A significant stage in the YPHA’s Launch Success Challenge was reached with completion of the product pitches. Kindly hosted by St Peters Garden Centre, Worcester, who provided the teams with use of their cosy yurt which made a fabulous venue.
The first day was spent refining presentations and receiving super supportive training from Boyd Douglas-Davies with a focus on pitch delivery. This time was valuable to the teams to allow them to run through all their hard work that has compiled over the last few months in response to the training provided on the Launch Success Challenge programme.
Training on the programme consisted of a wide range of topics from plant photography, plant labelling, product identity and commerciality, branding, content creation, costings, and more.
The two teams, Gream Team and Blue Team, received all their training separate to the other team which allowed open discussion and concept creation resulting in the product pitches being unique to one another as all ideas were kept undisclosed.
On the day of the pitch presentations the Green Team were up first. As they carried out the set up for their pitch the judges on the panel started to arrive. The panel consisted of:
- Bob Sweet – BBC Gardeners World Live Events – Horticultural Director
- Lucy Tremlett – BBC Gardeners World Live Events – Event Director
- Liz Dowling – Business Coach
- Micheal Perry (Mr Plant Geek) – Author and TV Presenter
- Annieck Nota-Ruigrok – Beekenkamp Plants – Head of Marketing
- Andy Abbey - Beekenkamp Plants – Technical Plant Specialist
- Peter Moore – Plant Breeder – Launch Success Challenge Headline Sponsor
- Amy Stubbs – British Garden Centres – Project and Development Manager
- Julian Palphramand – British Garden Centres – Head of Plants
- Nick Mathias – Floramedia – Managing Director
- Ella Miles, Launch Success Challenge Delegate
The Green Team delivered their pitch followed by a questioning session. The genuine feeling of collaboration between the team members was notable. After the judges took some time to confer, the Blue Team then presented their pitch followed by questions. At last, the two teams were able to reunite but the anticipation of the judges results still had everybody unsettled.
After what felt like a long deliberation period the results were shared with the delegates of both the Green Team and the Blue Team. The day was full of nerves and excitement for what was a unique opportunity for the Launch Success delegates to have the chance to share their ideas with such professionals in the industry.
The feedback was positive and constructive. Both teams exceeded expectations which resulted in not just one concept being chosen but elements from both teams being decided upon to release the new plant at Gardeners World Live 2025. The work is not over for the delegates! Its now time to prepare for the official launch.
