So I just returned from the Society of American Florist convention in West Palm Beach, Florida. Actually it was a couple of weeks ago, but upon return my laptop had a small virus that eventually became a total meltdown of my hard drive. Lost email addresses, pass codes, and other stuff but managed to keep my documents and financials so it could have been worse. So, I've been going "old school" in the office the last couple of weeks. I felt like Ben Franklin scratching out my work with a quill pen or something! I'm back to the digital age now. Funny, though, I may have been getting more done the old school way.

The SAF Conference was great. It was a meeting of the industry's best floral professionals. Growers, wholesalers, retailers and designers all together in one place. Generally I find the floral industry to be fragmented and somewhat of a half step behind other industries. These folks however are very smart, professional and inspiring. Real leaders.

A couple years ago I was honored to be invited to serve on the Floral Management Committee. This committee meets a couple times a year to discuss our industry's leading publication, Floral Management Magazine. The photo is of our committee in sesson. It's lead by FM editor Kate Penn. We discuss the magazine's recent performance and future path. Kate is someone very special; smart, creative, passionate and efficient. She "gets things done", a trait I really admire. We had fun and sometimes heated discussions about the floral industry. All good stuff!

I could go on and on about the conference, but I found one aspect of it as truly important. We hear a lot of doom and gloom everyday. The war, credit problems, billion dollar bail outs, plummeting stock prices, global recessions and more are all on our minds. But when I hear good folks with great ideas and the energy of optimism, I know all the bad stuff is temporary. I have a lot of faith in our country and more importantly the folks who live in it. Those attendees at the SAF conference came from all over, with different backgrounds, experiences and challenges. Yet they all had one thing in common; they are going to be successful. They are going to do their job well, make their customers happy, and build a great business. Everything else is just details.

It really inspired me to go out there and keep slaying dragons. Thanks to SAF for the opportunity and to my fellow SAF attendees for the stoke!