The Calm Before 2023

November 21, 2022

I hope you’ve all had time to rest and recover after the Global Produce & Floral Show in Orlando. What a week! If you weren’t with us, you were missed. We had incredible conversations, especially at our Floral Council meeting; we celebrated great colleagues – shout out to Lane DeVries our Floral Marketer of the Year; and floral showed up at the Expo in the most extraordinary ways.

I often wonder what our consumers might think about us if they were able to walk the expo floor. It’s such an incredible show of creativity, passion and – honestly – joy. It’s so clear that our industry provides and essential and necessary product for consumers. Going into 2023, it will be our greatest responsibility to ensure that our consumers see us as valuable.

Coming out of COVID has not been easy. We’ve faced new challenges at every turn and we continue to adapt and adjust to meet those challenges. Our floral community has been incredibly resilient. We have adjusted the supply chain to meet our needs and must continue to do so. While I think we all hoped these disruptions would level off and we could establish our new normal, that doesn’t seem to be coming just yet.

With that in mind, 2023 will be about navigating an inflationary environment.

What we know about times of high inflation, people make choices. While many luxuries may be off the table for many in the coming years, many of our consumers will be looking at those “affordable luxuries.” Floral is positioned perfectly to be a way for consumers to bring something home that’s special without breaking the bank. It will be up to us to consider the marketing messaging, and the merchandising strategies that provides these options and experiences to consumers this year.

There will be a number of opportunities to speak more about this over the coming year, and IFPA is your trade association to navigate through this. Here are some of the important dates to put down in your calendar for events.

March 7, 2023 - Floral Conference: Anaheim, CA (focus will be the Floral Research and consumer trends) in conjunction with the Breeder Showcase
May 23, 2023 - Floral Conference in Miami, FL (focus will be the Floral Research and supply chain challenges) in conjunction with the buyer sourcing meetings
October 19-21 - Global Produce & Floral Show, Anaheim, CA featuring the Floral Pavilion, Committee meeting and Community Reception
Pantone webinar – (Date is TBD, but we want you to know it’s happening!)

We hope to see you this year!

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