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attendees

Mid Am Midwinter Conference

Wednesday, January 16

Thursday, January 17

Wednesday, January 16mela logo
Plants and Horticulture

8:30 a.m. –10:00 a.m.
Dirt, the Real Scoop
Sponsored by the Midwest Ecological Landscape Association (MELA)
Mike Curry, Midwest Trading
It all starts with the soil. Every landscape professional wants pristine soil but usually ends up with a pile of dirt. Urban soils are compacted, low in nutrients, filled with urban pollutants, and begging for water. This adds up to harsh planting conditions. Mike Curry, a leader in thehorticultural industry with 30 years of soils expertise will walk you through cost-effective approaches to understanding and working with on-site urban soil. Starting with soils tests, how many, were to take, and how to read and understand the results, and then moving onto, soils conditioning and amendments. He will discuss how various soil conditions can be realistically augmented and combined with appropriate plant. The client is buying great dirt, but that is what you are selling.

10:15 a.m. – 11:45 a.m.
Everybody Must Get Zoned: Chicagoland Enters Zone 6
Robert Milani, Senior Landscape Architect, Chalet
Steve Van Akkeren, Woody Plant Material Buyer, Chalet
Chicagoland now finds itself in unfamiliar territory as the U.S.D.A. has reclassified our area as Zone 6. The plant palette now available to designers and landscape architects will expand monumentally. Empower your designs, avoid plant replacements and discover which Zone 6 plants are already performing well in our area.

1:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.
Scorching Hot Plants for 2013
Jerry Gorchels, Ball Horticultural Company
Forget the weather outside and look forward to designing with new, vibrant selections including annuals, perennials, succulents and tropical plants. Another new year means an abundance of undiscovered possibilities for your projects and portfolios.

2:45 p.m. – 4:15 p.m.
Rain Gardens & Bioswales: Plants That Perform
Trish Beckjord, RLA, Midwest Groundcovers
Not all rain gardens and bioswales are wet! This session will briefly review construction strategies for raingardens and bioswales, but plant selection is the key to success. The focus of the presentation will discuss a variety of native plants that are likely to be successful and attractive in the range of moisture conditions that can occur when these Best Management Practices are implemented. Attention will also be given to an integrated native and nonnative plant palette. (Part 2 Rain Garden Construction will take place on Thursday at 1:00 p.m.)

Wednesday, January 16
Maintenance & Operations

8:30 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.
IPM?, PHC?, Organic? What the Heck is the Difference?
Tom Tiddens, Chicago Botanic Garden
Tom Fritz, Chicago Botanic Garden
Whether your plant management approach is conventional or organic; a solid Plant Health Care (PHC) program should be the foundation. Learn how the Chicago Botanic Garden manages its collections through a comprehensive PHC program that incorporates Integrated Pest Management (IPM) concepts and organic aspects as well. Tom will review components of a PHC program and discuss the transition to going all organic. Tom will review the Garden’s Fruit and Vegetable Garden’s organic program that follows all USDA organic guidelines, including organic lawn care.

10:15 a.m. – 11:45 a.m.
There’s an App for That – The Most Practical Mobile Apps for Landscaping
Kelly Bolger, Christy Webber Landscapes
Roger Post, Christy Webber Landscapes
Technology can help stream line your business and there are amazing apps to make it happen. This talk will present tools to help simplify your employee’s life by giving them access to information at their fingertips. The areas that will be covered are horticulture, design, lighting, irrigation, scheduling, time tracking, GPS, and estimating.

1:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.
Plow Snow All the Way to the Bank
Tom Bolas, Vice President/General Manager, James Martin Associates, Inc.
Kurt Kelderhouse, Zenere Companies
Steve Pearce, General Manager of Sebert Landscaping
Snow management has become the fourth season for many landscape companies. As a result, the competition is fierce, price undercutting is rampant, and snowfall fluctuations can spell doom even for the most prepared operations.

To stay at the top of the snowdrift, contractors must conduct accurate costs estimates on a property. In addition they need to make smart choices when buying or leasing equipment and materials.

Four proven snow management companies will provide insight and hands on knowledge on conducting accurate price estimating. They will cover time saving equipment and how to manage the unpredictable realities of the snow season.

