Vegas Baby.  And,boy, was it great!  Several hundred ‘scapers and vendors showed up last week at the Flamingo Hotel in Vegas.  It was great to see so many old friends and several Inner Circle members.  The seminars were well presented and, more importantly, relevant in these difficult times.  Jim Mumford of Good Earth in San Diego addressed GREEN ROOFS and it was the best presentation on this topic I’ve seen yet.  For more info and a slide show of his talk, go to pia@piagrows .org.  It will be on that site at some point and you should view it and download the info.  Maybe, you are not interested in tackling this new opportunity but you need to see what it is all about.  In short, to do this work you need to have an architect or engineer, a water management person and a roofing professional on board.  Do not think you can do this by yourself.  Talk around the convention centered on the Joeys and Freedom Squares.  I can’t even count the number of companies that "get it". 

The Awards Program, while a tad too long, was inspiring.  Projects both for regular green installations as well as Holiday and Special Events showed what we are capable of doing for our clients.  Pretty spectacular.  Several Installation winners had large plant material being hoisted high by cranes to get into the site.    Lots of ooohs and ahhhs.

The general feeling from both ‘scapers and vendors is that this is the economy from Hell.  Not only are we dealing with cutbacks, cancellations and so on, but we are being pressured by the money boys.  Credit Card companies are cutting credit lines, raising interest rates, and Banks are lowering line of credit limits.  Since we are small and usually undercapitalized, this additional stress makes every day….challenging.  Still, we wil get thru this.  Inner Circle members, please go thru the IC Archives and review my prior Newsletters about how to cope, reengineer etc.  You will read this stuff with a new understanding and just might pick up some pearls.  Make a necklace.

Also at Calscape, Jerry Shipe of the Plant Place in Dallas put together an excellent panel on Reinvent and Innovate, Opportunities to Review.  Panelists presented information on Cut Florals, Exterior and Patioscaping, Web based Sales, , Short Term Rentalsetc.  Now, doing these different but related businesses depends on several basics.  The market you’re in, the Needs of your client base, the ability of your staff, and the extra dollars you will need as "seed" money.  I will be posting info about each of these in future posts to help you determine if they are right for YOU.  Otherwise, keep you chin up and go get ‘em, Tiger.