Being a lifelong ‘skins fan, I was thinking it would be an uncomfortable stay deep in the heart of Dallas attending the Texas State Florists Association’s (TSFA) 96^th Annual Convention last weekend. Far from it. Texans are some of the nicest, most sincere folks you’d ever come across, despite being Cowboy fans. :p

All kidding aside, TSFA’s Board, members and association crew, headed by Dianna Nordman, put on a great convention with lots of energy, a bustling trade show, fantastic design shows featuring the industry’s top talent and insightful business sessions – including my own on search engine optimization! Accompanying me on the trip was the Society of American Florists’ (SAF) Director of Member Services Lisa Sidletsky who spent quality time greeting Texan florists at SAF’s booth on the trade show floor Sat and Sun.

We set up the booth early Saturday and I had time to attend TSFA’s annual meeting. It was good news all around as TSFA reports a profit for this year despite some tough economic times around the country. As you may expect, board members provided reports of their committee activities but was real surprised to hear Patrick Berry of Vickery Wholesale Greenhouse in Dallas, TX talk about his wonderful experience serving as an SAF volunteer and how that sparked his desire to serve his state association. Patrick, it was a pleasure to meet you and thanks much for your gracious comments!

The show floor officially opened at Noon Saturday. Dianna mentioned the trade show was smaller this year but this didn’t seem to impact the hustle and bustle (check the video). The smaller space did a great job in compressing the action. First to greet me was William Armellini of Greenleaf Wholesale Florists in Miami Springs FL. We’d become geek buddies in the months prior via Facebook and several calls over our shared interest in developing the Joomla content management system, but have never met in person. As you may guess, it didn’t matter as it seemed like we were old friends. And our first order of business? Trouble shooting a Joomla Web site!

I couldn’t slide by the Bloomnet booth without reconnecting with Mark Nance. We’ve known each other since Mark worked in Oklahoma City with former floral wire service AFS, which was acquired by Teleflora several years back. After trading industry insights and secrets, we agreed to pick up the conversation in Phoenix during the SAF Convention as Bloomnet’s booth traffic picked up.

My next stop was to visit with J Schwanke of uBloom but the J was absolutely mobbed (visited with J later) so I returned to SAF’s booth. SAF’s presence was on the far end where traffic was a little lighter next to www.flowershopnetwork.com. Lisa was in the midst of talking to an instructor and a couple of his students on all the great information SAF provides to educators. (check the video).

The afternoon business session was "Product, Planning and Promotion for Your Profit" with Clay Atchison III of McAdams Floral in Victoria, TX, Charles Ingrum of Dr. Delphinium in Dallas, TX, Seleese Thompson and Gayle Johnson. It was a very informative with lots of great local promotion ideas for florists and focusing on in-house floral designs. I was particularly interested in Clay’s portion, which focused on building sympathy business.

Sunday morning I checked out Jack Cross’s “Step to Maximizing Profit in an Economic Downturn” and “Tasteful Tabletop Techniques” with Minh Nguyen. I didn’t stay long though in order to check logistics for my own program later in the afternoon. Both programs were excellent and again provided insight from industry veterans.

Prior to the Sunday afternoon sessions, TSFA puts on their Annual Awards bash. I sat next to Jack and his wife Denise. We talked mostly tech as both Denise and Jack were looking forward to my program. Lunch was great, lots of folks and sponsors were honored. I had a chance to meet with Teleflora Chairman Tom Butler and his grandson Cole. It was a quick hello since I still had to prep, however, Tom and Cole stopped by the room later to wish me well.

As you may expect, the highlight for my day was presenting the last business session for the conference, “Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Crash Course: Ensuring Your Shop’s Website is on Google’s Page 1 of Search Results.” I was excited prior to the session since Dianna kept changing the room to accommodate an increasing number of registrations for the session. The room was set for 75 with more than half filled. A little disappointing but a healthy crowd of florists nonetheless. In the end, I received lots of great feedback on the quality of the information and how the program was crafted specifically for floral retail businesses.

I ran back to the trade show floor just in time to help Lisa just pack one box (timing is everything). TSFA Convention co-Chair Peggy Franklin was kind enough to speed us back to the airport in her newest hotrod! Thanks for the ride Peggy and, again, it was certainly a great show. Flight was delayed but I was still glad to be back in my home in Virginia at 2am that evening.

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