Floral 2027: Future-Proof Your Program.

Moderated by Michael Schrader

Description: A warm welcome from Floriexpo CEO, Bob Callahan. We’ll briefly outline the day’s agenda and introduce the core themes of innovation, efficiency, and consumer connection that will drive our discussions.

Presented by: Jackie Lacey – The American Floral Endowment (AFE)

Session Description: As the youngest generation enters their prime spending years, the floral industry faces a pivotal shift in consumer expectations. Join the American Floral Endowment (AFE) for an exclusive deep dive into the latest research surrounding Generation Z’s unique relationship with flowers and plants.

Unlike previous generations, Gen Z views floral products through a lens of sustainability, wellness, and digital aesthetics. This session moves beyond the “mystery” of the youth market to provide actionable, data-driven insights. We will explore how their values—ranging from ethical sourcing to “self-care” purchasing—influence where and why they shop.

Key Takeaways:

• The Values Gap: Understand how Gen Z’s focus on environmental and social responsibility dictates brand loyalty.
• Digital-First Discovery: Insights into the role of TikTok and Instagram in the floral path-to-purchase.
• Experience vs. Product: Why Gen Z prioritizes the “unboxing” and the story behind the stem over traditional arrangements.
• Marketing That Resonates: Strategies for adapting your messaging to capture a generation that values authenticity over polished advertising.

Presented by: Bill Schaeffer, AIFD

Session Description: The Emotional Blueprint is a powerful way to understand how customers make floral decisions in the first seconds of contact. Every flower, display, bouquet, and online listing triggers three automatic responses: the first glance, the first feeling, and the first story the customer forms around what they see. When companies understand these emotional cues, they can design, merchandise, and communicate more clearly and with greater impact across every part of the floral pipeline.

This session brings that process to life with live floral demonstrations, practical tools, and visual examples that connect growers, bouquet makers, wholesalers, mass market teams, retailers, and event designers around a single shared customer experience. The presentation shows how emotion, color, structure, and story can strengthen floral programs without increasing cost or complexity. Attendees walk away with a simple model they can use immediately to create floral experiences that feel more meaningful, more memorable, and more connected to the real customer standing in front of the flowers.

Presenters: Elliot Wilke, President and CEO – Epic Gardening  + Melissa Schneider, VP Content- Epic Gardening

The Challenge: Millennials and Gen Z are the fastest-growing gardening segments, but they don’t shop for products—they shop for outcomes. If they fear “killing the plant,” they won’t buy.

The Solution: Epic Gardening has built a 15M+ global community by using social media as a free “instructional layer” that removes the fear of failure. Instead of traditional ads, Epic uses high-engagement content to turn followers into confident, high-frequency floral buyers.

Key Takeaways:

Lifestyle over SKUs: How to stop selling “plants” and start selling the “harvest” through social-first storytelling.

The Confidence Flywheel: Using short-form video (TikTok/Reels) to provide 24/7 “after-sales support” that reduces customer churn.

Pre-Sold Demand: How to use audience data and viral trends to predict what will fly off the shelves before it even hits the floor.

Commerce through Content: Real-world examples of how educational content bypasses traditional promotions to trigger immediate retail behavior.

Presenter: Talmage McLaurin

Session Overview: Today’s shopper skips the “stale florist” look in favor of brands that feel trend-forward and “Instagrammable.”This session is designed specifically for mass-market buyers to bridge the gap between traditional merchandising and the high-speed world of social media aesthetics. We’ll move beyond “tired design tropes” to explore the visual cues that trigger immediate consumer desire.

What You’ll Master:

The Profit of Perception: Understand the psychology of “trend-forward” design—why modern aesthetics allow you to command higher price points and increase margins.

Hybrid Merchandising: How to translate 2027 trends across both physical store displays and digital storefronts to ensure a seamless, “scroll-stopping” customer journey.

Content-Ready Collections: How to curate product lines that don’t just sit on a shelf, but actively encourage customers to create and share social content, providing you with free organic marketing.

The “Surprise” Factor: Strategies to refresh the “old-world” florist concept with modern merchandising that captures the attention of the next generation of floral enthusiasts.

