“Boise in Bloom” was spearheaded by Mike Hollenbeck AIFD. This event was held at the newly opened Washington Floral Services location in Boise, Idaho. This first in-person program in 3 years turned out to be a great success! It felt refreshing to be back in-person learning, networking, and designing.
The group of 42 attendees included shop owners, FFA students, teachers and local designers who were hungry for some higher-level education and inspiration.
The Saturday morning program started off with a team of ten NW AIFD & CFD members, presenting a 2-hour demonstration with the focus being the Elements and Principles of Design. The presenters were Shamay Andrich AIFD, Skylar Wyman CFD, Kimi Ynigues AIFD, Sharrai Morgan-Faulkner AIFD, Lynde DiSomma AIFD, student Sara Shepherd, Mike Hollenbeck AIFD, Kyla Beulter AIFD, Georgia White CFD and Stephen Santos AIFD. Each design team offered up designs and discussions referencing the E’s and P’s, covering various design styles and techniques. By the end of the segment, everybody was ready to throw a party using the Elements and Principles of Design. We heard many “Oohs” and “Aahs”, and saw an abundance of enthusiastic note-taking.
After lunch break, Tim Farrell AIFD CFD PFCI knocked the audience’s design socks off, really hitting home for them many thoughts, ideas and “how to’s” based on the Elements and Principles of Design. His two hours flew by as he kept us all captivated with his engaging educational style. Tim has over 40 years of education and shop experience. His passion, energy and skillset spoke to everyone there, which made us all feel very privileged to have been in the audience.
One of the most exciting things about the day was all of the FFA youth who kept expressing how blown away they were and that they couldn’t wait to go start practicing! That probably goes for the rest of us as well!
Mike Hollenbeck was the ringleader for this exceptional program. He did such a phenomenal job encouraging us, organizing and being the master of the ceremony. After Tim’s presentation, Mike suggested we set up some hands-on demo tables. Each of the supporting AIFD educators showed the attendees techniques that we had incorporated into our designs. That portion of the day was very well received and much appreciated by all who yearned for more! It generated lots of conversation and the attendees were able to walk away with at least a new technique or two before heading out the door.
Scheduled the following morning was Tim’s hands-on class. The sold-out workshop had a wait list of people that we did manage to squeeze in. Beautiful, wired armatures for bouquets were created, and a breathtaking collection of Hawaiian tropical flowers was provided to design in the Tropical Nouveau styling. We saw the next generation stepping up to be design stars!
The Northwest AIFD Chapter used this opportunity to generate some fundraising that helps us with scholarships, as well as more events such as this. Robbyn Repp CFD was quite the salesperson for us! Robbyn is a Teleflora Representative and a member of our NW AIFD Chapter. All sixty (60) “Seeds for Symposium” packets flew off the tables! Other raffles held were for all the floral designs that were created and presented during the different sessions. Finally, we are very thankful that our AIFD National President, Todd Sweeden AIFD CFD AAF, traveled from his home state of Arkansas to spend his weekend with us. He repeatedly expressed his thoughts about the outstanding job we all did, and that he couldn’t remember the last time he took part in a hands-on class! It was a fantastic way to cap off a brilliant program and educational opportunity to those who were lucky enough to be in attendance!
