Fun 'N Sun 2019 - An Intimate Affair

 

This year’s Fun ‘N Sun event was held in Santa Barbara, CA at the Hilton Santa Barbara Beachfront Resort.   Williee Armellini of FlowersandCents.com referred to it as more of an intimate affair than the typical, and larger, floral industry trade show.  Dr. Terril Nell, one of our presenters on Friday morning, said:  “I really enjoyed it; the schedule left plenty of time to get into deeper conversations with people than is the norm for our industry.”

Fun ‘N Sun is an every-other-year event and truly unique among the U.S. floral conventions and conferences.  In addition to a great locale and abundance of old and new friends, this event has a flower fair with farm tours, educational programming, and the largest display of California floral products found anywhere. 

Farm Tours
This year’s tours were hosted by Westerlay Orchids, Joseph & Sons and The Sun Valley Group, Oxnard Division.  Each tour was so interesting and informative it’s hard to give each their due here.  Visitors experienced three flower farms deploying varying techniques across the range of operations, from labor-intensive hand-planting (Joseph & Sons), semi-automated planting at The Sun Valley Group, to very automated packing at Westerlay Orchids. 

California flower farming has to be innovative to remain competitive, and we saw excellent examples of some of the techniques employed by these three farms.

Education Sessions

  • Solving the Summer Slump – A Plan to Drive Sales Beyond Mother’s Day, by Certified American Grown with panelists:  Crystal Hedgpeth, Sales Manager Floral, Safeway NorCal Division; John Burk, Digital Marketing Manager DVFlora; and Kelly Shore, Petals by the Shore

Wholesaler Saturday

Attendee Feedback

The feedback from those attending this year’s Fun ‘N Sun was very positive across all the events and activities.  The post event survey was completed by 94 of the 229 attending the event – a 41% response rate is excellent!  Here are the highlights of the survey results:

  Percent Rating
Good or Excellent
Event Promotions & Management 95%

Wednesday & Thursday Dinners

  • Reconnecting with old friends and colleagues,
  • Meeting new friends and industry contacts,
  • Learning something about CA floral industry, and
  • Viewing unique floral designs)
  94%

Effectiveness & Education Value of Tours

 86%

Education Sessions

 93%

Saturday's "Wholesaler Sessions"

  • Acquired new & valuable information
  • Learned a new skill

 

87%
71%

Flower Fair

  • Enjoyed Displays
  • Made New Contacts
  • Acquired new and valuable information

80%

Many respondents commented on how much they enjoyed the informality of Fun ‘N Sun – some even used the term “intimate” and appreciated the many opportunities to engage in discussions with old and new friends.  One strong take away for possible improvements in the future is to allow more time for programming.  Many expressed disappointment at having to choose among appealing programs.

Fun 'N Sun 2019 Photo Gallery
Below are some staff favorites... 
 
 

Fun 'N Sun Sponsors: 

  • A & M Flower Growers

  • Accent Decor

  • Alaska Air Cargo

  • Alaska Beauty Peony Cooperative

  • Armellini

  • B-Fresh Floral

  • Ball SB LC

  • California Flower Shippers Inc.

  • California Pajarosa Floral

  • Calmex Wholesale Growers & Shippers, Inc.

  • Camflor Inc.

  • Continental Floral Greens

  • Design Master

  • Dramm Echter Farms

  • Dümmen Orange 

  • DV Flora

  • Farm Credit West

  • FedEx

  • Fiorebella, Inc.

  • Fisher Farms - J.

  • Flamingo Holland Inc.

  • Florabundance, Inc.

  • Floralife, a division of Smithers-Oasis Company 

  • Floral Computer Systems

  • Floral Supply Syndicate

  • Francis Biddle International

  • Gallup & Stribling Orchids

  • Glad-A-Way Gardens Inc.

  • Golden State Flower Brokers

  • Green Valley Floral

  • Green Valley Wolesale

  • GSO|GLS

  • Harbor Packaging

  • Hawaiian Air Cargo

  • Hilltop Flowers Inc.

  • Holland America Flowers

  • Joseph & Sons Inc.

  • Kendall Farms

  • Kim's Flower Network

  • Kitayama Bros Inc.

  • Komet Sales

  • Lake Flower Shippers

  • Maximum Nursery Inc.

  • Mayesh Wholesale Florist Inc.

  • McLellan Botanicals/Taisuco America

  • Mellano & Company

  • Myriad Flowers International Inc.

  • Ocean Breeze International

  • Ocean View Flowers

  • Offray

  • Paseo Flowers Inc.

  • Priority 1 Floral International

  • Rainbow Protea

  • San Francisco Flower Mart

  • Skyline Flower Growers & Shippers

  • Smithers-Oasis

  • Society of American Florists

  • Southwest Cargo

  • Syndicate Sales

  • The Hiawatha Corporation

  • The Sun Valley Group

  • Tutuli Flower Farms

  • Twins Flower Growers & Shippers

  • WAFEX USA, LLC

  • Westerlay Orchids LP