Submitted by Candice Anderson CFD & Courtney Turner AIFD
Spring is upon us, which means that the Illinois State Florists’ Association Board of Directors just hosted their first fully in-person event since the pandemic began, and it was magical! March 10-12th at Walker’s Bluff Winery in the rolling hills of southern Illinois, florists and industry professionals gathered to attend the first event of its kind: a fully Immersive Educational Retreat Weekend.
You may be wondering, what is an educational retreat and how is it different from a convention? Previously, Illinois, like many state associations has always held an annual convention at a hotel/convention center. We wrapped up our 2020 ISFA Annual Floral Design Show right as the world shut down due to the pandemic. We knew that in order to come out of the pandemic strong, we needed to hit the ground running and wanted to try something new, something revolutionary… Our organization was founded on the principles of floral education first and foremost, so why not focus on exactly that? Hence, the Immersive Educational Retreat Weekend was born!
During our downtime, the board met regularly on Zoom to begin planning this event. A retreat style event, at a unique venue, with education as the primary focus. We designed the weekend as a fully-hands-on immersive educational experience where students could work one-on-one with incredible educators. Registrants had the option to choose as many or as few classes as they wished and could come just one day or the whole weekend. During downtime, students could take in the local sites, grab lunch or dinner at the on-site restaurant, or grab a glass of wine produced right there at the winery!
The weekend saw familiar faces and many new ones from all over the country. We were overjoyed to have students from 11 different states, and everyone was so eager to learn from our amazing line-up of world-class designers. Thursday night kicked-off with a meet and greet for the design instructors and designers participating in the competitions scheduled for the following morning. Competitors could choose from the Judi Borah Land of Lincoln Cup, Designer of the Year Competition, or the brand-new Lotus Cup Competition.
After competitions, Friday began the first hands-on workshops:Elements & Principles of Design with Bill McKinley, AIFD, CFD, ICPF and Sustainable Design Structures and Mechanics for Floral Installations with Hitomi Gilliam, AIFD, CFD sponsored by Teleflora. These classes were truly mind blowing, and the students did an amazing job!
Saturday and Sunday were jam packed with educational opportunities. Wedding bouquets with Gregor Lersch, assisted by Mike Boerma, IMF; head pieces and floral jewelry with Francoise Weeks; Cascade Bouquets with Carolyn Minutillo, AIFD, EMC, PFCI sponsored by North Central AIFD; large scale wedding event installations with Jackie Lacey, AAF, AIFD, CFD, PFCI sponsored by BloomNet and the Floriology Institute, sympathy designs with Helen Miller, AIFD, CAFA, CF sponsored by Syndicate Sales, and reinventing everyday designs with Courtney Turner, AIFD, EMC, ICPF. During the Saturday banquet and awards dinner, we recognized the competition winners and honored our 2023 Hall of Fame Inductee, Karen Koven, AIFD, CFD, ICPF.
This truly was a magical weekend of fun, friendship, and incredible learning with some of our industry’s best. We are immensely grateful to the entire ISFA board for their hard work and dedication in making this event a reality, as well as the beautiful Walker’s Bluff Winery for hosting us, the educators for sharing their invaluable talent, the students for taking a chance on this new concept of floral education, and all of the generous sponsors for providing the stunning product for the students and instructors. This weekend was a dream come true, and we cannot wait to begin planning next year’s event!
