Inside AIFD Symposium: What to Expect, Why It Matters & How It Inspires
With AIFD Symposium just a month away, Vonda and Lori sit down with two people who know it from the inside: Lori Novak — a Fellow of the Institute, recipient of AIFD's award for distinguished service, and coordinator of this year's symposium for the fourth time — and Frank Feysa, past AIFD president, Smithers-Oasis Design Director, and chair of the 2014 Chicago symposium. This year's event, themed "Reflection" (no S — though as Lori Novak laughs, she doesn't care how you spell it as long as you're posting and signing up), lands in Palm Springs and marks AIFD's 60th anniversary.
Two first symposiums, decades apart
Lori Wilson — the only non-AIFD member on the call — opens with the question everyone wonders: what was your first symposium like? Frank's was Chicago 2001, "Milestones." He went alone, knowing almost nobody, nudged into going by Deborah De La Flor after one of her programs — and, in his words, he drank the Kool-Aid. He hasn't missed a symposium since. Lori Novak's first was San Francisco in 1987 (the same year as Vonda's, it turns out), where designer Ron Morgan swapped kimonos with every design and left her convinced she'd found something unbelievable. She's missed only two symposiums since 1987 — once for a three-month-old baby, once for a family illness. The pattern all three describe: they went scared, went alone, and came home with a flower family they've kept for decades.
What symposium looks like in 2025
The event has evolved from a stage-show spectacle into a full education machine: this year brings 10 main-stage programs, eight workshops (including two master classes), six lectures, and a spotlight stage between sessions for partners. Jacob McCall opens the week with a program woven from his own journey and the friends made along the way. Five international designers are coming — designers who, as Lori Novak notes, have competed in World Cups yet still tell her they've never been on a stage like AIFD's. The Hawaiian group returns, and last year's "Windows team" of three new inductees jumped straight into presenting. Lectures range from wedding planner Renee Dalo to sessions on self-promotion and making some noise. Education now reaches every level — student chapters and a growing FFA partnership included — and Frank's framing is the best pitch: you can attend superficially for the wow factor or go deep into technique and theory. There's a niche for everybody, and you get out of it what you put in.
Fashion Week for florists
Lori Wilson offers the best outsider's case for attending — even for shop employees who will never seek accreditation. Symposium is New York Fashion Week for florists: you soak up the runway — color, technique, concepts that could never sell in your market at $500 — then go home and translate the inspiration into something you can sell for $125. Lori Novak agrees from her brick-and-mortar days: plenty of what she saw couldn't go straight into her shop, but the inspiration went in every day, and Vonda adds that the ideas keep resurfacing — at Christmas, next spring — fueling you for a full year. (Lori also pitches her big idea live on air: sell tickets to tour the flower room, brown-paper walkway and all, with proceeds to philanthropy. The hosts' verdict: you never know.)
The elephant in the room: cost
Vonda, the numbers lady, runs the math out loud. Full non-member registration is $1,574 — call it $1,600 — and includes two galas. Add the host hotel at $216 a night plus $14 parking, roughly $1,700 for four days, and you're at about $3,400 all-in for dozens of designers, programs, and parties. Compare that to single-day industry classes running $2,500–$3,500 and it's a bargain — with $79 two-hour hands-on classes (materials included), roughly $400 one-day passes, and evening workshops for anyone on a tight budget or timeline. Two deadlines to know: prices increase July 1, and the host-hotel room block expires June 15. Questions can go to info@aifd.org, and Lori Novak will personally take the calls. One more incentive straight from the episode: the first ten people who register between now and July 1 and come to the Flower Clique partner table with the password — "Frank" — get a $100 bill from Vonda. And to anyone hesitating about going alone: all three guests did exactly that their first time. First-timers are flagged at registration and invited to a dedicated reception, and the friendly faces you meet in your first row of seats tend to still be your people decades later. As Frank puts it, sign up for the workshops too — a session with a color guru like Gretchen Sell is worth the trip on its own.
Key takeaways
- Symposium works at every level: come for the main-stage wow, or go deep with workshops, master classes, and lectures.
- Think Fashion Week: absorb the over-the-top inspiration, then adapt it into designs that sell at your shop's price point.
- Run the numbers before saying "too expensive" — about $3,400 all-in for four days of education beats most one-day classes.
- Don't wait for a travel buddy: go alone, hit the first-timers reception, and start building your flower family.
- Register before the July 1 price increase and book inside the room block before June 15.