FOURTH ANNUAL SLOW FLOWERS SUMMIT TO PARTNER WITH BAY AREA’S FILOLI
The Summit expands to 2-1/2 days of design inspiration, creative floral installations,
branding insights and conversations about sustainable floristry
June 28-30, 2020
Debra Prinzing, founder and creative director of Slow Flowers LLC, announced a new West Coast venue partnership and program details of the fourth annual SLOW FLOWERS SUMMIT, coinciding with the sixth American Flowers Week campaign.
“The SLOW FLOWERS SUMMIT serves the progressive floral community of designers, growers, farmer-florists, wholesalers, retailers and flower lovers,” says Prinzing, producer of the Summit and founder of the Slow Flowers Movement. Teresa Sabankaya, owner of Bonny Doon Garden Co., in Santa Cruz, Calif., will serve as co-host of the Summit.
“As an inclusive gathering for creative floral professionals, the SUMMIT reflects the mission of Slow Flowers: “To change the flower sourcing practices of consumers and professionals through outreach and education that highlights the benefits of local, seasonal and domestic floral agriculture.”
For 2020, the SUMMIT returns to the West Coast with a strategic partnership with Filoli Historic House and Garden in Woodside, Calif., outside San Francisco. “We are so excited for the opportunity to immerse ourselves in the beauty and legacy of this Bay Area cultural institution,” Prinzing said. “Summit attendees, speakers, sponsors and guests will spend two full days experiencing the historic residence, as well as Filoli’s legendary landscape and cutting gardens. We also will have unprecedented access to design a ‘floral takeover’ in ‘The House,’ California’s most triumphant example of the Georgian Revival tradition and one of the finest remaining country estates of the early 20th century.”
On June 30, 2020, the SUMMIT will be hosted in San Francisco by Christina Stembel, founder and CEO of Farmgirl Flowers, who invites attendees to an exclusive, behind-the-scenes morning tour and presentation at Farmgirl Flowers’ HQ. Stembel is a past keynote speaker of the Summit and was recently named to the San Francisco Business Times’ Most Admired CEOs of 2019.
Prinzing developed the SUMMIT as an alternative to conventional floral conferences and as an interactive “live” component to the virtual American Flowers Week campaign (June 28-July 4). AFW devotes a week of activity via regional events and social media platforms to promote domestic flowers, raise consumer awareness and unite America’s flower farmers with the U.S. floral industry.
SPEAKERS:
Keynote speaker Susan Mcleary, an Ann Arbor, Michigan-based floral designer, artist and author, will kick off the Slow Flowers Summit lecture series with an original, highly personal presentation that shares and encourages attendees with her approach to nurturing and sustaining a creative life. Sue’s floral design demonstration will be followed by a signing for her first book, The Art of Wearable Flowers.
A panel will follow, featuring the voices and artistry of three farmer-florists, moderated by Kellee Matsushita-Tseng of the Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems in Santa Cruz. With panelists Molly Culver of Brooklyn-based Molly Oliver Flowers and Emily Saeger of Filoli’s Horticulture Program, they will present Sustainable Farming x Floral Design, discussing how roots in floral agriculture influence and inspire their floral art. Each will design a signature floral arrangement using all local-and seasonal ingredients.
Artist and designer, writer, editor and educator Lorene Edwards Forkner is a columnist for the Seattle Times’ weekly gardening column and author of five garden books, including Handmade Garden Projects. Lorene’s interactive presentation is inspired by her Instagram series, Seeing Color in the Garden, found @gardenercook.
Oakland-based Pilar Zuniga, owner of Gorgeous & Green, is a floral designer known for her sustainable practices, local sourcing and vivid aesthetic. Pilar has lectured on sustainability and entrepreneurship at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and she will discuss Branding the Sustainable Floral Business followed by a design demonstration of her iconic floral style.
Capstone speaker Jennifer Jewell is the is the creator and host of Cultivating Place, an award-winning public radio program and podcast about natural history and the human impulse to garden. She is based in Chico, Calif. Jennifer’s presentation is drawn from her new book, The Earth In Her Hands, 75 Extraordinary Women Working in the World of Plants, and centers on women transforming horticulture around the world.
Tickets to the 2-1/2-day event are $599, including refreshments, meals and evening receptions. Slow Flowers members receive discounted pricing of $549.
Pre-Registration is available at slowflowerssummit.com
EARLY BIRD REGISTRATION CONTINUES THROUGH DECEMBER 31ST
Slow Flowers Members: $449 (will go up to $549 on Jan 1st)
General Registration: $499 (will go up to $599 on Jan 1st)
About the organizer:
Debra Prinzing is a Seattle-based writer, speaker and leading advocate for American Grown Flowers. Through her many Slow Flowers-branded projects, she has convened a national conversation that stimulates consumers and professionals alike to make conscious choices about their floral purchases.
Debra is the producer of SlowFlowers.com, the online directory to American grown farms, florists, shops and studios who supply domestic and local flowers.
Each Wednesday, approximately 2,500 listeners tune into Debra’s “Slow Flowers Podcast,” available for free downloads at her web site, debraprinzing.com, or on iTunes and via other podcast services. She is the author of 10 books, including Slow Flowers and The 50 Mile Bouquet.
About FILOLI:
Filoli is a country house set in 16 acres of formal gardens surrounded by a 654-acre estate, located in Woodside, California, about 25 miles south of San Francisco, at the southern end of Crystal Springs Reservoir, on the eastern slope of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Now owned by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Filoli is open to the public. The site is both a California Historical Landmark and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.