News from Dave - July 17, 2005 Dave In Orlando - MGA conference I just returned yesterday afternoon from Orlando, FL where I spent all last week attending and speaking at the Mailorder Gardening Association.  This is a great group of some of the giants in the gardening industry.  I met most of the people I wanted to meet, and was really very impressed with the friendly and open family-type atmosphere. I met so many people that I couldn't list them all. Bruce Frasier (Dixondale Farms), Jim Zuckermandel (Zed Marketing Group) and Leo Vandervlugt (Dutch Bulbs) welcomed me with open arms and made me feel like I've always been a part of the gang.  I also enjoyed spending time with Jay Hutchins (Brent and Becky's Bulbs) and having a great dinner with lots of laughs with Karen Park Jennings (Park Seed).  I also spent some time talking with Joel Toner, publisher of Horticulture magazine, about our respective businesses.  Camille Cimino and Tina Pipitone of the MGA did a seemingly perfect job operating this conference and making it easy for us speakers.  It couldn't have been easier for me, thanks to their expertise. On Wednesday morning I hosted three 50-minute round-table meetings where the owners of gardening companies sat with me as I led a conversation about the Garden Watchdog, customer service and online e-commerce issues.  In all three round-tables, a tremendous amount of great questions were asked and lots of good ideas were posed.  I'm currently discussing with Terry and Trish some of those ideas and am working to decide what we will implement. On Friday morning I got to stand up in front of these leaders and speak for about an hour and a half on internet concerns, community building, increasing sales, marketing online, etc.  There were a lot of excellent questions asked and many people told me afterward that they got a huge benefit from the presentation.  I handed out a lot of PlantScout flyers and there was a good interest in companies joining.  Several companies expressed an interest in signing up to participate in the discussion forums.  After I reminded them about our position of "no advertising in the forums", I encouraged them to bring their expertise to our forums. It was definitely a worthwhile week and I am very glad I went.  I am sure that the friendships I made this week will lead to a profitable long-term relationship between DG and these great companies. Want to talk about it?  See this discussion thread. Daily news: Today's Dave's Garden Newsletter Today's PlantFiles Newsletter Today's BugFiles Newsletter Past DG Newsletters Anniversaries Past news: May 15, 2008 November 03, 2006 January 21, 2006 January 10, 2006 January 07, 2006 November 16, 2005 November 04, 2005 October 12, 2005 September 13, 2005 August 18, 2005 July 17, 2005 June 30, 2005 June 25, 2005