum requirement for a long-term strategy of survival.
“Reinhabitation means learning to live in place in an area that has been disrupted and injured through past exploitation. It involves becoming native to a place by becoming aware of the particular ecological relationships that operate within and around it… It involves applying for membership in a biotic community and ceasing to be its exploiter.” Dodge believes that the most important issues in ecologically performative design are “practice and engagement” and not endless theories and debate. He understands that while theory sets the parameters, it is the difficult and uncertain realities of practice that determine the outcome.
Judith Butler, Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (New York: Routledge, 1990).
William Cronon, Uncommon Ground: Toward Reinventing Nature (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1995), 83.
Michael Pollan, Second Nature (New York: Dell Publishing, 1991).
Peter Berg and Raymond Dasman. “Reinhabiting Califormia” In Architectural Regionalism: Collected Writings on Place, Identity, Modernity, and Tradition, edited by Vincent B. Canizaro, (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2007), 355.
Ibid, 355
Jim Dodge. “Living by Life: Some Bioregional Theory and Practice” In Architectural Regionalism: Collected Writings on Place, Identity, Modernity, and Tradition, edited by Vincent B. Canizaro, (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2007), 341-349.

Thursday, May 28, 2009

VISIT THE WATER CORNER AT EXPO!

When show management was brainstorming about how to give attendees more value for their visit to the Nursery/Landscape EXPO, we considered some of the topics and issues they are dealing with today. WATER rose to the top of the list. So, what did we decide to do...

The EXPO is partnering with the Texas Turf Irrigation Association (TTIA) on our irrigation tracks during the EXPO Education Conference on Thursday. The Irrigation Association classes have been chosen by TTIA and will be monitored by them as well. THANK YOU, TTIA!

We are going one step further. There will be a smart irrigation pod of suppliers that currently handle smart water technologies. This will be in Hall F close to the Food Cafe. Across the aisle from the "pod" will be organizations and state agencies that deal with water: TTIA, Irrigation Association, Texas A&M Irrigation Technology Center, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, and the WaterWise Council. Finally, the WATER Corner will be rounded out with a discussion area that will be used by the smart irrigation companies or the organizations listed above for informal discussions on water. Be sure and look for the WATER Corner sign in Hall F by the Food Cafe!

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

NO ONE is good at Multi-Tasking - GUEST BLOG

This blog is written by one of our excellent speakers that will be featured during the Education Conference on Thursday, August 13, 2009.

Job Advertisement: “Must be good at multitasking.”

Obviously the company that posted the above ad is not up-to-date on current research which shows that no one is good at multitasking. Now I realize that you are probably disagreeing with me right now, since you multitask throughout the day, but reality is that our brains are not good at executing demands to perform multiple activities simultaneously.

What actually occurs is a mental traffic jam where eventually one item breaks through, followed close behind by a second, and then a third. They may be so close together that it seems simultaneous, but in actuality one precedes the next.

When MIT students were given two simple tasks to perform at the same time, identifying shapes and letters or colors, they could not do it and lost their composure. Once they were allowed to switch back and forth, they could do it, but it was very slow because they were forcing their brains to fire in different directions so quickly.

This mental traffic jam is causing stress as we pump adrenaline throughout the day. Over an extended period, there are both short-term (absentmindedness, since we are not focused) and long-term results (brain damage in our prefrontal cortex and hippocampus). Those two brain regions are associated with short-term memory and the abilities to assess and prioritize. The extended stress also ends up causing physical illness (80% of sickness according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention).

It can appear that teens and even younger children may have a better ability to multitask. Again, reality is that they are not better at it, they just have more practice. If you must multitask, be sure that one of the two things you want to do can be done without any thought, like running and listening to your iPod.

Denise Landers is the author of Destination: Organization, A Week by Week Journey and the owner of Key Organization Systems, Inc. (www.keyorganization.com). Based in Houston, she is a national speaker, trainer, consultant and coach providing conference sessions, corporate training, and individual assistance to improve daily work flow and time management skills.

Monday, May 11, 2009

FOCUS! FOCUS! FOCUS!

Wow. Just came back from vacation and the world did not stop while I was gone. It is a great feeling to come back feeling refreshed and face the mountain of work on your desk! Ugh. Thanks to great EXPO staff the trade show continues to progress forward - nicely.

