Garden Centre Association members unable to attend the organisation's recent annual conference are now able to view presentations from its inspectors on its website.

The presentations made by Alyson Haywood, Phil McCann, Colin Farquhar and Gordon Emslie are available to view via www.gca.org.uk.

Peter Burks, GCA Chief Executive, says: “Our annual conference is always extremely informative for our members, so any that are unfortunately unable to attend miss out on lots of helpful advice and insights.

“As our Inspectors’ presentations are so informative, we have made them available to view via the news section on our website www.gca.org.uk. Members will be able to download them and catch up on what they missed and still take some of the advice away to use in the everyday running of their garden centres.”

Colin talked to conference attendees about best practice through the eyes of a customer. His presentation included examples of member garden centres that are doing things right.

Alyson Haywood spoke to attendees about houseplants and indoor and outdoor living with some more examples from member garden centres that she had spotted while out and about visiting them.

These included centres promoting the importance of bees, the health benefits of plants and how indoor plants can be used.

She also talked about greener clothing and advised centres to tell their green story wherever possible.

Gaining customers loyalty and improving the environment were covered by Inspector Phil McCann. Gordon Emslie talked about support and the importance of promoting businesses in the community nearby.

Peter added: “Also, during the conference, our Inspectors presented their findings as part of our Christmas Competition. Judging began on November 1 and finished on November 30, 2022 and highlights included The Old Railway Line Garden Centre’s own Christmas video, which racked up more than 120,000 views with no paid ads or sponsorship.

“Another social media champion was Pugh’s Garden Village. They used social media to achieve their Christmas marketing success and won our Worrall Cup award.

“The presentation also included our Inspectors’ key take-aways from the judging process and lots of examples of these, as well as member The Gardens Group’s, Louise Burks with her presentation on moving Christmas into a more sustainable direction. These are also available to download via www.gca.org.uk. We’re all about sharing best practice and helping all our members get the most from being part of our organisation. We’re a friendly and helpful organisation and our members like to support each other as best they can.”