It was a great meeting and the mood of our members about the coming season was very positive!  The feeling is that edibles will be particularly successful.  2008 saw big growth over 2007 and it seems that trend will continue.  How nice that my area of expertise is right in step!

Our speakers were fabulous and included Ian Baldwin, a renowned consultant to lawn and garden retail stores.  He explained that while the baby boomers represent the majority of our member company’s customers, the promising group of customers for the future is generations X and Y, the 18-44 year olds.  There are about the same number of them as there are of us! 

That same theme resonated through the talks and the huge plus for the mail order gardening is that we already know the internet inside out.  Ian pointed out that the young folks are tied to this method of communication...they still want catalogs, but will be ordering and want as much information as possible from member web sites.  Many local garden centers and big box stores, are way behind MGA companies in this area.

The future looks great for companies that have strong marketing plans, have web sites that pop, provide lots of information that is geared for people who have very little basic knowledge of gardening, and that maximize their presence in social network opportunities.

The summer meeting is in Minneapolis, MN. Dates are 7/14-17.  Hope to see you there.