Presenter: Tim Huckabee

In today’s mass-market floral landscape, success is not just about logistics; it’s about people.

Supermarket floral departments are expected to deliver exceptional results with limited staff

and training. This session gives buyers and department heads a proven blueprint to drive

higher sales, reduce costly errors, and create motivated teams that consistently outperform

competitors

Key Takeaways

1. Boost productivity with simplified training systems for part-time and seasonal staff.
2. Reduce waste and shrink through improved accuracy in design, display, and ordering.
3. Increase average sales using communication strategies that eliminate “How much do you

want to spend?” 

4. Motivate staff daily with 5-minute Daily Huddles that reinforce goals and morale.
5. Equip managers with easy performance tracking tools to maintain consistency across

locations.

Michael Perry, aka Mr Plant Geek

We move beyond the “like” button to show how authentic storytelling and influencer partnerships can transform floral from a passive impulse buy into a “must-have” lifestyle purchase. Drawing on Michael’s 25+ years of experience—spanning plant breeding at Thompson & Morgan to global brand ambassadorships—we will dissect how to bridge the gap between complex horticultural innovation and the simple, emotive content that millennials and Gen Z crave.

higher sales, reduce costly errors, and create motivated teams that consistently outperform competitors

Key Takeaways

1. Boost productivity with simplified training systems for part-time and seasonal staff.
2. Reduce waste and shrink through improved accuracy in design, display, and ordering.
3. Increase average sales using communication strategies that eliminate “How much do you want to spend?” 

4. Motivate staff daily with 5-minute Daily Huddles that reinforce goals and morale.
5. Equip managers with easy performance tracking tools to maintain consistency across locations.

Presented by: Forthcoming

On February 14, 2027, the floral industry will face a once-in-a-decade collision: Valentine’s Day and Super Bowl Sunday on the exact same date. For a supermarket floral buyer, this isn’t just a busy weekend—it’s a high-stakes battle for floor space, labor, and logistics.

When your “Rose Case” is competing directly with the “Snack Aisle” and your delivery windows are fighting game-day traffic, the status quo will fail. This session is designed to turn that logistical nightmare into your biggest revenue driver of the decade.

Why You Can’t Miss This Session

We aren’t just talking about surviving the weekend; we’re talking about dominating the basket share. We will move past “fighting” the game and show you how to embed floral into the total Super Bowl experience.

Key Takeaways for Your Strategy:

• Tactical Logistics: Managing the “Saturday Surge” to clear the floor for Sunday’s game-day rush.
• The Male Shopper Pivot: Strategies to capture the 11th-hour male demographic who are buying wings and roses in a single trip.
• Space Optimization: How to win the “Battle of the Pallets” between floral buckets and beer displays.
• Cross-Merchandising: Innovative ways to pair floral with snacks, deli, and beverage departments for a 360-degree consumer approach.

Insights from the Front Lines

Hear from a moderated panel of industry leaders who have managed multi-million dollar categories, including:

• Senior Grocery Category Managers on internal store negotiations.
• Logistics Experts on navigating squeezed supply chains.
• Social Media Strategists on modernizing the “Valentine’s Game Day” vibe.

The Bottom Line: February 14, 2027, will either be your most chaotic day or your most profitable. Join us to ensure it’s the latter.

management, tech-driven logistics, and modern social media strategy—will share how to capture the “male-shopper” demographic and turn a Sunday distraction into a Saturday surge.

Key Takeaways and a Look Ahead to the Show Floor

A final thank you and a summary of the key action items from the day, energizing the audience to take what they’ve learned and apply it to their meetings and discoveries on the Floriexpo show floor.

Come celebrate the best time of day ✨Golden Hour✨ with us on Wednesday, May 27th  at 5:30pm at the Hilton Fort Lauderdale Marina as we kick off Floriexpo 2026! Connect with friends news and old, enjoy a beverage & get ready for all that Floriexpo has to offer over the next couple days. Wear a pop of gold if you wish!

This year’s Opening Reception will take place in the Intercoastal Ballroom at the Hilton Fort Lauderdale Marina.

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