World Floral Expo 2015 – Success!

CalFlowers Members Make Big Showing at WFE 2015

Last November when we first announced the opportunity to exhibit at WFE 2015 in Los Angeles, we thought we were being optimistic in predicting over 500 attendees; we were not wrong!  We were off by half!  HPP, the event promoter, received 862 preregistered attendees by March 6, the week before the event, and ultimately badged over 1,000 attendees before the 3-day show was over. 
 
This is a record attendance for the World Floral Exposition in the U.S. since it first was held in 1999. Another "first" for this event was the number of flowers on exhibit from California. With 22 CalFlowers member exhibitors, there were more flowers grown in California on display at the show than there were from any other country!  We had over 3,000 square feet of California grown products, which helps explain why the California Pavilion was busy virtually all during the show hours.

CalFlowers was featured prominently at the show, with CalFlowers' board president Robert Kitayama (left) opening the event by welcoming growers and attendees from all over the world to California.   

Mike Mellano (right) of the Los Angeles Flower Market joined in with welcoming remarks and gave a bit of the rich history about the California flower industry, especially about the L.A. Flower Market and its role in that history. Mike also invited attendees to tour the Flower Market on Thursday, March 12, prior to the opening of exhibits that day.

Images from the Floor...

Below is an archive of exhibitors

Ivana Royse, CCF, CFD California State Floral Association	Jan Berry, Executive Director San Diego County Flower & Plant Association
Dave & Wendy Kitayama Kitayama Brothers, Inc.	Miriam Castillon of Passion Growers
Brent Eickenloff (Area Sales Manager) & Vina Belardes (Cargo Area Sales Manager) Southwest Cargo	Marc Robinson Transflora

Videos from the Floor...

Bruce Brady - Mellano & Company (1:47)

Joost Bongaerts - Florabundance (3:02)

Mike Mooney - Dramm & Echter (6:33)

Ben Dobbe - Holland America (1:15)

Profile of Attendees

 Well over 1,000 attendees visited WFE over the three days of the event.  The profile of lines-of-business for the attendees reveals that the 2015 event was predominantly a buyer show, like last year's show; however, there was a higher percentage of buyers this year over last year's show in Chicago (Lines of Business types other than "other").