We were pleased to have E. Shaunn Alderman, Floral Department Marketing Strategist at FLORAL BUSINESS / PRODUCE NEWS, attend our biennial convention, Fun ‘N Sun, a few weeks ago. She wrote an article about the event – with great photos­ – in the August issue of Produce Business, and provided us with a pdf of the article.

Please click on this link to read and/or download the article.

Attendees of this year’s CalFlowers-hosted Fun ‘N Sun came out in droves for the growers’ tour, educational sessions and expo. The whales in Monterey Bay and the colorful jellyfish at the Monterey Bay Aquarium gave attendees something to talk about and to Instagram, but the real draws, once again, were the daylong growers tour, great educational sessions and the flower fair.

The biennial gathering of CalFlowers growers, shippers and business partners, along with retailers and designers, created a new record for Fun ‘N Sun attendance of more than 500 attendees and guests. That included 35 exhibitors, including growers, suppliers, wholesalers, and our transportation partners.

Floral designers, retailers, wholesalers, transportation providers and business partners attend the bi-annual CalFlowers Fun ’N Sun event (https://www.cafgs.org/fun-n-sun-2015) for many reasons - to network with potential business partners, meet new suppliers, learn about new floral trends and products and mix and mingle with the industry’s movers and shakers.

But many attendees will tell you that the best part of the three-day event is the growers tour. Despite rising early to board the bus, attendees love getting to meet the growers and their staffs, shuffling through greenhouses and fields and seeing them miracle of flowers as they being the journey to the vase or bouquet. 

Every other year, CalFlowers hosts its Fun 'N Sun conference, Monterey, Calif,  July 29-August 1.  During this event, the group that helps get flowers from the field to the consumer will honor floral industry visionary Yoshimi Shibata for the 2015 Distinguished Service Award.  Honorees of this award are recognized for the highest levels of leadership, strategic thinking and contributions to the floral industry.

Shibata led San Jose, Calif.-based Mt. Eden Floral Company, formerly Mt. Eden Nursery, for more than 55 years.  Founded in 1906, Mt Eden’s hallmark was its ability to adapt to change.  The company’s many notable achievements range from the innovation of cooperative flower “pools” for roses and chrysanthemums; helping create better packing and working with the air freight industry for shipping; establishing new greenhouses, breeding and propagation programs.

Growers’ tours, with their abundance of color, scent and generally amazing photo opportunities, tend to bring out the happy in people, even those who work in, and around, flowers all day. Attendees of the 2015 CalFlowers bi-annual Fun ’N Sun convention July 29-August 1 will get plenty of happy at this year’s round of five amazing farms located in the Monterey, Calif. area.

As part of the always-amazing conference agenda, attendees will climb aboard buses on Thursday, July 30 with a breakfast box and be transported to the greenhouses and fields of five leading California growers, representing a broad variety of the many unique and widely distributed California Grown products.