We’re feeling the same here at Greenhouse Grower, and in particular, taking stock of our approach to Greenhouse Grower’sSM GROW Initiative. After a decade of success, we’re taking the opportunity to rethink and refocus GROW for the coming year and beyond.
The GROW Initiative launched in 2011 with a mandate to help the greenhouse industry bounce back from economic and market pressures. Since then, GROW has brought together key players and helped growers enhance production efficiency and quality, sharpen business management, and grow awareness and demand for floriculture products.
Yet, over the last 10 years, our industry and the world around us have evolved. New crops. New customers. New business realities. The GROW Initiative must evolve with them.
To this point, the mission of GROW has been relatively broad in scope, tackling everything from production issues to consumer messaging to growing demand for greenhouse products. We’ve spent the past several months talking with people from all facets of the industry and determined the clear path forward for GROW will be to sharpen our focus more directly on you, the grower, and the most pressing needs you have in your business.
Shared Success
The new imperative for Greenhouse Grower’s GROW Initiative is building a community — greenhouse growers, suppliers, and industry professionals collaborating on strategies and solutions critical to sustainable growth in today’s unique business environment.
GROW today includes all controlled-environment greenhouse businesses, regardless of crop. Tapping into experts from the greenhouse industry and elsewhere, GROW focuses on developing the higher-level business strategies you need to succeed, dealing with:
- Managing a business in extremely volatile and uncertain market conditions
- Labor and change management
- Razor–thin margins
- Rapidly changing retail and consumer markets
- Technology adoption, and more.
We’ll be bringing Greenhouse Grower’s full capabilities to bear with GROW. You’ll find valuable content here in the magazine each month. We’ll also be sharing regular digital features — video conversations, roundtable discussions, educational presentations, and other events. You’ll hear and learn from expert voices and innovative thinkers. And you’ll have an opportunity to actively participate, sharing your questions, your ideas, and your solutions with your peers.
Fresh Ideas for a New Era
All of this will build throughout the year, culminating in the first-ever GROW Executive Summit, Dec. 7-8, 2021, in Charlotte, NC.
This new, one-of-a-kind event will offer a venue for owners and senior-level managers across all controlled-environment specialty crops to come together, build networks, share insights, and take an informed look at the present and future with regard to common greenhouse business issues.
Thought leaders from the greenhouse market and other industries will provide insights and guide interaction on critical topics. The program — a mix of education, discussion, and high-level networking — will provide fresh perspectives and help you gain new insights for operating your greenhouse business. Everything about the GROW Executive Summit is being designed to create an intimate experience and maximize the exchange of information and ideas, while keeping the new realities of our world in mind and taking every step to ensure the comfort and safety of attendees.
We’re excited about this new vision for Greenhouse Grower’s GROW Initiative and the GROW Executive Summit. We think you will be too. Watch your mailbox and email over the next month as we kick things off with a special issue of Greenhouse Grower and the first digital programs for GROW. It’s the next step forward to tackle the most critical issues facing your business.
GROW Executive Summit Advisory Board
We’re collaborating with some of the industry’s most innovative minds to build content and programming for Greenhouse Grower’s GROW Initiative and the GROW Executive Summit.
- Chuck Buffington, Vice President of Sales, Berger
- Todd Downing, Managing Partner and Co-Founder, BEST Human Capital and Advisory Group
- Graham Farrar, CEO and Owner, Glass House Farms
- Steve Garvey, Head Grower, Dallas Johnson Greenhouse
- Casey Houweling, Owner, Houweling’s Tomatoes
- Dr. Erico Mattos, Executive Director, GLASE
- Marco Palma, Professor of Food and Resource Economics, Texas A&M University
- Suzanne Quintero, CEO, ForwardGro
- Art Van Wingerden, CEO and Co-Owner, Metrolina Greenhouses