I can’t believe it’s been a whole month since Symposium, and we have had a little time to process all that goes into creating an event like this. We have also received quite a number of surveys back and we are grateful for your responses and feedback – keep them coming!
I wanted to share some behind-the-scenes information about what it takes to pull off an AIFD Sympossium. Did you know that we plan symposiums as far as three to five years in advance?
Our management team is always working to find interesting and creative properties who can fill our very complicated requirements and in different areas of the country to satisfy our membership needs. This is just one of the things that they are rock stars at! They work with hundreds of hotel groups around the world!
But we need to find a good fit! Some venues require additional fees due to unions who run them. This might mean that by going to some of our favorite destinations, we can pay as high as 20% more in union fees!
Think about your own business and your events. You have to book the venue as far as 3 to 5 years out. That means our management team starts the process of sending out bids, based on our requirements.
What are those requirements you ask?
The amount of space we require versus the hotel rooms we need is upside down.
We require incredible dock space, with easy access to freight elevators. Then we have to make sure that they have a space for a refrigerated truck, just in case we do not have easy access to a wholesale house who can partner with us.
Water! Tons of water and then a place to dump tons of grey water! And when you need this much water, it means we need buckets!! Literally hundreds of buckets. These requirements alone limit our choices in venues.
Have you ever laid visqueen down for a football field? Or set up a specialty area to fill and clean buckets? How about build a flower store for extra Buckets of flowers? The Flower room with all its requirements is not a job for the faint hearted and Vonda Lafever and Julie Poeleter rocked it out along with Renee Tucci, Laurel Hollepeter and her fresh flower team and Bill Hattel and his supply team.
What about the trash? We are getting more efficient with our flower procurement, and we are sending our repurposed flowers out into the community though our Blooms Over project – a big thank you to Kelly Mace, Brenna Quan and Amy Neugebauer for helping create over 1700 bouquets that made an impact in the community and decreased our events waste.
This year we processed 67 pallets of fresh flowers and foliage, that adds up to dumpsters of corrugated, plastic, paper and everything associated with processing. This year’s venue required the trash to be gathered into trash bags before they went to dumpsters. Then we have everything post presentation, broken down props that did not sell or recycle. They also made sure that the PFDE and SAIFD Buckets, supplies, and fresh product were unloaded off the trucks and to the designated rooms.
We unloaded 57 pallets of supplies for the workroom, designers, hand on classes, PFDE, Partners Showcase and more. Each pallet has to be unloaded, taken up to the design room via a freight elevator, then broken down, organized and distributed and that generates trash too!
Plus, we have to store the pallets for anything returning after the symposium is over.
I know this job intimately because I assisted Jodi McShan who can move a pallet jack like no one I ever met! We worked tirelessly with the Joslin’s, Laurel Hollepeter, Linda Rambaud and a few other volunteers that proved teamwork makes the dreamwork!
The space requirement alone is mindboggling. There are so many events within our symposium to organize. It requires a years’ worth of details, timelines and most of all manpower!
Our Registration Desk where our home team really improved the efficiency and also created a new look for our AIFD members, were always there to assist us.
We have our staging requirements, lighting and rigging. We have been incredible lucky to have partnered with Crystal and her team who understand and anticipate our needs at each symposium as well as our own staging crew. We also have the hotel to work on this end.
The number of people it takes to produce this incredible event each year is mind-blowing! It is our biggest fundraising event too!
And we cannot do this without our generous Partners! Loir Novak worked tirelessly with our amazing partners to promote the companies that support our organization and the floral industry. Sout out to every committee who made symposium happen!
We understand that it is a volunteer organization and to get it done we have to do it, this year we are looking at ways to cut some expenses and to make this event more efficient and profitable.
Ask, “what can I do” for AIFD, and in the words of Tim McGraw:
“Always stay humble and kind”
Laurie Lemek
AIFD National President
