‘The product is not the product’

Q: What do plants and products do for people, and how are you trying to get the industry to communicate that, as you put it, “the product is not the product?”

A: Our products are not the product. Our products are what plants do in people’s lives. I’d like to be a part of that paradigm shift. I think it’s well overdue. And I’m tired of people who have devalued us.

The other thing that I feel pretty passionately about is that we work very diligently and put a lot of focused energy and effort in building our retail segment of our industry. It’s been one of those messages that has been out there, but I don’t think we’re paying attention to it. I’m as guilty as anyone. I hear it, and I think yeah, OK, but I’m too busy to let that translate into really what I think about our business and what we do and what we provide. I think the one thing that’s caught me off guard since the Short Course last year has been my lack of understanding that the product is not the product. I left here last year thinking, I just don’t have time to do the right thing.

I’ve become so busy, I’ve been caught up in the process of production and running a business and just getting things done that I’ve completely missed the point of what our company and what our industry really was about. I took a lot of time reflecting and thinking, what truly is our role in our communities, in culture and in society. I was caught up in that system that devalues everything and takes the meaning out of everything. So I really had to hit pause and hit reset.

Q: What will you focus on in your new role as president of OFA - An Association of Horticulture Professionals?

A: I am encouraged and excited because I believe now I’m in a position to help lead a process and lead our industry into a more valued role in our communities, and a more valued role for our products. We value our retailers because they are the end of the supply chain, and that’s why we bring in people like Dennis Snow [keynote speaker at OFA Short Course,] who can speak to how retailers can execute their business in a much more effective way and create loyal customer base. We feel very strongly about the independent garden centers. We need to communicate that this new organization is going to have a strong, strong emphasis on creating a community for our retail portion of the industry. We want this new organization to be their home, to be where they get together with their fellow retailers and get connected with the rest of the supply chain — the growers and the breeders and learn the merchandising techniques and be inspired by great speakers like Dennis Snow. We are the place that if retailers want to come and get connected to plant material and make more money, we’re the place they need to land.

Q: What then can retailers expect from the expanded 2014 Short Course?

A: The Short Course started as a course that was initiated by Ohio State and growers to be a growers’ show, a growers’ course. It was grower- and florist-focused. The perception needs to be changed that we’re just not a grower show. We will have the largest retail customer base in the horticulture industry in the country once this ANLA/OFA collaboration is confirmed. Next year we’re using Battelle Hall, which is the upper level hall at the Greater Columbus Convention Center, and it’s going to be totally retail-focused. All of the important things to retailers, the merchandising, the hard goods, that segment of their business that they go to other places to see will all be fully devoted to them. There will also be plant displays, merchandised displays sponsored by all of the different breeders there. But that does not mean they cannot come down to the lower hall, where they can meet the plant breeders and see all of the specific plants that are available. We want everyone to co-mingle with all of the other segments of the industry.

I think it would be good to have some sort of call to OFA and ANLA members to become reinvigorated in participating in this association. We have so much talent and so many amazing people in our industry. I want members and non-members to pause and think of how they can become more active in the betterment of our industry, and come and share themselves, their talents and their skills — they all have an important role.

Q: Are there opportunities for people throughout the year to become more involved and share best practices?

A: We already have great committees. And there’s going to be sort of a re-evaluation of how to make those committees far more effective. [But] we need fresh, new voices, too. Those of us who have been involved in this for a long time, we realize our limitations. And if we don’t invite new members, younger members, or give the appearance that they’re not included at the table, then we need to change something. But they are very much invited. I think the current leadership understands that we’re not building a new organization for ourselves. We are really looking out for the next generations, so that this thing becomes a viable platform for them to benefit from, to become involved with.

If people have not become members of OFA and ANLA, now is the time to join the new organization and become involved and benefit from everything this new organization is going to be.

Q: When will more information about the plans for the new organization and its new name be announced?

A: It will be right after the first of the year.

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