Dilly, Dally & Clique Conference Confessions: SAF Next Gen
Vonda's away, so Lori and Ellie have the mic to themselves — fresh off a meeting where Vonda's parting instruction was, in so many words, no dilly, no dally. (Lori has since spotted a sweatshirt reading "I like to dilly and I like to dally" and is considering it as merch.) They're calling this one Clique Conference Confessions, and Lori's opener has nothing to do with conferences: she volunteered to do the flowers for her daughter-in-law's cowboy-themed baby shower in Cleveland. The Flower Clique bundles shipped in (delayed, misrouted to the wrong state), the arrangements went into real cowboy boots and looked perfect — and the next morning, thanks to an overheated venue, 65% of the hydrangeas were dead beyond rescue. Lesson confirmed: she is no florist, she knows florists, and no amount of money buys back that sanity. Ellie can top it — at 17, doing a friend's sister's wedding, she stored all the hydrangea bouquets in a mini fridge overnight and woke on the wedding morning to find everything touching the walls had turned brown, forcing a morning-of remake. Hydrangeas: fickle forever.
Miami, twice: from cynics to converts
The Next Gen confessions start in 2022, the first conference, in Miami in the summer. The honest version: they only went because they'd been asked to speak, COVID was spiking again, and they half-joked in meetings that maybe a surge would cancel the whole thing. That's the state a lot of first-timers are in — why go to something you've never been to? You don't know what you don't know. Then the energy hit. With zero expectations ("when your starting point is no expectation, it can only go up"), the icebreakers did their job — including a lunch where numbered tables split Lori and Vonda up, which turned out to be the best thing that happened: Lori sat with a table of strangers who fired questions at her, and it became one of her favorite memories. That's the Next Gen design — roundtable moments at every lunch and happy hour — and it's why an owner can send one employee without worrying: an SAF ambassador or mentor always grabs them and plugs them in. The first-year field trip set the bar: the Miami airport tour, watching the cold chain in action — flowers inspected, imported, and moved — with the surreal bonus of spotting Flower Clique's own boxes in the operation. ("We're one tiny piece of this whole thing, but we have a piece.") Advice for the ages: there's always a happy hour the night before the field trip. Make it on that bus anyway. Lori was passing out Zofran; they made it. 2023 was Miami déjà vu — same hotel, same pool — with tours of Petal Productions and other South Florida operations that sent them home with camera rolls full of production-line inspiration that shaped later Flower Clique photo shoots.
San Diego and Dallas: vulnerability and Buc-ee's
2024 in San Diego brought the flower fields and the flower market — windy bus rides, drone demos, and the realization of how many hands (mostly strong, generational family businesses) touch every stem before it reaches a shop. It also brought a safari-themed costume night (the hosts wore ears; everyone else went all in — embrace it) and Lori's session on empathy, which turned into something like a therapy session. Her biggest confession about Next Gen: there's an intimacy there she's never felt at any other industry event, because the younger generations aren't afraid to be vulnerable. It's a safe space — many attendees come without their bosses, so there's no such thing as a question that gets you in trouble — and that's exactly what fosters real growth. Ellie's San Diego confession: the roller-skating outing, her first time on skates since age 10, ended in an immediate splat (SAF's Kate Penn, meanwhile, crushed it) — and Derek Woodruff thinks skating should open every Next Gen, because it quite literally breaks the ice. 2025 in Dallas flew by: the botanical garden, plus dinner at Dr. Delphinium with their floral art exhibition and small-group "pods" on marketing and design that made a big group feel absorbable. Lori's Dallas highlight: driving meant Buc-ee's snacks for everyone.
Raleigh 2026: what's coming February 22–24
This year Next Gen lands in Raleigh, kicking off Sunday afternoon, February 22, with icebreakers, sessions, a happy hour, dinner, and a competition. Monday is the full education day: wellness at 7:45 a.m. (pushed later every year by popular demand), a trend lab from Talmage sponsored by Accent Decor, Survivor: Floral Edition with Karina sponsored by Details, and the always-valuable trends-and-challenges open forum with Irving and Megan — the session you leave with pages of notes. Tuesday's field trip continues the behind-the-scenes tradition with a new angle: NC State's research facilities — the College of Agriculture, the plant science building, and the horticulture field labs — a look at the science driving the future of floriculture. It ends at 3 p.m., so the whole trip is two nights, back home by Wednesday. Sunday's theme night is "Next Gen U": rep your alma mater — college gear, school colors, or, if you didn't go the traditional route, SAF is your university (merch may be up their sleeves). There's a built-in break around 4:15 to change; Ellie's hunting for a pink letterman jacket. The bittersweet confession: for the first time since 2022, the wingmen are splitting up — Ellie will be in Raleigh solo while Lori teaches at Great Lakes and Vonda heads to the Illinois State convention in mid-March. (The FaceTime-Lori-into-the-expo-booth plan is still on the table.) Their closing word, unpaid and unsponsored: if you're on the fence — for yourself, an employee, or a son or daughter with one foot out of the industry — this event gets the second foot in. Connect, relate, and realize there are young people in this industry, and it's up to all of us to keep it going. Learn more about Next Gen 2026 and get registered here.
Key takeaways
- Going in a skeptic is normal — go anyway. No expectations means it can only go up, and the icebreakers do the heavy lifting.
- Send an employee without worry: ambassadors and mentors make sure nobody stands alone unless they want to.
- Make it on the field-trip bus. From the Miami airport to the flower fields to NC State, the behind-the-scenes tours are the goods.
- Next Gen's superpower is a safe space for vulnerability — the questions people actually need answered get asked there.
- Raleigh runs Feb 22–24, 2026: two nights, done by 3 p.m. Tuesday, alma mater theme night included.