2023 Speakers and Sessions
Wholesaler Discussion Groups
Monday, March 6, 2023 | 10:00 AM - 12:30 PM
Faced with supply chain and logistical challenges, inventory management setbacks, shrinking margins, and e-commerce takeover, these discussions offered an opportunity to come together with floral industry counterparts to discuss these obstacles and how we can all work together to emerge with disruptive innovation to break through these barriers.
President’s Address and LTK Award
Tuesday, March 7, 2023 | 12:30 PM - 2:30 PM
WF&FSA leadership and floral industry colleagues joined for a warm welcome from WF&FSA’s President Patrick Busch. Attendees learned more about the association and successes happening throughout the floral community. The 2023 LTK award winner was unveiled, and we kicked off our much-anticipated industry-focused session.
Luncheon and General Session
Tuesday, March 7, 2023 | 12:30 PM - 2:30 PM
Presenter: Alex Chausovsky
Building an Effective Talent Strategy: Proven Tactics to Attract, Hire and Retain Your Most Valuable Asset
Sponsored by Continental Flowers
The war for talent is escalating. Some organizations are ill-prepared to handle the challenges of an increasingly complex labor market, shackled by the “we’ve always done it this way” mentality. Others are thriving, armed with analytical insights and surrounded by allies, allowing them to snap up and retain high-performing impact players and supercharge their growth. What kind of organization are you? More importantly, what kind do you want to be in the future?
This presentation delivered key insights designed to help business leaders and decision-makers elevate their talent-focused activities. The session will:
- Provide a current and insightful assessment of labor market conditions
- Identify the key elements that make an organization attractive to top talent
- Share best-in-class hiring strategies including metrics and practices
- Convey the top factors that drive talent retention
- Deliver practical and actionable advice on what businesses can do to become better at attracting, hiring, and retaining workers
Following the presentation, Alex was joined by WF&FSA members for a panel discussion on workforce development in the floral industry. This panel featured:
- Holly Moore, Syndicate Sales
- Erin Schueller, Len Busch Roses
- Kenzie Huber, DWF
About Alex
Alex Chausovsky is the director of analytics and consulting with the Miller Resource Group.
He is a highly experienced market researcher and analyst with more than twenty years of expertise across subjects including economics, industrial manufacturing, automation, and advanced technology trends. For the last two decades, he has consulted and advised companies throughout the US and Canada, Europe, South America, and Asia.
He has delivered hundreds of keynote presentations and webinars to small businesses, trade associations, and Fortune 500 companies across a spectrum of industries. Alex is currently overseeing a suite of analytics products focused on talent for the Miller Resource Group. He is also consulting with companies to help them become better at attracting, hiring, and retaining the impact players in their industry.
About Holly
Holly Moore is Director of Human Resources for Syndicate Sales, a manufacturer and distributor of floral hard goods based in Kokomo, IN for over 75 years. Holly has over 30 years of executive-level HR experience in the technology, healthcare, auto racing, and most recently the floral industry. She joined the Syndicate leadership team in 2016 driving recruitment of top talent, training & development of Syndicate’s next generation, competitive compensation & benefits, and providing motivating performance management programs for Syndicate’s 200+ valued team members. She serves as chair on the Ivy Tech Community College Advisory Council for Industrial Technology, and board member of Indiana Regional Workforce Development. A born and bred Hoosier, Holly is a graduate of Indiana University – Bloomington with a BS in Public Policy and Employment Law. She resides in Carmel with her husband and enjoys historical fiction audiobooks, sporting events, live music, and hiking. She and Mark are blessed with a daughter, a son, and a son-in-law.
About Kenzie
Kenzie Huber is the Human Resources (HR) Manager for The Denver Wholesale Florists Company (DWF), a national floral wholesaler with 15 locations throughout the US. Her background in floral, data analytics, public relations and internal communications has contributed to her approach to HR. She continues to model and influence a company culture of kindness, compassion, and respect at DWF.
One of Kenzie’s favorite seasons of life is when she managed a local Denver flower shop while finishing her bachelor's degree in Integrated Brand Strategy and Public Impact at MSU Denver. The relationships she built as a retail florist provided the necessary recruiting perspective to lead DWF’s talent acquisition strategy. Prior to Kenzie joining DWF, she was an HR Communications Analyst developing and executing data-driven campaigns for a Fortune 500 health care company. This innovative communication style quickly became crucial in getting the right information, at the right time, to frontline employees navigating unprecedented times in a global pandemic.
