Education Sessions

Wednesday, August 12 | 3:00 - 5:00 pm ET

New Products Showcase with Diane Blazek
3:00 - 3:45pm ET

Similar to the New Plants program, National Garden Bureau will gather the newest of the new garden products from their members and present them in a fun and fast-paced session presenting innovative and useful products for the garden. Join us for an early look at products that typically would have been presented at summer shows and that will be available for consumers next year.

Meet the Speaker
Diane Blazek

Diane Blazek, Executive Director of All-America Selections® and National Garden Bureau. For more than 30 years, Diane has been immersed in gardening both personally and professionally. She brings a passion to the subject based on a history in the field of horticulture publishing as well as a love for gardening and culinary exploration. Growing up on a small family farm in northern Missouri, Diane spent years helping her parents plant, tend and harvest a large home vegetable garden. As the president and publisher at Ball Publishing for 15 years, she led the way in connecting the commercial side of the industry with consumers via the live focus groups called Consumer Buzz Live! Diane also managed Ball Publishing’s entry into consumer garden book publishing. Since December of 2009, Diane has been leading both All-America Selections and National Garden Bureau through an exciting period of growth as they establish themselves as inspirational resources in the minds of garden communicators, public gardens, growers, garden retailers and home gardeners. All-America Selections has doubled in size with the addition of trials for Vegetative Ornamentals and Herbaceous Perennials, an expanded website, more Display Gardens and an ever-increasing social media presence. National Garden Bureau has also more than doubled in size with the addition of new programs, social media, therapeutic garden grants and new membership categories. With both organizations, the connection to the consumer is of topmost importance and by using that connection, she provides direction and insights to the industry as well as to GardenComm, an organization for Garden Communicators where she serves as a National Director.

Breakout Sessions 3:45 - 4:15pm ET

Market Segmentation: Communicating to Different Horticultural Audiences wtih April Thompson 

4:15 - 5:00pm ET

Part of being a great communicator is knowing your audience. This session, led by April Thompson from Bloom Marketing, will allow for a hands-on look at how to identify and appeal to audiences with different horticultural needs and levels of expertise including landscapers, home gardeners, farmers, garden retailers and more. Within the session, April will lead an exercise for participants to identify segments within their general audience and ensure they are offering the right mix of content to appeal to the diversity in their midst.

April Thompson is a Washington, DC-based writer, editor and marketing/communications consultant. Working as a freelance writer for more than 20 years, April has covered food, travel, sustainability, gardening, foraging and other subjects for dozens of publications. A graduate of The American University with an MBA and a master’s in international development, April also loves to work with consulting clients ranging from social enterprises to international nonprofits to help them develop and execute marketing and strategic communications plans. She currently serves as Director of Marketing and Sales for Bloom, a recycled fertilizer product developed by DC Water.