2:45 p.m. – 4:15 p.m.
Coincide/The Orton Method of Pest Control Timing
Donald Orton, Illinois Department of Agriculture/CMS North Suburban
The book 'Coincide', The Orton System of Pest and Disease Management, uses ornamental plant development to time cultural, mechanical, and chemical plant pest and disease management.  Don Orton, 'Coincide' Author, will give examples of the application of Coincide principles in the Green Industry since 'Coincide' was first published in 1989 (Second Edition 2007)  Photos of pests and diseases and 'Coincide' Indicator Plants will illustrate the presentation. 

Wednesday, January 16
Management & Marketing

8:30 a.m – 10:00 a.m.
Changing Trends: Ornamental Edibles, New Audiences and More
Ed Lyon, University of Wisconsin
Ed Lyon has been addressing audiences on recent changes in gardening as America’s number one recreational activity, which peaked in 2005 and has been declining since. English perennial borders, manicured lawns, extravagant water features and intensive gardening are on their way out. Who are the generations replacing the old guard gardeners and what incites them to home landscaping? He will explain a number of new trends and what people are doing around the country to address the challenges.

10:15 a.m. – 11:45 a.m.
Gardening with an X and Y: Marketing the Power of Flowers to Younger Generations
Kelly Norris, Horticulture Manager, Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden
Gardeners need chic, sustainable, thriving plants for modern lifestyles. Plants after all are the very essence of fashionable gardening. Gardeners need to know the basics of gardening as well as have the opportunity to craft landscapes in their own unique style with plants that flourish sustainably for more than just a few seasons.  The horticulture industry needs to re-shift and re-tool its focus on emerging demographics, including how to market plants to a generation of new gardeners.  This talk will espouse several key ideas for how to talk about plants in a bold-faced, exciting way that makes them seem less like 'products' and more like living things that sustain beauty in our environment.  20-something plantsman Kelly Norris will take the audience on a journey through a world of hot, functional and head-turning plants for modern gardens—unusual, new, plus a few tried and true.

1:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.
Building Relationships Between the Green Industry and Media
Mike Nowak and Jennifer Brennan, Dig In Chicago
In 2012, Mike Nowak and Jennifer Brennan launched their local gardening and cooking TV show, “Dig In Chicago.” Not only were they the program’s co-hosts but they booked guests, sold air time, wrote copy and were liaisons to the horticultural community. That, in addition to their combined thirty years’ experience on radio and television, gives them particular insight into how green industry businesses succeed and fail in dealing with marketing and the media.  Among the tips they will offer: how to be a reliable source, how not to be an “infomercial,” how to make technologically complex concepts understandable to the media and the public, and how to work with a host or anchor so that the information you want to present actually gets aired.

2:45 p.m. – 4:15 p.m.
Growing and Selling Plants That Inspire Us
Mike Mennenoh, Mariani Nurseries
Liz Miller, Mariani Nurseries
Laurie McGhee, Mariani  Nurseries
This seminar will help you reinvent your inventory and re-inspire your customers. A fire needs to be reignited in your plant department. There is not an easier way to set yourself apart from the competition then to carry the things that inspire. Customers are looking for hot, new, and exciting plant material.

Wednesday, January 16
Outdoor & Green Living

10:15 a.m. – 11:45 a.m.
Stay Local and Thrive: Investing in the Community Pays Results
Mike Nowak, Dig In Chicago
Often, green (and not so green) businesses get so focused on the bottom line that they forget that there are two other components to the concept of Profits, Planet and People. In this presentation, Mike Nowak, founder of the Midwest Ecological Landscape Alliance (MELA) and host of his own green radio program, “The Mike Nowak Show” on WCPT 820AM, talks about how growers, retailers and landscapers can help their communities and, at the same time, help themselves. He examines how working with municipalities, NGOs and even community gardens makes for good neighbors, which makes for good marketing.

1:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.
Make Mine Green: The Latest in Organics
Rich Tobiasz, University of Illinois
Join Rich as he takes a fast paced look at growing plants organically, naturally, biodynamically and sustainably. Using Rodale’s concept of “Healthy soil = healthy plants”, this lecture winds its way through the 4,000 year old story of growing food without the use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. Fruits, vegetables, and perennials can all be successfully grown using these age old methods, now backed by science. Rich will also discuss the marketing and competitive advantage of organic farming and gardening. At the end you will see what the future may hold and why it is possible to “feed the world…organically”.

