The Special Event 2015: Floral Mastery in Event Design

Last week I had the opportunity to attend The Special Event 2015, an annual conference for those of us who work in special events.  Attendees from all over the country met up this year at the Anaheim Marriott to listen to educational programs covering various aspects of the special event world: design, event management, event technology, catering, trends, and business development.  In addition to programs, there were design galleries, networking events, and over 2,000 exhibitors showcasing new ideas and products in the adjacent Anaheim Convention Center.

One of the program highlights this year was a floral design program featuring Tomas de Bruyne and Hitomi Gilliam.  Their program “Floral Mastery in Event Design” featured 11 new, creative, large-scale floral pieces that would enhance any event.  Their goal was to present new an innovative designs that steered away from conventional florals that we see/produce for typical corporate or social events.  And that is exactly what they did! With the help of a team of European Master Certificate (EMC) designers, each floral design reflected creative compositions and unique detailing.

Tomas and Hitomi’s program was sponsored by G-Fresh and Accent Decor.  G-Fresh is a Dutch company that works with Dutch growers to provide high quality flowers to wholesalers and retailers around the world.  The flowers they provided for the program were exceptionally beautiful and perfect for the innovative designs.  Accent Decor is a leader in the supply of floral-ware, containers, glassware, ceramics, and accessories to the floral industry.  Additional hard-goods and floral supplies were provided by Smithers-Oasis.

Below is a gallery of designs from Tomas and Hitomi’s program.  I am happy to say their program and the TSE conference was inspiring, and I look forward to the upcoming AIFD Symposium in Denver this summer.  Stay tuned for more floral news!

Better Late Than Never….

This gallery contains 20 photos.

Okay, okay….so I’m a little behind in my blog posts.  Fine, I’m seven months behind, but who’s counting?  😉 My …

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AIFD Symposium 2011: Prep day 2

Wow, what a day.  Today was my first day on-site at Symposium and this year it is being held at the Marriott Marquis in downtown San Francisco.  Yes, the jukebox hotel.  What I didn’t realize was how big their conference center is….and how cold it would be.  More on that in a minute.

I arrived in the design room at 8am sharp to report for flower processing duty.  I knew that I only had a couple of hours to help out, but I still volunteered because I wanted to experience as much as I could during my first Symposium.  We were located in one salon of the giant Yerba Buena Ballroom…with only a measly 8,500 square feet of space to work.  But we weren’t the only ones there.  The design room is where the magic happens.  Floral designers who present a program during Symposium need a place to prepare their designs, and the workroom is where they do it.  Because of all the flowers in the room, they crank up the air-conditioning in an effort to keep the flowers from wilting too quickly.  Hence, the cold.

But back to my processing.  I met with the coordinators and was assigned to a small group of fellow volunteers.  Our goal was to “chop and drop,” which means we cut about an inch off the bottom of the flowers, place in quick dip, then into buckets with water and flower food.  Luckily we had guillotine choppers, so our jobs were a little easier than if we had to cut by hand.  Never-the-less, we had boxes and boxes (and boxes) of flowers to process.  After we processed, it was time to help divvy up the flowers.  I am so glad that I wasn’t chosen to count out 500 burgundy carnations!

At 11am, I rolled off that job to start my next one: helping with floral designs for one of the dinners.  Jenny Tabarracci, Steven Brown, and Michael Daigian have designed “Strawberry Fields Forever” for the most important night of Symposium: awards night.  I have been part of a small group that has been helping Jenny out for the past four weeks, so it was exciting to continue our work on-site at Symposium.  The best part was being able to take a break and wander over to other designer areas to see what they were creating.  AMAZING stuff!  My day ended at 6pm and I am beat,  but ready for another full day tomorrow.

Hello World

I’m finally doing it……starting my own blog.  The main impetus:  to have a place where I can post my thoughts about floral design and cool, flower-related topics.  Plus, I figured this will give my husband a much-deserved break from having to listen to my ramblings about flowers, designs, and events (sorry honey!).  I am very excited to join the blogosphere and welcome any comments or ideas from any and all of you who decide to follow me on this floral journey.

~Mercedes

I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers.  ~Claude Monet