DC.MD.VA Chapter Hosts Successful Winter Workshops
Over the weekend of February 10th-12, 2005, the DC.MD.VA Chapter hosted a series of workshops focusing on business practice issues. Over 63 people attended across the span of three days, of which 36 were APLD members (either Associate or Certified), twelve were non-members and 15 were student members of APLD. Thirteen states (New Jersey, Michigan, Massachusetts, Texas, Connecticut, North Carolina, New York, Minnesota, Florida, Indiana, New Hampshire, Delaware, and Pennsylvania) were represented, in addition to DC, Maryland and Virginia.
All three speakers were well received, beginning with Jan-Marie Traynor on opening day. Professor Traynor, who teaches a wide range of classes at County College in Morris, New Jersey, presented a program called “Crunching the Numbers.” She focused on issues surrounding pricing out an installation plan, explaining the various factors landscape contractors need to take into account to make their business profitable, and facilitated a discussion of issues commonly faced by designers, including the ever-present question many of us often hear, “Can you give me a ballpark estimate of how much it will cost to landscape my yard?” (Her cogent response: “Ballparks are really big places!”)
On the second day, Joel Lerner, former President of APLD and a noted Washington Post columnist, author and local landscape designer, shared his outlook on marketing strategies and how to communicate effectively with prospective clients. Finding a specialty and contacting local media writers with suggestions for articles about your “hook” were among the topics he explored. Derek Fell, internationally noted landscape photographer and author of numerous books on horticultural subjects, closed out the programs on Saturday to an enthusiastic audience. Emphasizing the different kinds of shots needed to convey the sense of a garden for portfolio purposes, Fell’s lecture was illustrated with beautiful shots of gardens from around the world. He recommended New Zealand gardens as an unsurpassed source of inspiration for designers and regaled the audience with anecdotes about forays into gardens public and private for Architectural Digest. The afternoon closed with slides of his own garden, Stone Ridge Farm in Pennsylvania, that were not only stunning in their own right but afforded a glimpse into his own design philosophy.
All the presentations received high marks from those attending. Participants also reported, however, that they valued highly the networking opportunities afforded by the workshops, particularly on issues of marketing and educating clients about paying for design time. So we learned from each other, as usual, as well as from our “experts,” and that opportunity will undoubtedly continue to be present in future APLD conferences and workshops in the future.
Left: Jan-Marie Traynor teaches workshop participants how to "crunch the numbers" when preparing estimates in the hands-on portion of her presentation on February 10th.
Below: Joel Lerner, APLD, discusses the finer points of marketing a design business with two workshop participants.
Over 63 people attended the three days of workshops, coming from thirteen states outside the Chapter area.
This page last updated 3/18/06