Along side its conference in Amsterdam, the international florist organisation Florint will celebrate its 60th anniversary. At he conference Florint will be looking back at the past 60 years, and ahead to what the future brings. ”A future that if we don’t make changes, looks bleak”, says president Mark Ward.
Florint will together with the Flower Council of Holland present the current state of the industry and envision, together, how to move on – meanwhile trying to focus on the history and know-how.
Afterwards, Florint will celebrate 60 years, with a gala dinner at the monumental Koepelkerk in Amsterdam. The conference will take pace at 5 November.
Last year’s congress focused on one of the hottest issues of the moment: what do consumers want? Ward: ”What we did was focus on Millennials: today’s and tomorrow’s consumer. And what a can of worms did we open! We managed to really influence the industry. In fact, many of our members were asking for the presentation to be included in their assemblies and meetings.”
Ward continues: ”But our conference this year will look even further. They say history repeats itself; what better way to acknowledge that fact than by looking at the past and to the future. We are living in a third revolution that we do not understand, because everything has changed. Florists are having a very tough time making sense of this seismic shift.”
The first revolution happened during the 1950s, the second during the 70s and 80s. Today florists are undergoing a third. Each revolution’s shift was due to political, economic, sociological, communication, and logistical changes in the world and chain.
Ward: ”We will analyse each one of these shifts, and bring in a few florists who witnessed them. Some of whom were able to adapt to the changes, and others who found it difficult. We can learn a whole lot from them.”
