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GCAI Garden Centre Association of Ireland News Update
- 22 February 2013
1. GCAI are now the exclusive licencees in Ireland of Spookley, the square pumpkin concept. This tried & tested concept will bring a welcome boost to member centres during October & build connections with local schools as part of a pumpkin growing programme & inter schools challenge. We will trial this concept with a number of member centres during 2013, before launching fully in 2014. There are a couple of places left for enthusiastic & energetic members to take part in this trial. Those undertaking the trial will have a conference call with our US & UK partners in early March. To find out more please contact anne@gio.ie
2. The GCAI & Bord Bia will be hosting the International Garden Centre Association (IGCA) Congress in Ireland in 2014 & we have just waved goodbye to the IGCA board & administrators after a 4 day visit where delegates experienced elements of the proposed congress itinerary & venue for 2014. This was the biggest administrators meeting in the 60 year history of the IGCA, with 15 countries represented, all of whom had a wonderful experience & whom we hope will encourage over 200 garden centres to visit Ireland in August 2014. Luckily we had wonderful weather for the event and of course we told them that the weather is always like this in Ireland!
3. The administrators daily meetings are a key part of this annual event (each year they take place in the country that will host congress the following year) & I had the opportunity to meet with staff from garden centre associations across the globe (Japan, Germany, Canada, Australia, the UK, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Hungary, South Africa, Denmark, Italy, Spain, USA, Mexico). As a result, the GCAI will now be exploring several new beneficial member services, including a benchmarking programme & an eLearning initiative.
Source: HortiTrends News Room
