A Good Conference Should Fill Your Mind with Possibilities...

In my experience, a good professional conference is hard to come by. I’ve attended quite a few that offer a good presenter here and there, and perhaps one excellent talk that really inspires. More often, there are a lot of filler presentations that aren’t very applicable or are incredibly dry, you know the ones that I mean.

Last year I attended, the Best Practices for Pollinators Summit, put on by the Xerces Society and the Pollinator Friendly Alliance, and I have to admit, my mind was blown. I paid my 50 bucks and popped on zoom, to listen in for three days. I had assumed that not all of it would be of interest but because I was watching from home I could drift in and out and maybe catch a few interesting things that we could use in our planting design practice. To my great surprise I watched everything, and for the next year bits and pieces of what I had learned kept percolating in the back of my mind.

This last week, I attended my second Summit, hoping to repeat the experience. I wasn’t disappointed.

At the heart of it, you can’t just protect and encourage pollinators on their own. We all know that everything in nature is connected, each entity on the food web affects the next, but listening to these speakers, as a whole, reminds me just how complicated the web really is. And whether you’re trying to make better choices for hundreds of acres of conventional farmland, kilometres of roadside habitat, restoring savanna or planting urban parks and gardens, we are all facing the same issues. And they have a reach that goes far beyond insects alone.

So, over the next few months, as these thoughts work their way through my mind, I’ll do my best to share them with you. And who knows, maybe I’ll see some of you at next years Summit. Because, one of the things that I enjoy most about horticulture, is that you’re always learning, always evolving. Adjusting practices and trialing new ideas.

Have you attended a mind blowing conference lately? or have any favourite speakers, who’s talks you wouldn’t miss?

-Sara-Jane at Virens Studio