Maximizing Your Conference Experience: From Attending to Presenting

Episode 220: Join hosts Lori and Vonda as they discuss Lori's  recent experiences at SAF Next Gen Live! and GLFEE conferences, where Lori presented alongside Ellie LaFever PFCI.  Both being seasoned presenters as well as lovers of education, they offer insights into making the most of education sessions as attendees and presenters. Discover three practical tips for setting yourself up for success and satisfaction during educational sessions, followed by valuable advice on three essential elements to excel when presenting your own education sessions.

Sponsored by:
Flower Clique
Flower Clique Prep School
Real Life Retail Florist

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:02

So don't sit there with your arms crossed, like, what am I doing here? I mean, you've selected to be there because you want to learn something. So be open to whatever that instructor is trying to teach you, right? Welcome to the business and pleasure of flowers. We're your hosts, Vonda LaFever.

SPEAKER_02 0:22

And Lori Wilson. And we believe the business and fun are a perfect combination. Kind of like us, Vonda. Welcome back, Lori. Thank you very much. It is good to be back. It's good to be back in my own bed. Even though I do love hanging out with Ellie.

SPEAKER_01 0:43

Yes, that was good. And back in your own bed, in your own office, just your own space, don't you think? Yes.

SPEAKER_02 0:50

Yes. I do enjoy this, but I do love ordering DoorDash with Ellie. It's one of my favorite things.

SPEAKER_01 1:00

She does so good.

SPEAKER_02 1:01

She's like the DoorDash Pro. Yeah. And I don't have to make decisions. She just tells me where we're ordering from, and then I pick a couple things. And anyway, it's just fun. It's our thing. It's our little treat. So it was good. I had so much fun. We had next gen and then we went over to Great Lakes Floral Expo. We went from Pacific Time all the way over to Eastern Time. But the funny thing was a lot of people did. Many people. So a lot of people that were at Next Gen went all the way over to Glyffey.

SPEAKER_01 1:38

So we were in good company. So tell me a little bit about Next Gen. That's always a little bit different for you because you're like at the top edge of the head. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 1:47

Yes, I am way up the edge. So they call me the ant. I'm an aunt, Lori. So I'm not a next genner. But it was great. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:00

That's a lovely thing to be.

SPEAKER_02 2:01

Wasn't that nice? It's better than grandma.

SPEAKER_01 2:05

That's been me. I'd be the grandma.

SPEAKER_02 2:07

You can be the aunt. I'm the cool ant. It was in San Diego, so that was beautiful. Great classes. Great people. There's just a different energy with NextGen. There were a lot of the new, I want to say kids. They're not kids, but a lot of new people came. I always love it because there's so many employees that come to that. So more and more flower shop owners are sending their employees, and it's really fun to meet the employees. I met a lot of people that listen to our podcast. Oh, how fun! That was fun. Ellie and I met some people that would come over that are in our prep school courses, and they're like, We know you, you trained us. And I'm like, what? And they're like, Yeah, we've seen your videos. And I'm like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's always kind of funny.

SPEAKER_01 3:09

You're the rock star of the group.

SPEAKER_00 3:11

Yeah, it was funny.

SPEAKER_01 3:12

We know her.

SPEAKER_00 3:13

Yeah, I love you.

SPEAKER_02 3:15

So that was really fun. SAF just does a great job putting on their events. One of the cool things we did was we got to go tour some flower farms. We went to two different farms, Kindle Farms and Milano and Company, outside right in the San Diego County area. And they were both beautiful. It was, I've never been to a flower farm. I know you have. So it was really neat for me to see the operations, like amazing, absolutely amazing to watch how it works. We took these buses through from Kendall Farms, jumped on our bus, and as we were touring through it to get down to the actual farm, kind of driving through where all of the plants and flowers were through the mountain. She was talking about each tons of eucalyptus and all the different crops. And she was talking about how, you know, every single plant is there for a purpose. Like they have to be really mindful of what they plant, where they plant it, what the water resources are like, oh my gosh, everything. And there was a lot of avocado trees, and how they had to take down a lot of avocado trees because of how much water they take up, and just it was fascinating.

