ANLA cancels Retail Roadshow for 2010, will return in 2011

American Nursery & Landscape Association will not hold its annual garden-retail tour, ANLA Retail Roadshow, in 2010. According to a statement issued by the association, the event has been deferred to 2011.

ANLA members recently received a letter from association president Tom Courtright, Orchard Nursery and Florist, Calif. The letter shared several decisions that were made at the board’s recent, regularly scheduled, fall meeting. Two decisions—to reduce the association’s inventory of travel-based programming and to increase internet accessible resources—were based on a consensus that the impacts of the economic downturn would continue to be felt throughout 2010. According to President Courtright, “It’s the same thing we are doing in our garden center right now. We’re bringing in less inventory and increasing those items that our customers can easily splurge on.”

As a result of the decision to reduce programming inventory, the board, together with ANLA’s Retail Division Board, decided to defer the planned 2010 ANLA Retail Roadshow until 2011.

Retail Division President Platt Hill, Platt Hill Nursery, Ill., stated, “ANLA continues to offer tremendous value to our retail members with two of our strongest programs, the 2010 Management Clinic and the launch of Garden Center University’s class of 2012. Deferring the [ANLA Retail] Roadshow for one year allows both our members and our association to live within the budgets of ‘the new economy’ and prepare for an outstanding Roadshow in 2011.”

At the same time, ANLA will increase its focus on the newly launched Knowledge Center, hosted at ANLA.org. The Knowledge Center is an online resource containing articles videos and other resources from ANLA members, past events, industry experts and Management Clinic.