SAF Next Gen Recap with Ellie LaFever and Lori Wilson
This week the tables turn: Vonda plays interviewer, and Lori and Ellie LaFever take the guest seats to recap the Society of American Florists' Next Gen Conference in Miami. They came home both exhausted and energized — and convinced that this small, intentionally-designed gathering felt different from any floral conference they'd attended. Here's why.
Arrive early, lower the cortisol
The first lesson happened before the conference even started. Cheaper Friday flights gave Lori and Ellie all of Saturday to rehearse their Monday presentation — poolside, trading stories to pair with their statistics instead of cramming in reactive mode. By Sunday they were genuinely excited to present rather than panicky. As Ellie put it, taking that time to lower their cortisol levels made all the difference — a lesson Flower Clique has learned as a company: build in breathing room before the big thing.
Small enough that connections actually stick
With about 160 attendees, Next Gen flipped the usual conference math. Instead of one conversation and a business card you never look at again, you saw the same people ten times a day and dug a little deeper each time — their why, their goals, their common ground. SAF engineered it too: at Monday's lunch, staff stood at the doors with baskets of numbers, and you sat wherever you drew. Lori landed at a table full of people who had just attended her presentation, and by that evening they were on a first-name basis. First-timers who came alone didn't stay alone — during Q&A they stood up and boldly asked questions, something Lori found remarkable. And the thing neither of them saw anywhere: ego. Everybody let the veil down and showed up as their authentic selves, asking "what do you do, and how can I help?"
"There are people like me in this industry"
Ellie — who's been attending floral events since she was eleven — expected just another conference. Then, during introductions, she heard it over and over: second generation, third generation, fourth generation. "I am not alone" became her biggest takeaway, and she thinks it works both ways: legacy florists find instant common ground, and first-timers look around at people who have built lifelong careers here and think, maybe this isn't just a job — maybe it's a career.
One lunch conversation stuck with Lori most. A young manager raised mental health — the first time she'd ever heard it come up at a floral convention. He told the table he stays hyper-aware of when employees are struggling and has told his whole team: everyone needs a mental health day, just talk to me. The rest of the table leaned in. Mind, body, soul — this generation gets it.
Seventeen touches before your box arrives
The Armellini-hosted tour of flowers arriving in Miami almost lost out to a painfully early wake-up call (Ellie dragged Lori out of bed), but it was worth it. David Armellini explained that by the time a box of flowers reaches your shop, it has been physically touched about seventeen times — and if a bouquet gets pulled for inspection and bugs are found, it goes into a roughly four-hour fumigation required by law. That's why one bouquet in your box occasionally looks like it's been through the wringer, and why on-time boxes are honestly a small miracle.
Send your people
The strongest recommendation from both guests: if you own a shop, sending an employee to an event like this is a retention move. Lori told every solo attendee she met, "Your boss must adore you — they see something in you, or they wouldn't have spent this money." Show your team the industry is bigger than their small-town day job, and they'll want to stay in it. Next chance: SAF's convention in Orlando in September, where Next Gen is planning a happy hour. And nurturing this generation matters industry-wide — as Lori says, if we don't encourage them, they'll go do their own thing instead of joining SAF or AIFD.
Key takeaways
- Build unrushed prep time before you present or attend — energized beats reactive every time.
- Small conferences with built-in networking create relationships, not business-card piles.
- Bringing or sending an employee to an industry event is a powerful retention and career-building tool.
- Mental health is on the next generation's radar as managers — put it on yours.
- Your flower box is touched about 17 times before it reaches you; a little grace for late boxes goes a long way.