SPEAKER_01 4:48

Isn't it fascinating? I remember my very first farm too, and I was just like, wow, it's just yeah, it's so impressive.

SPEAKER_02 4:55

It really is. Yeah, it was impressive. And the other thing, the tour guides, the people that work there that were giving the tours, the way they talked about each person, like you could tell they were very much a family. It was pretty cool. Uh, one cool thing, I think it was the Kendall Farms. They took us to the top of this hill, this mountain, I guess, over this huge crop, and they had the biggest drone I have ever seen. I mean, it was massive, it was on the back of this big truck, and it is what flies over the crops to fertilize it or does do whatever. And they did a demonstration for us with just water. It was really cool.

SPEAKER_01 5:46

It was very, very cool. You know what just came to mind when you said that is do you remember like old crop dusters? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Drone drones are probably taking place in conceived and being able to maneuver any smaller places. Yes. Wow, that's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_02 6:07

It was very cool. It lives on the back of this truck, and they just fill it up, and the guy maneuvers it with a little looks like a gamer. Yeah, and just goes up. I mean, it was massive. Um, and I can't remember how much they said it cost. Somebody asked, of course, and it is it's a little more than what you and I could afford, probably.

SPEAKER_00 6:30

Yeah, but it was it was cool.

SPEAKER_01 6:34

So, one thing, let me go back to the employees that new shops are sending who haven't been there before. I think the coolest thing about NextGen and bringing a new employee or a new person on is that they can see there are other young people in our industry. Yeah, and this is just a job, this is a career rather than a job. Yeah. So, man, kudos to everybody who sent their employees to really encourage them to be part of the industry rather than this is a job. Right.

SPEAKER_02 7:04

I tried to be mindful and set by new people, like during lunch and try to meet new people. I had a couple conversations with different girls who were new, and I was finding out about them. And one of them said, you know, I wasn't sure if this is the industry. She had only been in the industry, not even two years, and they sent her, and this was like her first time traveling by herself. And and by the end, she was like, I do want to stay in this industry. So I'm this is a really good. And and when I was presenting, one of the things I was saying to the employees, I'm like, You guys are all here, you know, because your employer sees leadership in you, they see something in you that is worth the money to send you to this. This is not cheap. Like they paid your way to come and grow in your leadership skills and your design skills and your marketing skills and you know, all of your skills. So you should be very proud of yourself. Absolutely. So you finished up in San Diego, and then you and then we finished up there that was over like on Tuesday, and then we stayed Wednesday, and we just kind of worked from our hotel room because we had to work. You know, we had to work so our boss wouldn't get mad at us. So yeah, we worked, and then Thursday we flew out to Michigan and we got in late, like at 1:30 in the morning, and for the Great Lakes Floral Expo, which we had never been before. And then Ellie and I taught, we taught two different classes, but we taught them on repeat. So we taught four times, but two sessions. So we did one on leadership skills, and one called Camera, Canva, and Cash, which was really 95% Ellie, five percent me just being her hype girl.

SPEAKER_01 9:13

So and you do that very well, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:17

Yeah, yeah. It was really good, it was really entertaining. I actually learned a lot from her slides. It was it was good. We were exhausted by the end, but the expo part was good. We got to meet a lot of great people, and like I said, a lot of next gen people were there, so it was fun. We were like, ah, look at you seeing you again, haven't seen you in 24 hours. So um, right, it was much more design heavy than next gen. I mean, it was much bigger too, you know, and they had a bunch of design classes and business sessions going on at the same time, so you think, and so you know, most most people when you go to clo things like that, you're gonna opt into the design classes. So I was just gonna say, I've always found that and you can't compete with design. You can't, no, you really can't. No, but we were fine. I mean, we had we had people in our classes, it was it was great. We were very happy, and we met people at the expo, we met other vendors that we had never met before, and then we got to see all our friends that are the vendors that were at Next Gen. So kind of moved from one to the other, move from one to the other, yeah. But it was it was good, like I said, it was a long trip, but you know, it just reminds me how important it is to get out there and meet new people in this industry and to learn whether it's the business side or the design side, there is always something to learn.