2:45 p.m. – 4:15 p.m.
Get Out and Grow: Landscaping in Urban Areas
William Moss, Horticulture Educator
Session Description TBD

Wednesday, January 16
Horticulture & Arboriculture

8:30 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.
2012: A Year in Drought at the University of Illinois Plant Clinic
Stephanie Porter, University of Illinois
Stephanie Porter will report the current happenings at the U of I Plant Clinic as well as the major problems that were observed on trees, shrubs, and other ornamentals in Illinois during 2012. The focus will include abiotic problems such as frost injury, drought stress, and iron chlorosis as well as biotic diseases diagnosed such as bacterial blast of pear, fungal tree cankers, and prevalent oak diseases (oak wilt, bacterial leaf scorch, and Burr oak blight). Further discussion will highlight unique disease and stress issues that were seen at the U of I Plant Clinic in 2012. 

10:15 a.m. – 11:45 a.m.
Why Doesn't My Plant Look Like That?
Ed Lyon, University of Wisconsin
Why doesn't my plant look like it does in the catalog? This resonates with current gardeners and will have an even greater impact in the future. The Green Industry is facing a number of challenges including a dramatic change in consumer audience. Ed Lyon will discuss upcoming marketing related issues as well as the results of  record setting plant releases without adequate trialing.

1:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.
Underused Trees and Shrubs for the Upper Midwest
Sharon Yielsa, Morton Arboretum
Diversity is the way to go these days.  Overuse of certain trees has caused disease and insect problems to become magnified.  It's time to look at some trees that are not being used widely in the landscape. Diversifying our landscapes keeps them healthier.

2:45 p.m. – 4:15 p.m.
The Dirty Dozen: The Latest on Pests
Phil Nixon, University of Illinois
The most common and most important landscape insect pests will be addressed. These will include emerald ash borer, Japanese beetle, bagworm, Gypsy moth, white grubs, spider mites, horned oak gall, and bronze birch borer. Information on identification, damage, and management will be presented.

Thursday, January 17
Sustainable Landscape

8:30 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.
From Waste to Resource: a Model Landscape in Chicago’s Back-of-Yards
Ryan Wilson, Center for Neighborhood Technology
In Chicago’s Back-of-the-Yards neighborhood, a new landscape is being incubated on the site of an old meatpacking plant. The Plant—a social enterprise whose mission is to promote sustainable food production, entrepreneurship, and building reuse—will produce all of its operating energy on-site, and utilize the remaining landscape area as a demonstration of urban food production. Both activities will feed the buzz of activity inside: from bakeries to breweries, aquaculture to agriculture.

10:15 a.m. – 11:45 a.m.
mela logo Rain Gardens: From Start to Finish
Sponsored by the Midwest Ecological Landscape Association (MELA)
Kevin Hebert, Kevin’s Rain Gardens
Tom Lupfer, Lupfer Landscaping
This comprehensive session will take you from the initial client contacrt to finishing the project. Learn from two contractors that are out there building rain gardens today so you can start tomorrow. Tom Lupfer will cover how to sell rain gardens to your clients. He’ll take you into the back yard with the customer and show you how to make your company stand out from your competition. Kevin Hebert will take you step-by-step on building a rain garden. He will highlight the mistakes made and the lessons learned. The goal of the session is to give you everything you need to be able to confidently sell and build rain gardens.

1:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.
Sustainable Plant Combinations
Jessica Reidell, The Brickman Group
Catalino Mendoza, Midwest Groundcovers
Roy Diblik, Designer, Plantsman and Co-owner, Northwind Perennial Farm
Kevin McGowen, Kaknes Landscape Supply
Putting sustainable plant choices into practice just got easier with a guide created by the ILCA Sustainable Landscaping Committee: The speakers used decades of experience to select the guide’s recommended plant combinations. Filling open spaces with sustainable plant combinations decreases the amount of work required as well as the amount of fertilizers, pesticides and water you need to use. This class will provide sustainable solutions to some of the basic and complex challenges we face on job sites every day.

