Change And The Next 30 Years Of The Greenhouse Industry [Opinion]

Laura Drotleff (right) and Robin Siktberg

Laura Drotleff (right) and Robin Siktberg

The December 2013 issue of Greenhouse Grower is all about change. Change for you and your greenhouse business and change for our industry as a whole. Some of these changes will be no-brainers. Some will be hard. Some will take a lot of imagination and creativity. But, we believe, in the end, they’re all changes for the better.

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Greenhouse Grower is evolving, too. One change you’ll notice soon is in our GROW initiative. Since we started GROW two years ago, our focus has been sharing ideas. We’ve devoted nearly 200 pages in the magazine and an equivalent amount of space online to great opinions, efforts and solutions from our industry and elsewhere that you can apply in your business.

And now we’re ready to take the next step with GROW to begin road-testing and implementing some new ideas of our own. That was the focus of this October’s GROW Summit.

We spent two days in a meeting room with thought-leaders from all areas of the greenhouse business, discussing what we can do as individuals, as a magazine brand and as an industry to begin engaging with new customers, particularly those elusive next generations of consumers we have yet to fully reach. The group discussion is continuing and we will have some actionable ideas to share with you throughout 2014.

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There’s one other important change to share with you as 2013 draws to a close. Robin Siktberg has made the difficult decision to take a step back and spend more at home with her family. She’ll still be involved with the magazine as a contributing writer on varieties and you’ll continue to see her byline in the pages of Greenhouse Grower in the coming months.

But we’re excited to announce that our new editor is a familiar face to many of you. Laura Drotleff, who spent nearly a decade with Greenhouse Grower as field editor and managing editor before taking some time off to start a family, rejoined our staff this summer.

Laura has traveled the country and the world visiting growers and breeders, learning about what’s important to you and your business. You’ll find Laura’s opinions in this column beginning in January.

We will miss having Robin with us on a daily basis, but we’re thrilled to have Laura’s experience and perspective leading Greenhouse Grower into the next 30 years. We know you will be, too.

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