Italy's Trautmansdorff Castle Gardens - the future of botanical gardens

I'm excited to attend the 2015 North American Garden Tourism Conference in Toronto on Monday and Tuesday. I've been invited to speak on a panel on Monday on Garden Tourism Awards – How They Have Made a Difference.

Conference organizer Michel Gauthier in MY garden
during Garden Walk Buffalo in 2013.

It's a bit of a self-serving topic for the conference – they being the only ones that give out garden tourism awards. It's a panel, so no one will have to go too in-depth on the topic – probably just strategies on how to leverage awards into marketing and fundraising.

I'll certainly learn from the other panel participants:  moderator Abby Spencer, Director of Marketing American Public Gardens Association, USA;  Kathy Gibler, Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden, Canada; Darren Heimbecker, Whistling Gardens Botanical Garden, Canada; Dr. Heike Platter, Director Marketing & Corporate Strategy The Gardens of Trauttmansdorff Castle, Italy; and Beth Monroe, Director of Public Relations and Marketing Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, USA.

Me and Italy's Dr. Heike Platter, in Italy.

The only panelist I've met before is Italy's Dr. Heike Platter. I met her in 2013 during this conference, and I visited Trauttmansdorff Castle in Northern Italy in 2014. When you're married to a flight attendant, and someone from another country says you must visit, few believe know there's a very likely chance I'll show up! You can see/read my posts of the The Gardens of Trauttmansdorff Castle:

• Italy's Trautmansdorff Castle Gardens - the future of botanical gardens
• Columnar apple trees, extinct trees, and a time machine
• Gardens from up on high
• Art in a botanical park
• A deadly and ghoulish garden in Italy...

I'm looking forward to seeing some familiar faces – Conference organizer Michel Gauthier, Keynote speaker Richard Benfield, Heike, Lorraine Flanigan, and Veronica Sliva, among others.

Sally Cunningham, then director of the National Garden Festival
(beautiful in blue); Ed Healy, VP of Marketing for
Visit Buffalo Niagara (in the nice tie, above); and myself
(with all the gray, above) accepted the award
on behalf of the Festival's organizers and volunteers.

I'm also looking forward to meeting the director of the Director of Operations of the Vallarta Botanical Garden in Mexico, Jesus Reyes - since we'll be going to Puerto Vallarta next month! One more international garden to visit!

In 2013, The National Garden Festival (which I co-founded) and Garden Walk Buffalo (of which I was president for seven years) won the Conference's "Promotion of the Year Award." Last year it went to the National Garden Scheme, United Kingdom. In 2012, it went to Downtown Gardens, Centre Eaton Montréal, Montreal, QC.

But mostly, I'm looking forward to some of the seminars offered:

• KEYNOTE: How Gardens are Making a Difference in the World of Tourism
  Dr. Richard Benfield, Professor of Geography, Connecticut State University; author of Garden Tourism; Chair, International Garden Tourism Network, USA 
• How Longwood Gardens is Making a Tourism Difference
  Paul Redman, Executive Director, Longwood Gardens, USA
• Heritage Gardens – Making a Tourism Difference (panel)
  Marie Lalonde, Executive Director, Ontario Museum Association. Canada
  Trish Fry, Manager, Annapolis Royal Historic Gardens. Canada
  Kris Dimnik, Period Gardener, Bellevue House National Historic Site. Canada
• Making a Garden Tourism Difference in Japan
  Takano Fumiaki, Hokkaido Garden Show Daisetsu 2015, Japa
•  

  

  Keynote Speaker Richard Benfield
  at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Buffalo for a talk
  on garden tourism. He's being laughed at by
  Visit Buffalo Niagara's (our tourism bureau's)
  Karen Fashana.

• KEYNOTE: Toronto Botanical Garden – Making Plans to Make a Difference
  Harry Jongerden, Executive Director, Toronto Botanical Garden. Canada
• Making a Difference by Understanding What Makes People Visit Gardens
  Dr. Dorothy Fox, Lecturer Events Management, Bournemouth University, UK
• British Columbia’s New Garden Tourism Development Strategy
  Dave Cowen, General Manager, The Butchart Gardens and Chair BC Garden Tourism Society, Canada
• KEYNOTE: Making a Difference with the Disney Garden Experience
  Katy Moss‐Warner, President Emeritus, American Horticultural Society; Vice President, American in Bloom Board of Directors and Past Director Disney Horticulture and Environmental Initiatives, US
• How to Get Gardeners Excited About Visiting Gardens – From a Publishing Perspective
  Lorraine Flanigan, Garden Tourism Journalist of the Year (2014), Canada
  Michael Fox, Publisher, Garden Making Magazine, Canada
• Vallarta Botanical Garden – Making a Tourism Difference in Puerto Vallarta
  Jesús Reyes, Director of Operations, Vallarta Botanical Garden, Mexico
• How Garden Tourism is Making a Difference in Australia & New Zealand
  Janelle Hatherly, Education & Interpretation Specialist; Managing Editor THE BOTANIC GARDENer, Botanic Gardens of Australia and New Zealand, Australia
• Developing Garden Tour Packages – What Tourists are Looking For
  Andrée Boisvert, Commercial Director, Misa Tours International, Canada
  Paul Nursey, President & CEO, Tourism Victoria,  Canada
• KEYNOTE: Making Your Garden Relevant to the Tourism Industry
  Pascal Garbe, Gardens without Limits Conference, France 

For the complete conference agenda, visit here. To see the list of presenters and their bios, visit here.

These topics are right up my alley. Garden Walk Buffalo Niagara is sponsoring my trip and conference fees (thank you!). and hopefully I'll come back with plenty of ideas on how to make garden "experiences" in the Buffalo Niagara region world class.