2:45 p.m. – 4:15 p.m.
Trees of Life: Sustainable Trees & Shrubs
Jeff Swano, Dig Right In Landscaping
Trees and shrubs naturally provide a wide array of sustainable ecological services. This session will provide an overview of the environmental, social and economic benefits of trees and shrubs in the landscape. More importantly, learn how to critically evaluate a project site in order to select the trees and shrubs best suited to deliver the maximum amount of benefits. This will give landscapers and designers a greater appreciation of the work they do.

Thursday, January 17
Sales & Marketing

8:30 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.
Stop Googling Yourself – The Secrets to Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Tyler Perkins, Goodway Marketing Co .
Originally from the green industry, Tyler Perkins, former certified arborist and heavy highway landscaping contractor found value in the internet early on when he noticed his businesses large scale budget for the yellow pages was quickly diminishing in its return. Designing and building his own website for his tree service he found it too lacked any significant traffic that would guarantee return. Intrigued in the marketing aspects of the internet in early 2005 he began to educate himself in what makes Google and other major search engines work and why some companies found success in the new found marketing powerhouses. By the year 2010 he started Goodway Marketing Co. as a full time venture, building websites and marketing them for green industry businesses and other local small business. Let Tyler show you the secrets of good search engine optimization (SEO) and how any company can harness the awesome power of the internet.

10:15 a.m. – 11:45 a.m.
Negotiate Like a Lawyer While Keeping Your Friends
Julie A. Proscia, Esq., SmithAmundsen, LLC
Brandon M. Anderson, Esq., SmithAmundsen, LLC
Negotiation is a necessary and unavoidable part of your daily work life. You are constantly negotiating with someone whether it is a client, supplier, employee, or even a municipality or zoning official. Learn about different negotiation styles and pick up some negotiation pointers from the professional negotiators – attorneys. This session offers an opportunity to learn about different negotiation styles and will explain the “top ten” negotiation principles that apply in any given situation.

1:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. 
Signed, Sealed, Delivered
Sara Furlan, Mariani Landscape, Lake Bluff, IL
John Algozzini, K & D Landscape, Naperville, IL
Scott Lucchetti, Touch of Green Landscaping, Homer Glen, IL
Experience how to engage, inform and educate your clientele so that they choose YOU as the only logical choice for their landscape work. Learn the different processes and methodologies employed by three seasoned veterans when they present to potential clients.

Follow the design process from the initial appointment, the presentation and through job completion with tips and insights on how to develop successful presentation skills. Get case study information on how specific and real projects moved forward from Point A to Point Z. For the newcomer or already experienced this session will put a finer point on how to get the project Signed, Sealed and Delivered!!

2:45 p.m. – 4:15 p.m.
Fishing for Marlin – Land the Big Projects You Always Wanted
Expert Panel
Steve Fiore, Rocco Fiore & Sons
Dean MacMorris, Vice President, Night Light, Inc.
Jacqueline Camacho-Ruiz, Make-it Happen Director, Author & Speaker
Want to land the big fish? Of course you do. Learn how to fish for landscape projects in the right waters with the best bait and tackle for the job. Make sure you know how to set the hook and land the big ones successfully while others fish for bluegills and tommy cats. Stop telling fish stories. Our panel of experts will help you negotiate rough waters and dramatically improve your sales skills so that you can bring the trophy fish home time and time again.

Thursday, January 17
Latino Track

The complete lineup of sessions in the Latino Track, with descriptions in English and Español, can be found here.

Thursday, January 17
Management & Marketing

8:30 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.
Your Front Line Creates Your Bottom Line: The Power of Feedback from Employees and Customers
Kim Hartmann, Countryside
Need motivation to improve business results? There's nothing like feedback from your people and your customers to fine-tune your decision-making. Revive your employees by giving them the opportunity to be heard. Renew and expand your relationships with customers by getting their input. Kim will show you how. She will share examples of tools and processes to gather and implement the feedback. She will also share results from recent green industry employee and consumer research that may influence how you do business. You'll see the pay-off in productivity, skills, loyalty, and profits.

1:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.
Multi-Threat Marketing: Branding and Marketing Planning
Susan Dobbe, President, Dobbe Marketing & PR, Inc.
Marketing expert Susan Dobbe will share thoughts on brand development and the key messages you should be focusing on in evolving your brand. Attendees will learn how to take advantage of niche marketing, communicate brand image effectively and begin to develop a strategic plan.

Thursday, January 17
Horticulture & Arboriculture

8:30 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.
Tough Plants for Extreme Weather
Kevin McGowen, Kaknes Landscape Supply
Drought, Humidity, Salt, No Snow in winter. These are some of the things that test the strength of our plants year in and year out in the Chicagoland region. Kevin will discuss plants that will do excellent in these areas as well as the urban environment. No marketing gimmicks with the plants discussed here. Just top of the line performers.

10:15 a.m. – 11:45 a.m.
Landscaping on the Wild Side
Greg Stack, University of Illinois
Landscaping for wildlife is not the same as just letting a landscape go wild and uncontrolled thus drawing the attention and ire of neighbors and city officials.  Landscapes that encourage wildlife from bees to butterflies to certain mammals and birds are attractive, interesting and often serve to protect those things that are finding it hard to find a home.   Find out how to enhance the landscape that then enhances the environment that then enhances the thing we call nature.

1:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.
Plant Geeks and Their Favorites
Marlene Frisbe, Hoffie Nursery/GET Group
Brent Horvath, Intrinsic
Debbie Lonnee, Bailey Nurseries
Join three avid plant enthusiasts as they share their favorites. Personally and professionally, Marlene, Brent, and Jonathan are passionate about hardy plants. This is not a cookie-cutter seminar. You won't see plants in a slide show in alphabetical order. Each speaker selected a group of must-have plants, but no one knows what comes next, which plants the others chose, or if they agree about their desirability; one geek's beauty may be another's beast!

2:45 p.m. – 4:15 p.m.
Extending the Seasons of Color: The Magic of Minor Bulbs
Jill Selinger, Chicago Botanic Garden
Most gardeners are well aware of the beauty and versatility of spring flowering bulbs such as daffodils and tulips. However, one of the best and most useful groups, of bulbs are the minor bulbs, which are often overlooked and underutilized. These small bulbs are excellent in naturalistic gardens, in groundcover plantings and as a blanket of color amidst emerging perennials in early spring. Jill will illustrate and discuss varieties such as chionodoxa, puschkinia, scillas, iris, snow crocus and many others, including those that are resistant to deer.

Thursday, January 17
Outdoor & Green Living

8:30 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.
Isn’t the Green Industry Already Green?
Rory Klick, College of Lake County
Many of us think of the horticulture and landscape industry as the original “green career,” but we haven’t always been very sustainable in our practices. This presentation will explore how horticulture is seeking to embrace sustainability as daily practice, and how these trends are influencing the landscape industry. The message will focus on simple changes every gardener can make to embrace more sustainable methods and truly “green” practices in their landscape.

10:15 a.m. – 11:45 a.m.
Urban Agriculture for Healthy Midwest Cities
Sarah Taylor Lovell, University of Illinois
Sam Wortman, University of Illiniois
In this session, we will cover the extent and types of urban agriculture, considering recent trends in growth across the Midwest and specific examples in Chicago. We will discuss potential issues with growing food in the urban environment including soil contamination, urban heat island effects, and water management. Finally, we will explore future opportunities for the green industry to engage in this growing trend.

1:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.
Children and Nature: Growing The Next Generation of Gardeners
Andrea Faber Taylor, University of Illinois
Intuitively you know that people need plants and greenspaces to be happy and healthy.  Learn about the research evidence supporting your intuitions, and how to leverage those findings to promote more greening in your communities.  In particular, the power of greenspaces for children's healthy development will be emphasized, including a discussion of specific design elements and planning implications.

2:45 p.m. – 4:15 p.m.
Four Seasons of Interest: Decorating Outdoors Year Round
Ginny Hodgson, Clesen Wholesale
Today's cutting edge gardens are all about maximizing visual interest in our outdoor spaces.  To this end we will feature stellar herbaceous and woody plants that shine through multiple seasons as well as a dazzling display of Winter Decorations ideas for inspiration...featuring cut greens and seasonal accents in the form of branches, berries, pods and more.