SPEAKER_01 11:01

True, you know, there really is, Lori. And when we were talking about this earlier, we were kind of discussing you being a student in the classroom or at an education session and a presenter, you know. So you really were on both sides of that. Yeah, yeah. Both of these, I I think Gliffy, you probably didn't have as much time because you know, I was bugged.

SPEAKER_02 11:26

I yeah, I had gone through their class sessions and picked out a couple I wanted to attend, and I never got to go because we were so busy either manning our booth or teaching our classes. But at NextGen I did. I got to go to most of all of the classes.

SPEAKER_01 11:45

So that kind of sparked this part. So let's start with that attending the sessions. I'm gonna ask what are three things that an attendee who's sitting in that session should think about before they even sit down in the classroom, before you start attending that session, because you just mentioned, okay, I looked over these things. Right. This is the one I picked out that I want to go to. Right.

SPEAKER_02 12:13

Okay. So three things if you are getting ready to attend a session. Well, I'm gonna kind of expand that too. If you are going, because at Glyffey, a lot of teams came together, like shops, because mostly like on that Sunday, because they weren't open, so they brought their whole team. My number one suggestion is to divide and conquer, like all of you go to one, break out, right? Find your interests. And I mean, it's okay if two of you go to one and then come back and tell each other about it. So that would be my number one. Number two, expand your horizons. Pick one that maybe you don't know anything about. I say that because I tend to go to classes that I already know about. Like I gravitate to leadership classes. I gravitate, like, you know, and maybe expand your horizons and go to things that I'm gonna use Ellie's example, camera, Canva, Cash. I typically wouldn't sign up for a class like that. However, just sitting in it with her being her hype girl, I'm like, wow, this is fascinating. I'm so glad I was in there and my name was on as a teacher in the class, right? So think through what else can I learn here? My last one, and I think this is probably the most important. Ask questions. Ask questions. So many times, people at the end after the QA, every presentation I've ever done, you have a QA, but then after that QA, people will come over and like have a line, right? To come talk to you and ask you these one-on-one questions, which is fine, but half of the line doesn't get to you because everybody else is asking, and then it's time to go to another session. So my suggestion is ask the question because chances are four or five other people have that same question. Don't be afraid. And when the question pops in your mind and they're presenting, write it down.

SPEAKER_01 14:47

Yeah, yeah, for sure. Because you're gonna forget what it was until the whole thing's over. Then you're like, oh, should have asked.

SPEAKER_02 14:54

Exactly. Because they're gonna move on to the next topic and then you're gonna completely forget it. So write it down. So those would be my three things when you're attending, being mindful. If I was taking my team to SAF convention, I'd have like a little staff meeting before, and I would give these tips to them. Say, let's get the most we can out of this. Here's some things we want to think about. What about you? Do you have anything different?

SPEAKER_01 15:19

I think they're probably pretty much the same. One is really read what they're saying are going to be those takeaways. I mean, you really have to read through and say, this is what I should expect, expect. But sometimes the caption or the title of the program is different. It kind of brings you in. But then when you look at it, it's like a lot of that's not listed in here. So I shouldn't expect to have this big overview, maybe of AI, let's say, because now I'm seeing these are the three things in AI I'm going to be learning. Well, if you already know those, like you said, something else. Yeah. You know, go somewhere else. My suggestion will be like if I'm a designer, I certainly don't need to sit in on something that's all office related, right? Make sure it's applicable to what you're doing in your and then be open to new ideas and concepts. You are in there to learn something, not to refresh. So don't sit there with your arms crossed, like, what am I doing here? I mean, you've selected to be there because you want to learn something. So be open to whatever that instructor is trying to teach you. Right. And then again, you just said questions. So I think that's I think that's common. All of us, we need to ask questions and be be ready to participate.

SPEAKER_02 16:30

Yep. And I agree. It also makes the presenter feel heard when you ask questions. So it's just so much better.

