42nd Annual Meeting Program
Honing
your
Competitive
edge
42nd Annual Meeting
located at The Hotel Monteleone
New Orleans, Louisiana.
October 16-October 17th, 2013
Tuesday, October 15
2:00p - 3:00p Standards Committee Meeting
3:30p - 5:00p Certification Committee Meeting
5:00p Dinner on Your Own
Wednesday, October 16
8:00a - noon Board of Directors Meeting
1:00p Opening Welcome
1:15p The Crow Report
David Crow is the Council’s man on Capitol Hill who will share his
insider’s view of what is happening with legislative and regulatory
issues that will impact your business. From the Administration’s
energy policies that threaten mulch & soil industry raw materials to
Obamacare to the impending budget deficit battles that will impact
markets and the economy, hear what you can do to protect your business.
Speaker: David Crow, DCLRS, Washington, DC
2:00p Coffee Break
2:30p How to Use Coir As An
Alternative Raw Material
We will investigate the uses of COIR as an additional choice of
substrates for product manufacturing. Our expert speaker will discuss
growing, creating substrates, fertilization, processing and other key
issues to help mulch & soil producers understand options for product
planning and formulation. Speaker: Ludo van Boxem, Chief
International Trade Officer, Van der Knaap Group, Belgium
4:00p MSC Annual Membership Meeting
Join us for our annual membership meeting with committee reports,
elections and other business. MSC will announce an alternative to
product certification through a special plant recognition program
for bulk product producers.
6:00p Supplier Reception
Spend time with friends and suppliers over cocktails as we review
the latest product offerings from MSC Affiliate Member companies.
7:30p Evening on Your Own
Thursday, October 17
8:00a What Do Biostimulants Offer for
the Mulch & Soil Industry
What are biostimulants? What form do they take? What impact
do they have on growth? How do they impact fertilization, plant
growth, disease resistance and stress effects? Most important,
what can biostimulants offer mulch & soil producers for product
improvements and innovation? Speaker: Brian Cornelious, Agricen,
Inc., Pilot Point, TX
9:00a Coffee Break
9:30a Plant Safety & Its
Impact on Your Business
Plant safety has a direct impact on the bottom line from lost time for
workers to insurance premiums and more. Our speaker will present
the process and pitfalls of how they created a safety program that
resulted in no recordable lost time injuries for 20 consecutive years.
Speaker: Don Dugger, Plant Manager, The Scotts Company,
Lawrenceville, VA
Download PDF of presentation
Download Audio of presentation
10:15a Coffee Break
10:45a Lawn & Garden Market Trends
Understanding markets is key to expanding sales, but where are we
now? This program will look at where the L&G industry is trending
for the next 5-10 years, debunk myths about Gen X & Y gardeners,
identify future growth platforms, and discuss 6 distinct consumer
“personas” that will help you understand key market segments.
Speaker: Kip Creel, Standpoint, Inc., Atlanta, GA
Download PDF of presentation
12:00p Keynote Luncheon
& Featured Speaker
Innovation for a Competitive Edge
Grow your business! In these sessions you’ll learn about tools you
can use to better connect with your customers and to grow the value
of your company. By focusing on your customers’ needs in new
ways, you can differentiate your company from the competition.
Companies typically focus on product innovation, which is only
one of 10 types of innovation, and is the type most easily copied.
Understanding the other 9 types has allowed top innovators to create
bolder, more valuable and more sustainable innovations.
Learn from what many of the leading innovators are doing
today, and apply these insights to your business right after the conference.
Our speaker led one of the most influential innovation firms,
Doblin (now a part of Deloitte), for over a decade. He will share
with us insights from his work with over 100 of the Fortune 500
companies. Speaker: Todd McCullough, McCullough Partners
LLC, Brentwood, TN
Download PDF of presentation
1:30p Coffee Break
2:00p Innovation for a
Competitive Edge – Part 2
We continue our previous session with market review and a practical
demonstration of innovation techniques you can take home and
use. Speakers: Todd McCullough & Kip Creel
Download PDF of presentation
3:30p Coffee Break
4:00p Bulk Inventory
Measurement Challenges
Taxes, production planning, company valuation, cost assessments
and more are all important times you need to know how much
product you have in bulk piles. Estimating too much or too little
can have costly consequences, but getting an accurate assessment
of bulk inventories can be extremely difficult. Our panel of industry
representatives will discuss the methods they use to determine bulk
inventories and how you can learn from their successes and pitfalls. Panelists: Kathryn Louis, Sun Gro Horticulture, Bellevue, WA;
John Leber, Swanson Bark & Wood Products, Longview, WA;
Scott Salmon, Oldcastle Lawn & Garden Inc., Atlanta, GA;
John Wohler, The Scotts Company, Marysville, OH.
Download PDF of Oldcastle's presentation
Download PDF of SunGro's presentation
Download PDF of Swanson's presentation
Download PDF of Kathryn Louis's presentation
5:00p President’s Reception
Join us for a final session of networking, food & cocktails as we
wrap up our annual meeting and review what we learned.
6:30p Meeting Ends
Have a safe trip home.
