Cultivate21

This past weekend representatives from Bob's Market made a trip to Columbus, OH for Cultivate21, our industry's largest trade show.  With the events of last year, the show was moved online for a "virtual" conference in 2020.  While the Zoom meetups during last year's event was fun, there's nothing like meeting with people face-to-face.  In fact, this was the first major event to be held at the Greater Columbus Convention Center since 2019.

People that are new to our industry often comment that we don't really operate like other industries.  Being made up of mostly small, independent growers, garden centers, landscapers, florists, and a myriad of other allied businesses and organizations, it's not uncommon for us to help each other out, share information that would be considered "trade secrets" and develop friendships that would seem out of place in any other industry. For example, last spring we had a huge Facebook group of garden centers dedicated to building out curbside ordering and pickup systems as quickly as possible. Find a system that works for you?  Share it there for everyone! Sure there's still competition but it's … different. After last year, it was somewhat cathartic to set down and share war stories.

Over the next few weeks I'm going to share some of my experiences during Cultivate21 that you might find interesting.  For example, on the first day I took a very informative tour of the Columbus Zoo lead by their landscapers.  It is amazing the considerations they have to make to accommodate both the animals and guests.  Sure I went to a bunch of boring educational sessions, but you'll actually be seeing the results of those too as I work to improve our website and behind-the-scenes things here at Bob's.  The cool stuff I'll be sharing on Bob's LIVE over the coming weeks.  You can watch it live on Facebook and YouTube each Tuesday at 5PM.