SPEAKER_01 16:40

So much I know that's what I always um do when I'm sitting in an education session with design, right? I know a lot about design, but I can always learn. I don't sit back there with my arms crossed. I'm like leaning in to see if I can pick up just like one little nugget that I could take away from even a design session because there's so many master designers or new designers out there who have some really great tips. So yeah, always kind of lean in and listen. Yeah. Yeah. Good point. So let's flip it. I'm a presenter, you're a presenter. Ellie, all you know, summary. What are three things to set yourself up for success when presenting that program? Take a Xanax first. Yeah. Number one fear.

SPEAKER_02 17:35

Number one, take a Xanax or a gummy. No, I'm getting. I'm kidding. Um three things. Well, these are just three things according to me, right? Yeah. The first thing I have to do before my heart rate goes down is connect with my audience.

SPEAKER_01 18:06

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 18:06

Once, and you know this because we team teach all the time. Yeah. Once I connect, it's smooth sailing. Even if I mess up, I'm not worried. But until I can connect, and so people are like, well, how do you know if you connect? I'm gonna tell you how I know. So here's how I know it is by eye contact, communication with them. It is by them nodding their head, it's by how their body movement, it's this nonverbal communication. It's by laughter, it's by them even having their phone out, taking a screenshot of the slides. It's any type of thing that tells me they've leaned in to my story. Yeah, does that make sense? And I mean, really, we talk about it all the time.

SPEAKER_01 19:00

I watch you in a presentation watching the people.

SPEAKER_02 19:05

Yeah. And if I can't get there, and there's very few times we haven't got there, um, but there have been a couple of times it's taken a little longer than I've wanted, and you're like, oh no, but we usually get there.

SPEAKER_01 19:24

But until I connect, man, you do this well, and I learned this many years ago. Is before you get up on that stage or you get wherever you're presenting, go around the room, introduce yourself, yes, learn a little bit about some of the people that are in the audience because then you can look at them and say, Hey, Lori, tell me, we were talking about this earlier, and then that person starts to interact, and then others do too. So I learned that so many years ago, and it was just the it was really changing, yeah, yeah, the way that you present. Yeah, no, I love it.

SPEAKER_02 20:05

Connection is important. Yep. So that's the first thing I do. The next one is, and I try really hard to do this, is stay on script. You bet you know me. It's always a crapshoot. You never know. You never know. So I try to stay on my slides. We don't use notes because notes only confuse me. However, in my last presentation at Next Gen, I had a couple of notes that I had written down the night before, which is crazy because you know, I don't, I had handwritten because there was a couple of things that I wanted to bring up that weren't on my slide. And I did go over and did that, and I actually told them the night before, last night when I was up that night and I wrote this down. And so, but it was perfect, it just kind of played into the whole thing. But I try to really stay on my slides and not go off on tangents, and you know that's hard for me because there's so much you want to share, right? So that's so many stories that can go through my head, but honestly, it's harder when I'm creating the slides, because you have to always fix my slides. My number three, and I learned this from an old youth pastor and our own pastor, is every time people walk away from a presentation, I want them to be able to, if they are telling somebody else about what they learned, I want them to be able to have three bullet points. Go, what'd you learn? This A, B, and C. I learned three things. What did you learn from this lesson? Those are my three goals. What about you?

SPEAKER_01 21:58

Yeah, very simple. Similar. The first one obviously is to connect. And if I'm doing a design presentation, not working with you. And if I'm doing design, I start out with asking questions because that is what gets them to interact. I mean, whether it's how long you've been in the industry, which part of the state are you from, any of that, because that helps them know that you're real and you want to talk to them. You're not up there talking at them, you're talking with them, you're sharing with them. Connect is everything because it you can get so much negative energy if you're up there trying to really design and show things and share tips. And then everybody just sitting there like this little bump on the log, and you're like, oh, this is draining, so draining. So, yes, connecting first, getting them to trust you and and to be not a friend, but you know, uh a colleague, basically. Um, next is follow your outline. Uh we do this well with slides, uh, but when you're up there in design, you have to stick to your topic. I mean, if you're doing sympathy, do sympathy. If you're doing every day, do every day, because it's too easy to go, oh, well, what about that wedding bouquet? You know, and you want to throw this in. So stick to your topic, yeah, is what I would say. And make sure it all is cohesive. Make sure that that subject is one. And then again, at the end, you're saying you want them to walk away with three things as well as any good designer does, sometimes asking them, okay, tell me what your takeaway, your number one takeaway from this. Yeah, and trying to get them to interact and and tell you. And then then you kind of know that you you've done what you need to. And sometimes if they're quiet, then you say, How about when I did this? Do you remember this? You know, so it's that interacting and make sure in that summary they do have something they've walked away with.

