Convention

Noon  Awards Luncheon. The Awards Luncheon honors WSNLA members and leaders for their involvement during the past year. Awards announced are: Member of the Year, Educator of the Year, Young Member of the Year, Supplier of the Year, Environmental Excellence Award, and the WSNLA Pioneer Awards.

4-5pm Customer Service Part 2: Professional communication and selling skills; Selling vs. order taking; Telephone skills; Dealing with difficult customer and complaints. Beau Hamilton, Hamilton company, has consulted with hundreds of corporate clients throughout the US and Canada. He understands how fast the business climate is changing in the area of productivity and quality control, customer expectations, employee work ethic, and break through technology and he provides his clients with the tools to succeed in such a rapidly changing environment.

6pm President’s Reception & Dinner Awards Ceremony. Enjoy an evening of hor’ devours and enjoy dinner while we celebrate the success of this year’s accomplishments. This reception honors the current Board’s year of work, as well as initiates the new WSNLA Board. Be treated to a slideshow of member nurseries, landscape firms, and suppliers. The President’s Award and PCN Outstanding Services Award will be presented. It’s a great opportunity to network with your WSNLA representatives. If you’ve yet to experience this exciting event, it is a must attend!

Saturday, Track 2
8am  Breakfast

9:30-10:30am Web Page Features That Produce Results! Participants receive an evaluation of the best features of their own web sites and learn how to apply resources that will make those pages even more effective. Registrants agree to allow the consultant to review their web pages in advance and use features of those pages as examples for discussion in the workshop. Susan L. Harrington, Labyrinth Hill shares her simple resources that took Labyrinth Hill Lavender sales from the Kingston Farmers Market to the New York City Ballet without adding employees or hiring a consultant. Pre registration required.

11am-Noon Conveying the ‘Green’ Message: Plants Help Save the Planet! How to maximize the opportunity to market the green industry in a way that meets the consumers’ new environmental consciousness. Miles McCoy, owner of Sustainable Hort LLC, and co-owner with Carla Laurent, of Always Marketing, a green industry-marketing firm. He spent over a decade with the Oregon Association of Nurseries, directing marketing and communications and later as Director of Operations. He then served as Project Coordinator and Marketing Director for the launch of the Oregon Garden, and now writes for many leading industry trade publications and for his own website and blog, sustainablehort.com, focusing on the research, expanding products and new technologies in sustainable horticulture.

Noon  Awards Luncheon. The Awards Luncheon honors WSNLA members and leaders for their involvement during the past year. Awards announced are: Member of the Year, Educator of the Year, Young Member of the Year, Supplier of the Year, Environmental Excellence Award, and the WSNLA Pioneer Awards.

2:30-3:30pm Catalogs: Use, Style, and Design for Impact! Small group consultations on use of catalogs; different printing and style options; content options; and the design for impact and ease of use.pre registration required. Carla Laurent, co-owner of Always Marketing, clients include wholesale nurseries, garden centers, suppliers and landscape contractors. She has been the marketing director for Timber Press, a leading horitcultural publisher, Northwest Shade Trees, the specimen tree operation of J. Frank Schmidt & Son. She implements suggested marketing strategies through dynamic advertising, catalogs, newsletters, tradeshow booths and designing dynamic websites. Pre registration required.

4-5pm Collections Begin with the Sale. Collecting from past due customers is not only an irritation, it can be costly. This session discusses how to protect yourself at the time of the sale, writing letters that don’t get you in trouble, making effective collection calls, and using the courts to recover on late accounts. Bill Stine is a sales and collections associate with Cash Flow Management, Inc., of Portland, Oregon. He has conducted collection training for over 25 years for companies in the northwest. His background includes managing collection and litigations for Dun & Bradstreet, NACM Oregon, Inc., GE Capital Leasing, and Dex Media, Inc.

6pm President’s Reception & Dinner Awards Ceremony. Enjoy an evening of hor’ devours and enjoy dinner while we celebrate the success of this year’s accomplishments. This reception honors the current Board’s year of work, as well as initiates the new WSNLA Board. Be treated to a slideshow of member nurseries, landscape firms, and suppliers. The President’s Award and PCN Outstanding Services Award will be presented. It’s a great opportunity to network with your WSNLA representatives. If you’ve yet to experience this exciting event, it is a must attend!

8pm Networking in the Fireside Lounge

Awards Luncheon. Saturday, January 12. Noon - 2pm
The Awards Luncheon honors WSNLA members and leaders for their involvement during the past year. Awards announced are: Member of the Year, Educator of the Year, Young Member of the Year, Supplier of the Year, Environmental Excellence Award, & the WSNLA Pioneer Awards.