Cultivate’17 offers professional development opportunities

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COLUMBUS, OH – AmericanHort’s Cultivate’17, July 15-18 in Columbus, Ohio, is the horticulture industry’s professional development event with the largest all-industry trade show, best-in-class tours and workshops, and the most comprehensive professional, technical and staff development opportunities. Cultivate is “where the green industry comes together” and has been for over 85 years.

Headlining as keynote at Cultivate’17 is the popular business management expert and author, Jon Gordon. The Sunday morning Cultivate keynote will focus on lessons from Jon’s Wall Street Journal bestseller The Energy Bus. Businesses are looking for new ways to overcome challenges and adversity that are present in every workplace. The Energy Bus outlines Gordon’s approach to addressing and overwhelming those challenges with positive energy stemming from vision, trust, optimism, enthusiasm and purpose. The result will be the ability to drive your company forward with focus and more engaged employees.

The Energy Bus principles and others from Gordon’s library of work, which include The Seed, The Carpenter and Training Camp, have successfully been put to the test by the Los Angeles Dodgers, The Atlanta Falcons, Campbell Soup, Dell, Publix, Southwest Airlines, LA Clippers, Miami Heat, Pittsburgh Pirates, BB&T Bang, Clemson Football, Northwestern Mutual, Bayer, West Point Academy and more. Now, green industry professionals can benefit from his experience and insights to approach life and work with the kind of positive thinking that leads to true accomplishment.

“With Cultivate’17 being bigger, better and bolder, we sought out a keynote speaker to match that purpose,” said Ken Fisher, AmericanHort president and CEO. “Jon Gordon is well-respected in the business world, and his strategies result in real changes for those who implement them. AmericanHort is committed to helping our members grow strong businesses.”

This keynote is backed by a roster of 100+ additional professional development sessions presented throughout Cultivate‘17. 

Topics include: 

• Employee engagement and human resource development
• Developing impactful sales and marketing programs
• Latest programs for pollinators
• New methods for developing green infrastructure
• Biocontrols and integrated pest management solutions
• Best practices in plant production
• Cutting-edge production technology trends
• Advancements in plant varieties and selection
• Academic research updates from leading horticultural scientists
• Horticultural Research Institute advancements. 

Each topic offers sessions led by the horticulture’s leading subject-matter experts, as well as some new faces from outside industries to bring new knowledge and a fresh perspective. Sessions will also be coded this year based on professional level -- fundamental, intermediate and progressive -- so that entire teams can benefit and advance their professional development at any stage. 

“We know that it can be challenging to find the right professional development opportunities for team members with different experience levels -- that, and the fact that there’s a constant need for new information in our industry to help businesses advance,” said AmericanHort Learning Resource Specialist Gina Zirkle. “This new professional development curriculum at Cultivate’17 means that it’ll be that much easier for you to find the right session for the exact challenge with the right solutions and ideas.”

Cultivate’17 is the national industry event hosted by AmericanHort every July in Columbus, Ohio. Cultivate’17 registration will open March 7, 2017 at 11 a.m.

To learn more and explore key sessions for your industry segment (nursery, greenhouse, landscape, retail and interior plantscape), please visit AmericanHort.org/Cultivate