AIFD Registration Is Open!! From Vision to Reality: Elevate 2026 in Orlando
The link is finally live: registration for AIFD Symposium — Elevate 2026 in Orlando — is officially open. To celebrate, Vonda and Lori bring on the person Vonda talks to multiple times a day: Randy Wooten AIFD of RW Wholesale in Douglas, Georgia, her "Elevate husband" and partner in running the whole show. Officially, Vonda is symposium coordinator and Randy is program coordinator; unofficially, they decided early on to split nothing and do everything together. This episode is the behind-the-scenes story of what that actually takes.
How you end up planning a national symposium
It starts with a phone call you can't say no to. AIFD president Renee Tucci submitted Vonda's name for the coordinator role, then asked her who she could work with as program coordinator. Vonda put forward Randy — not because they'd worked together closely (they'd mostly crossed paths on the road in their FTD and Teleflora days), but because of how he treats people. As Vonda put it, when you're out at events, you can see who someone really is by the way they treat the volunteers behind the stage. When Renee called Randy, he was surprised, honored, and "scared to death" all at once — and says he agreed because of who Vonda is.
The part that surprises everyone: it's a three-year commitment. Lori remembers the day Vonda called needing an answer about her own future at Flower Clique — no job changes allowed until the planning was through — and admits she thought "how hard can this be?" Now that she's watching it play out (and running symposium social media herself), she calls it what it is: a full-time job layered on top of the companies Vonda and Randy already run.
The skills that matter more than design talent
Asked what the role really requires, Randy named two things first: being a people person who can work with every personality type, and being seriously organized — because coordinators depend on dozens of other people, and someone has to interact, negotiate, and stay on top of deadlines. Vonda added a third: technology. Google Docs, email communication, social media — somebody on the team has to be fluent, and she's grateful Lori took the social piece off their plates entirely. Both also credit symposium director Susie Kostic, who keeps them on task year after year. Vonda coordinated symposium back in 2015 with Marie Ackerman, before that position existed, and both agree they wouldn't have said yes without it — coordinators change every year, and passion alone doesn't replace institutional memory. Randy has coordinated Georgia State's convention eight times plus the Southern chapter, and even he says this is a different level.
Why "Elevate" — and why it shaped everything
The theme came out of one early conversation. Vonda asked Randy what he wanted symposium to look like, and everything kept circling back to the same idea: supporting one another, lifting each other up — not just in design skills, but as an industry. Vonda landed on the word Elevate, and the tagline followed: when you elevate others, you elevate yourself. They held every decision to it. Strong program proposals that didn't fit the theme were turned down; presenter selection came down to fit and balance rather than fame or skill level. The result is deliberately diverse — something architectural, something wildly creative, an AI-and-floristry program that blew Randy away, and a main-stage program built to take monumental designs and show how they become marketable, sellable work back in the shop.
Built for first-timers
Lori shared something sobering: when she asked longtime attendees about their first symposium, a couple admitted that decades ago they felt like outsiders among the "elite." Vonda and Randy are determined that Elevate is the opposite. From the registration desk on, they want every newcomer embraced — Bill McKinley is designing an interactive lobby meant to pull people in from the moment they arrive — and they're asking every AIFD member to watch for anyone who looks lost or new. At the Palm Springs teaser they handed out clickers to count acts of kindness, a running tally of people elevating each other. Lori's own first symposium proves the point: she wasn't a designer and never plans to be, but a volunteer at a sign-up table told her "we need everybody — anybody with hands and feet," and she's felt like part of the industry ever since.
Who should go
Everyone, is the honest answer. Randy says whether you're brand new and hungry or twenty years in and burnt out, there's a takeaway for you — a mechanic, a technique, or just the spark of watching how a piece came together. Vonda invested in symposium every year even before she owned her shop, because it powered her enthusiasm for the whole next year — and for anyone considering testing, she passes along the advice she once received: AIFD accreditation isn't a stopping point, it's your license to learn. Even if you never touch a design bench, the main stage will change how you sell over the phone. And in the lightning round, Randy delivered the line of the episode: given the choice between elevating creativity and elevating confidence, choose confidence — because confidence elevates creativity all by itself.
Key takeaways
- Registration for AIFD Symposium Elevate 2026 in Orlando is open now — and planning it is a three-year, full-time labor of love.
- The skills that make big events work are people skills, organization, and technology — design talent alone isn't enough.
- Every program was chosen to fit the Elevate theme: when you elevate others, you elevate yourself.
- Symposium isn't just for designers — anyone who loves this industry will leave inspired, from shop owners to the person answering the phone.
- Elevate confidence first; creativity follows.