Enhancing the GCCE Experience

The Garden Center Conference & Expo is uniquely built to provide the best education and information sharing possible for attendees and exhibitors alike. From the session halls to the show floor, our conference-goers spend a lot of time talking about inspiration and problem-solving.

That’s by design. Because most of the audience is IGC professionals and their working partners, every minute of facetime is a valuable moment to build better business.

“You know what we love as a vendor is the fact that it's the garden center owners and the managers that are there. It's the decision-makers,” says Jessica DeGraaf, director of retail accounts for Proven Winners. “And so, we had wonderful conversations. We had great traffic. Great interaction in the booth. People are really interested and engaged.”

But the nature of the show means that attendees and exhibitors may need to change conference tactics they’ve used at other shows. That’s not to say that standard tactics like passing out business cards, offering demos and sharing literature aren’t valuable at GCCE. They still help get the point across. But to truly enhance the GCCE experience, attendees and exhibitors will thrive when they move from showing and telling to problem-solving, experiencing and collaborating.

Get Hands On

Some of the most successful attendees are the ones who build and engage in experiences that can be echoed in a garden center environment. That might look like offering hands-on lessons about the best way to merchandise products in a store to entice customers. It might also look like a demonstration of ways IGC owners can engage their customers with events that incorporate your products.

In 2023, Smithers-Oasis took that approach in a booth that used its Forage Products as a basis to showcase how IGCs can run a successful floral arranging workshop. Vistors to the booth were offered a selection of flowers that could be cut and arranged in its new floral foam product with help from a floral designer. The result was attendees carrying away eye-catching, conversation-starting bouquets.

“Everybody had their own flair on it, which was a lot of fun,” says Kelly Mace, marketing and communications manager. “I think people were very proud of what they did, and even if they weren't going to take it home, they planned to leave it at the front desk.”

And while the giveaway was nice, sending attendees away with flowers wasn’t the point of the exercise. Mace explains that more than anything, the activity was geared toward the goal of engagement. Her team placed an emphasis on the conversations that can happen around interactions with their products.

So, Mace poses this question to potential exhibitors: “How are you going to get people to stop? Because you only have so many seconds to a minute to get to engage. Have an experience that gets people talking.”

Get Excited

For Mossify founder and CEO Lucas Picciolo, getting people to handle and experience the company’s range of plant accessories is crucial. And it helps that the Mossify line of bendable moss stakes and lights lend themselves to being held and manipulated.

“It’s about breaking the barrier of the internet and people looking at our products digitally,” Picciolo says. “I mean, touching, feeling and trying the product is extremely important for sure.”

But what’s more important for the IGC hard goods provider is that its representatives are active and have an upbeat attitude. That’s a huge differentiator for the company. In fact, its booth tends to be very active and high-energy. If you hear laughter and excitement on the show floor, it’s likely the Mossify crew is close by.

“It’s important to have a great attitude and a smile on my face,” Picciolo says. He wants show attendees to know that he’s excited to be there, so he rarely has his phone out. He’s upfront and active. “People that are excited at the booth will draw attendees who will be excited to have a conversation,” he says.

Get Involved

Not every company that exhibits on the GCCE show floor has a product that can be held and experienced. There are companies with tech solutions, for instance, where any experiential demos are accomplished via screens.

That’s particularly true for Epicor, which provides cloud-based ERP software solutions for IGCs. But what’s interesting about the Epicor booth is that even though it’s primarily a software company, screens don’t take center stage — people do.

In fact, you’ll likely see Epicor national business development strategist Sam Kirkland (and his amazing beard) deep in conversation outside the company’s booth. That’s because Kirkland places a high value on education, idea-sharing and thought leadership.

Kirkland enjoys the GCCE because the focus on IGC owners and education means there’s always something interesting to talk about with attendees who are the primary decision-makers for their business. It doesn’t matter if those conversations are about ERP systems or not. Talking with attendees about what they’re excited about offers incredibly valuable insight, he says. That’s why he considers GCCE a “networking goldmine.”

“Engaging them at mealtime. Engaging them in the sessions. Listen. Active listen,” he says. “Hear what's going on, and at the proper time, offer your advice, your opinion and what you see. Build that trust.”

Kirkland points out that no matter the conversation, the insight into how IGC businesses work — from comments in sessions to conversations on the floor — presents ample opportunity to help find solutions. For instance, while Epicor is not a marketing platform, Kirkland can find value in a marketing session because his platform offers analytics that can determine the success of marketing efforts. Similarly, Epicor is not a staffing tool, but after hearing about pain points in staffing sessions, Kirkland can talk about ways that his platform frees up employees and creates a more meaningful work environment.

“If you don’t participate in the sessions,” Kirkland says of exhibitors, “I don’t know what you’re doing.”

Get in the Spirit

It’s important to note that GCCE is largely a conference about real-life, actionable solutions for IGCs. Because the focus is on education, exhibitors may want to consider emphasizing thought leadership, experiences and collaboration. The show is meant to build relationships while offering exposure and meaningful connections with the top IGCs in the country that will pay dividends in the future.

Getting the Most Out of GCCE

Here are the top tips for making your trip to GCCE a successful endeavor for your business.

Join the sessions:

The conference offers three unique educational tracks. These are open to attendees and exhibitors alike and emphasize conversations and interactions. They are perfect places to learn more about the issues affecting the industry and ways you can help provide solutions.

Have a meal:

Breakfast and lunch are provided by GCCE. These meals are natural inflection points where attendees share thoughts and have conversations. Building trust and credibility over a sandwich, dessert or cocktail can’t be beat.

Build an experience:

While attendees can enjoy the show floor at any time during the conference, the times between sessions are naturally busy. Offering an experience that allows attendees to get hands-on with your product helps differentiate your product or service.

Make it relevant:

The best exhibitors offer ideas on the best ways to merchandise or market their products. Does your product lend itself to an in-store event? Do you have unique ways to merchandise and display? Showing and teaching will always be the best path toward success.

Join the Lightning Track:

New this year, GCCE is building an educational track on the show floor. These mini-sessions occur at participating booths and allow exhibitors a chance to host educational and interactive talks about subjects relevant to their products. Do you have an expert that can talk about store design or employee safety? Do you have social media marketing tips? Bring your knowledge to our attendees. Contact Bobby Albino at balbino@gie.net or Kyle Castro at kcastro@gie.net for more details.