Kenzie currently lives in Denver, Colorado with her husband, Ben, and their St. Berdoodle puppy, Roux. Their hearts are full as they prepare to welcome their first child into their family July 2023. You can usually find the Hubers spending quality time with loved ones, cooking extravagant meals, and exploring outside!
About Erin
Erin Schueller is the Manager of Human Resources for Len Busch Roses. Located in Plymouth, MN since 1965, Len Busch Roses grows, sources, and delivers cut flowers, plants and indoor floral supplies in the upper Midwest to independent retail florists and mass market retailers. After almost 15 years developing young people as a youth minister, Erin made a career switch in 2019 to Human Resources to coach and develop employees at Len Busch Roses. A knack for assessing talent, she has developed a process and a team to help this growing business recruit and retain employees in an increasingly difficult market. She is passionate about training and supporting leaders with techniques for building trust, providing meaningful feedback, and preparing employees for their current role and beyond. Erin is a graduate of the University of Minnesota – Carlson School of Management with Master’s in Human Resources and Industrial Relations. She lives near Minneapolis with her husband, two kids, two dogs, and two cats. In her free time, you’ll often find her at concerts, hiking trails in her neighborhood, or cheering on her daughter at a volleyball tournament.
WF&FSA Business Session
Wednesday, March 8, 2023 | 9:30 AM – 11:00 AM
Presenter: Jeff Havens
Uncrapify Your Future
Sponsored by Pete Garcia Company / Garcia Group
Uncrapify Your Future! The Most Innovative Innovation Keynote in the History of Ever
If you’ve listened to anyone talk about innovation recently, you’ve probably heard something along these lines: “The world is changing at a crazy fast rate. Everything you’re doing now is about to become obsolete. If you don’t come up with some amazing, industry-changing ideas in the next 18 seconds, your business is basically going to disappear. Have a nice day.” And if that’s the kind of doomsayer message that you and your friends love hearing, then you can stop reading now.
But if you’d like to present innovation as a simple process that literally everyone is capable of performing, then you might want to listen to Uncrapify Your Future! Filled with the trademark wit that has made Jeff Havens one of the most in-demand speakers in North America, Uncrapify Your Future! made the process of coming up with new ideas easier and more rewarding than you ever thought possible. Because it turns out that every innovation in every industry – from automobiles to streaming music, coffee cup holders to wartime treaties – follows the same straightforward pattern. Your business is always changing, and so you will always need people to anticipate and capitalize on those changes. If you want them to think that being innovative is a daunting task that only a few elites can handle, listen to someone else.
Partial List of Takeaways from Uncrapify Your Future: • The three-step process that every innovation throughout all human history has inevitably followed • The one and only barrier to innovative thought, and how to overcome it • Case studies of various innovative products and ideas – which any one of your audience members could conceivably have come up with on their own • Reframing the entire concept of innovation from “big ideas that change the world” to “small ideas that slowly become big ideas that eventually change the world”
About Jeff
Jeff Havens is not your typical business growth expert. His uncanny ability to provide actionable answers to today’s business challenges in an undeniably entertaining and impactful way has put him in front of over 1,000 eager audiences across North America and Asia. Delivering well-researched and relevant business insight is something a lot of keynote speakers do but combining that with the entertainment value of a comedy show is not. Engaging, charismatic, and full of energy, Jeff Havens is the only business growth expert who provides serious solutions in a seriously funny way.
But even more than that, Jeff makes things easy. All of us are constantly being asked to do more with less, so the last thing you need is someone to tell you how difficult your challenges are. Jeff has a unique ability to simplify seemingly complex problems in a way that will provide your audience with a fresh perspective, one that runs counter to the conventional wisdom of the business world. He’ll show you that we’re not actually creating a completely new type of person every 15 years, that being innovative is not something only a few special people know how to do, and that both exceptional leadership and exceptional customer experiences are built on surprisingly slender foundations. You will leave Jeff’s keynotes refreshed, relaxed, happy, and more confident than ever that you are prepared for the road ahead.
