ATLANTA — As I entered the huge World Congress Center, here, I was swept up into a sea of humanity flowing down escalators to the exposition hall of the 2016 PMA Fresh Summit. It reminded me of Black Friday shopping, when the crowd surrounding you determines the direction of your journey. After entering the gigantic exhibit hall, the crowd spread out in all directions to visit the 1,060 exhibitors covering 267,000 square feet of floor space. Like an open-air market, the scene was bright, noisy and filled with festive energy.

At the heart of the exhibition hall, right in the center of all of the activity, was the Floral Pavilion where more than 85 companies displayed a diverse array of floral-related products to visiting retailers, buyers and supermarket executives. There were many new exhibitors at this year’s show, including Meshdecor of Orlando, FL, which was recognized with the Best First-Time Exhibitor Award. There was a genuine welcoming attitude demonstrated by all the exhibitors as they enthusiastically greeted attendees.

Marcella Lucio-Chinchilla, vice president of sales and marketing at Silver Vase in Homestead, FL, told The Produce News that having the Floral Pavilion in the middle of the produce show helped attract both segments of the industry. “You not only see floral buyers, but you also see other decision-makers, vice presidents, presidents and directors come through, and they get an opportunity to see what the floral industry is doing and they can go back and compare that with what their stores are doing,” said Lucio-Chinchilla. “For us, it was a great show.”

Another satisfied exhibitor also shared his impressions with The Produce News. “In fact, I just wrote an order that I didn’t even know was coming and it covered my whole expense for the show,” said the unnamed hardgoods exhibitor.

A full day of educational seminars for the floral community included topics on color trends to guide your business, building the model supply chain, and understanding generational buying patterns. Joe Don Zetzsche, chairman at the PMA Floral Council told The Produce News the education sessions were very powerful. “I took a huge amount of notes,” said Zetzsche. “My largest takeaway was conversation from the panel about e-commerce, and the need to be very careful about having too many SKUs, and knowing the analytics of every single SKU. This is critical for every floral business I think, and we often focus on variety for variety’s sake, to the detriment of this.”

One of the highlights of the Fresh Summit was the floral networking reception where the annual PMA Floral Marketer of the Year award was presented. Now in its 35th year, the award recognizes an outstanding floral professional who has served the mass-market floral industry with dedication and distinction. Following tradition, last year’s recipient presented the award.

Samuel Ferrara, co-founder at Passion Flowers in Miami, in a very emotional introduction, announced Bonnie Armellini, owner at Gems Global, as the 2015 Floral Marketer of the Year. “Bonnie helped build the floral industry from those early days when supermarkets were just trying to figure out how to sell flowers,” said Ferrara during the presentation ceremony. “She also paved the way to service mass markets with flowers from South America. Bonnie is an industry leader, an innovator and — something that everyone knows her comments on — an individual with the highest integrity.”

Zetzesche was obviously impressed and moved by the award ceremony. “Seeing her reaction — and seeing that nearly everyone in the room was crying and nodding and so very happy for her — really was a wonderful moment,” said Zetzesche.

Reflecting on my time at the 2015 PMA Fresh Summit in Atlanta, and considering all the conversations I had with industry professionals there, I realized this was the first show I’ve attended in the past several years where I didn’t hear one negative comment or complaint about any aspect of the show. It was a well-run trade fair and PMA’s floral focus is definitely on the right track.

Next October the 2016 PMA Fresh Summit will be held in Orlando, FL, and more expansion is being planned. “Fresh Summit will have an even larger Floral Pavilion next year, and PMA is working to allow even more new companies to find space,” Zetzesche told The Produce News. “That said, we always sell out early and have a waiting list -- so if you want to attend the show, you need to get in fast.”