What is the importance of going to a conference, what could one ever learn about what I do here in Minnesota from going to California- everything is so different there. Well I’ll tell you what I have experienced:
The inspiration: not only in the places you visit but the combinations of places in how they all are something more, something that can kindle (or re-kindle) a fire with you about a plant, product or style. That it comes from experiencing samples of the very thing that we all create- great landscape designs!e people out there across the country that have been, or will be, where you are in your practice and to connect in a way that can only really happen face to face.
The education: there are seminars and gardens that can bring to you something you didn’t know before or needed to know more about, but it’s also about the education from your fellow designers too. Having their input about what you are experiencing now, or what has been an experience in the past in very important in growing better and stronger at what we do.
Just as you cant get the full effect of a landscape in pictures or in stories, you can’t get the full effect of what the conference is until you participate in it in person. I have to admit I was unsure if the trip would be worth it, but for all the reasons I have listed, and many more I know that my attendance of this year’s conference was a very important piece of shaping how I continue to grow in my own practice. I am grateful for the support of APLD and I look forward to many more events. . I have all ready made a commitment to myself to attend next years conference in Detroit!
Because of these and other organizations that I participate in I am a better designer. I am able to bring more to the table than if I just relied on my formal education from over a decade ago. Things are always changing, in how we should be doing things to how we should be thinking about them, I am glad to be a part of the larger ongoing learning process that only help grow the ability to provide people with great landscape design!