SPEAKER_02 23:56

So you're a teacher looking for comprehension. Comprehension, comprehension, right? Very good. Yeah. No, I think all of that is true.

SPEAKER_01 24:08

We present in two different ways, really, because when you're a designer presenting, it's really nice because you have props, right? It's easy to talk into the props. Yeah. The most challenging when you're a floral designer and you're designing and talking is to keep that eye contact with them. Yeah. And yeah, sometimes the designers up there looking at their work and not really focusing on the attendees, yeah, whoever that's in front of them. And you really have to be careful of making sure that eye contact is there so you can see that question in their mind that you can try to pull out of them. Yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_02 24:49

I move around a lot, as you know. You do. I walk you're I was at one point sat down on the stage. I'm like, I'm just moving, moving all over the place.

SPEAKER_01 25:00

Lori, that's a really good way to see that people are paying attention because I watch people as you move and you can see their eye tracking. Going, where is she going? But it's that interaction. You have connected with them and they're following you wherever you're going physically, but also in their mind, they're actually tracking with you. Otherwise, they wouldn't be watching where I was going.

SPEAKER_02 25:27

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:28

Yeah, it's pretty cool to watch that.

SPEAKER_02 25:29

Yeah. I thought of one other thing in presenting. And I've learned this from watching TED Talks on public speaking and stuff. When you are starting when you're trying to connect with the audience, I mean, not that everybody listening is wanting to be a public speaker, but if you're trying to get your PFCI with SAF, I know a lot of our members are wanting to be speaking and teach design and things. Starting, don't spend the first five, 10 minutes just talking about yourself. That is the worst. That is the worst. And I've sat in on sessions where they've already been introduced, right? As this is Vanda Fever, AIFD, P F C I, all of your letters, and then she owns flower click, da da. And then you come up and you recite it again and talk about no one wants to hear that. It's already been done, right? Right. Start with a connection point, start with a story, and then maybe later talk a little bit about you. But like no one wants to hear that. Start with what's in it for them. What's in it for them if they sit here and listen to you?

SPEAKER_01 26:48

Good point. And most of the time when you're doing public speaking at an industry event, you have a bio that's already. Right.

SPEAKER_02 26:55

They don't need to know. That's why they're in your class.

SPEAKER_01 26:58

Right, right.

SPEAKER_02 26:59

Right? Because they already know that.

SPEAKER_01 27:01

Right. Good, good last point. I makes a lot of sense. Yeah. You have to interact with the audience first, otherwise they're like, what's this personal?

SPEAKER_02 27:09

I already know this.

SPEAKER_01 27:09

I don't need you to reintroduce yourself.

SPEAKER_02 27:12

Plus, I already read it, and you must love yourself a lot.

SPEAKER_01 27:16

Like yeah. So yeah, I think those are great points. Whether you're sitting as an attendee, things to set yourself up for success and to get as much as you can out of that session, or you're wanting to get into public speaking. So I think these should really help some people. And again, Lori, I am so glad you're back.

SPEAKER_00 27:37

Oh, me too. Yeah. Cammy said it was lonely with Ellie and I gone.

SPEAKER_01 27:42

It was. It was very lonely.

SPEAKER_02 27:46

Thank you so much for listening to our podcast. We hope you enjoyed spending time with us because we enjoy spending time with you. If you did, make sure you hit that subscribe button or add the business and pleasure of flowers to your Google morning routine or your flash briefing on Alexa. We look forward to seeing you next week.

SPEAKER_01 28:07

So please come back and join us and discover how a bit of knowledge and one small change in your mindset can take you to new levels in your life and business.