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Independent Garden Centres Gather in Paris - John Stanley
- 30 January 2017
Imagine what would happen if the owners from some of leading Independent Garden Centres from around the globe Gathered in a room for two days and worked together to developed ideas for the future of their businesses.
That is exactly what happened in mid-January. The idea started with garden center owners having a conversation with John Stanley and suggesting that the next step forward for them was to develop ideas and share information with like-minded business from around the world.
John contacted leading garden centers in 24 countries and the idea caught on.
The two-day workshop was held at an airport hotel at Charles de Gaulle Airport and delegates had no time to do any sightseeing as it was an intensive two days.
Owners came from independent garden centers in Australia, Canada, USA and Europe which was represented by garden centers from Belgium, Czech, Denmark, Holland, Switzerland, and the UK.
Garden center owners from China, Russia, and Japan also wanted to attend, but the date clashed with other events in their calendars.
The workshop was entitled “ The Gathering” as the style of the two days was that everyone was an equal and could openly share ideas.
Was it a success?
In organizing the event John was aware it would either be a huge success or a major mistake. It was such a success that the group has agreed to continue to share ideas and to meet once a year to develop ideas further and to introduce new concepts to the group.
The group started the session by looking at the scenario that average sale is going up, whilst customer count is going down and how they could address this. The topics then moved on the opportunities with Urban Agriculture, Online shopping strategies, merchandising, new garden center design concept, marketing, and business development.
As you can imagine, the session went well into the evening with everyone taking the opportunity to share ideas with owners from around the world.
John has already been asked if he will lead another Gathering for another group later this year.
With retailing and the garden center scene changing rapidly at present, the timing of “The Gathering” could not have been better.
John Stanley is a Conference Speaker and Consultant. In 2012 he was awarded the WA Small Business exporter of the Year. He works in 35 countries and is one of the world sort after retail and small business presenters. His new conference presentation looks at the new consumer and how that affects your business. Follow John on Facebook John-Stanley -Associates or contact him at john@johnstanley.com.au
