A show of champions
AIFD Roots Symposium Las Vegas
American Institute of Floral Designers
From 4 to 9 July, the American Institute of Floral Designers (AIFD) organised their annual symposium in vibrant Las Vegas. The theme was 'Roots - Growing Forward Together'. Marginpar was there and saw many top floral designers; World champions, European champions and National champions.
Growing by learning
The show was not only a pleasure to watch, but above all an opportunity to learn. Tips and techniques were enthusiastically exchanged on stage and in workshops during the 5-day symposium. The Australian Bart Hassam showed how to create exciting balanced technical designs with botanical materials in green and white. His idea about floristics: one should marvel.... "How does it look? How does it work?". American Sue McLeary revealed amazing wearable objects made of flowers. In her programme 'Flower Forward', she shared thoughts and techniques about doing more with less, staying inspired, and elevating floral art. Dutch duo Max van de Sluis and Hanneke Frankema made the audience chuckle during their show 'Evolution of Shapes' - in addition to demonstrating excellent skills. Furthermore, flowers were shown that were new to some visitors, such as our coral-like Jatropha, the white Clematis and the playful Craspedia.
The best of the best
On stage, we saw a wide variety of top designers. As a flower sponsor, we awarded flowers to Hanneke Frankema, Max van de Sluis, Joseph Massie and Mandy Majerik. Unfortunately Joseph could not be there. His workshop and stage performance were in good hands; Hitomi Gilliam, Bruno Duarte, Per Benjamin, Mike Boerma, Regine Motmans, Jorge Uribe, Rene van Rems and others did the honours. But that is not all. Our floral friends are a close family, and sharing is part of being a family ;-) Current world champion designer Bart Hassam had dropped his eye on Clematis Amazing® Vienna backstage and showed her in his designs on stage.
Winner FTD America's Cup
On stage, 10 finalists competed for the title of America's Best Designer. Competitors from across the United States made their way to Las Vegas to compete in front of an audience of their peers. During the course of the competition, they battled pressure, time limits and each other for the right to represent the United States and FTD at the 2023 Interflora World Cup in Manchester England.
The honour went to Jenny Thomasson. Congratulations Jenny!
Questions, questions, questions
But of course we were not only there to see this great group of designers at work. Marginpar likes to keep direct contact with the florist to get a feel for what they may need. However, we don't sell directly to florists, we have the auction and our sales partners for that. So that makes it a bit tricky sometimes. Fortunately, these florists knew how to find us at the symposium. We discussed the sales channels, the products, the availability, what we can help them with and what they expect from us.
Slide for more pictures of the symposium.