It is now time to FOCUS. Focus on the end game - Nursery/Landscape EXPO. Have you reserved your booth yet? Have you logged in and registered yet? Are you waiting for the printed brochure before you act? Don't wait! The time to focus on EXPO is now.
www.nurserylandscapeespo.org

Make your hotel reservations, so you can be sure you are in the headquarters hotel. There is still time to reserve a booth but the best ones are going fast. Let us know if you have questions by emailing expo@nurserylandscapeexpo.org

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Why 2 themes for the EXPO?

Many people would say, "What themes?", but the Nursery/Landscape EXPO has two themes that carries the show's messages.

The first is the official EXPO theme. This year it is STAND THE TEST OF TIME! That says so many things in the shaky economic times we face. While the show celebrates over 50 years of continued service to the Green Industry, the Green Industry itself is steeped in tradition in Texas and surrounding states. They continue to be leaders in production, retail, landscape, and industry supply. There is a great sense of pride among all who are part of this vaat Green Industry community. They do STAND THE TEST OF TIME, even though years have been added to many faces.

The second theme is really not a show theme as much as it is a party theme. Each year enthusiasm is built around the Welcome Party. Well, a party needs decorations. And decorations need a creative direction - thus the party theme. "TNLA goes ..." is the starting point each year. We have gone to the beach, to the circus, south of the border, and psychedelic. This year we are going to Ancient Rome. So while the decorations will suggest roman culture, togas are not the suggested dress. Many exhibitors use THIS theme to decorate their booth.

Enjoy and reflect on both EXPO themes!

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Watch out for vendor impersonators!

The Nursery/Landscape EXPO enjoys a great following of exhibitors and attendees. Our show continues to be successful, thus an attractive target for vendors who may say they are part of the TNLA show management team but aren't. We have recently had a hotel reservations company calling our exhibitors and asking to assist them with their reservations. This group is not authorized to solicit our valuable exhibitors.

There is also a company that solicits exhibitors to place an ad in their trade show guide. Again, this group is not with show management. HOWEVER, we will have TNLA staff call to give you the opportunity to advertise in the official show program. Should you have any concern about who is legitimate and who is not. Please call 512.280.5182 or e-mail expo@nurserylandscapeexpo.org.

We're LIVE!

Yes, that means you can click on exhibitor registration, attendee registration, hotel accomodations, exhibitor service kit, etc. Check out the Hot Links button on the front page to get to most any where on the site FAST!

We are LIVE! The excitement continues to build.

Monday, April 6, 2009

Keeping Your Attitude Positive!

Below are 5 Keys To Keeping Your Attitude Positive in a Negative Economy excerpted from Jefferson Davis, Trade show Turnaround Artist
1. Take more control over what you allow to enter and occupy your mind.
2. Start each day off on the right foot.
3. Start each interaction off right. Your first words can make a difference.
4. Life & Business are like the changing seasons - you can't change the seasons, but you can change how you respond to the seasons.
5. Participate in a trade show - like the Nursery/Landscape EXPO! - (Snuck one in from show management!)

Friday, April 3, 2009

There's A Lot Of Noise Out There!

Experts say people receive thousands of bits of information per day. How then do we get people to truly process the information we feel is important? Some would say you need to speak louder, make a bigger impression. Others may say a quality product or service should speak for itself. Well, as the Nursery/Landscape EXPO gears up with their marketing messages to exhibitors and attendees, I hope we are speaking loud and clear about what we believe is a great product. If anyone knows someone who should be exhibiting or should attend, let us know. We will do our best to get the message to them, have them process the potential, and respond to the call to action.

Our greatest tool in selling is still the face-to-face contact. EXPO should be the place where people meet!

Thursday, March 26, 2009

ATTENDEE REGISTRATION IS OPEN!


Wahoo! The excitement begins. Attendee registration is open. Click on the Attendee tab and then the registration tab under that to get to the online registration. You will also be able to download a .pdf of the form. You can also click the HOTLINK button on the home page.




Look for exhibitor registration and the exhibitor service kit in the next few days. these will also be added to the web. To think we started this show from 4 floor plan boards at the 2008 show.