2012 Green Works/VNLA Summer Meeting & Trade Show
8:00 – 9:00 am – Trade Show Registration 
8:00 -10:30 am – VCH Exam
9:00 -10:30 am – Keynote Address w/ Richard Gallagher, Point of Contact Group, communications expert and noted author.
Rich is back by popular demand. His talk will be based on his ninth book, What to Say in Your *Very Worst* Customer Service Situations. Our meeting will be the first live presentation of this program! This will be a two-part presentation.
“What to Say in Your *Very Worst* Customer Service Situations”, by Rich Gallagher, Point of Contact Group Speaker Rich Gallagher loves worst-case scenarios. Why? Because they hold the key to truly excellent service and success for your business. When you and your team learn the same skills that hostage negotiators, police officers, and crisis counselors use in their very worst situations, you become supremely confident in any customer situation. This talk will cover skills like:
- How to banish criticism – by “leaning into” it with gusto!
- Getting people on board with your schedules, your prices, and your boundaries
- How to keep arrogant, entitled customers from ever intimidating you
- Trigger phrases to never say
- Grounding angry outbursts with the skill of a bomb squad
Bring your own very worst customer situations, and learn how to handle them live and in person at this talk. Using role-playing, team exercises, and plenty of laughs, this talk will help you your worst customers in a light you have never seen them before!
10:30 – 11:00 am – Visit with Vendors/Trade Show
11:00 am-Noon – choose one of two:
“What to Say in Your *Very Worst* Customer Service Situations”, by Rich Gallagher, Point of Contact Group – Part Two
OR
Distinctive Landscaping Tour. Distinctive Landscaping, located at Horsford’s, offers a wide scope of landscape architectural services. This tour will include a presentation on services they offer, projects they have worked on and a walking tour of the gardens on site.
12:15 – 1:00 pm – Lunch under the tent.
1:00 – 1:30 – Special Membership meeting under the tent.
1:30 – 2:15 pm – Green Works Live Auction
Please donate a plant, book, tool, or item of your choice for the live auction! Proceeds from the auction fund horticulture-related education awards the Association grants each year. These students are the future of our industry. Bring your wallet!
2:15 – 2:45 pm Visit with Vendors/Trade Show
2:45 – 3:45 pm. – Concurrent Sessions – choose one of the 2:
Horsford’s Tree Tour: Horsford’s was established in 1893 and still exists today on the same acreage. Today, the nursery comprises some 50 acres and grows 90% of the plants they sell either by cuttings, seed, or root divisions. Two glass greenhouses are used for annual growing and propagation. Horsford’s field grows trees, shrubs, and evergreens and supplies the retail and wholesale trade. This will be a guided tour of their field grown tree operations. Learn what it takes to grown a tree from start to finish and techniques Horsford’s employs.
OR
“A Panel Discussion on Pests and Diseases” w/Tim Schmalz, Jon Turmel, and Ann Hazelrigg. Join these three experts to discuss the pests and diseases that are plaguing our industry today as well as learn what is on the horizon. Topics discussed will include identification, solutions, and best practices to use to avoid problems. Earns one (1) pesticide credit.
3:45-4:45 pm. – Concurrent Sessions – choose one of the 2:
Horsford’s Perennial Tour: Horsford’s offers over 700 varieties of perennials that are at least 2 years old and have gone through a dormant period. Perennials are grown from root division, cuttings, or seed and most of them are test grown in their display gardens or growing beds. Originally these perennials were only grown in the field but are now offered in containers. On this tour you will learn what it takes to grow and sell perennials on such a large scale.
OR
Horsford’s Shrub Tour: Horsford’s specializes in growing a wide variety of lilacs and in recent years has expanded their shrub growing to a wide variety of plants. This tour will provide the ins and outs of what it takes to grow premium shrubs in Vermont.
Costs
Pre-register and save! REGISTRATION DUE BY AUGUST 10, 2012. An additional $10 for walk-in registration.
To register for this event and make payment online, please use the add to cart buttons below. Please enter the attendee’s name. If you need to register more than 1 person, please add each to the cart individually. An additional $10 will be charged for walk-in registration on the day of the meeting.
Member Registration $35
Non-Member Registration $45
Additional Registrations (each) $30
Students Free
Lunch $20
VCH Exam-Member $10
VCH Exam Non-Member $25
DIRECTIONS:
Horsford’s is located on Route 7 in Charlotte, Vermont, 3 miles from the ferry (from Essex, NY), 4 miles south of the Shelburne Museum, 10 miles south of Burlington, and 22 miles north of Middlebury.
REGISTRATION FORMS:
Download/Print Attendee Registration Form:
Green Works 2012 Summer Mtg Print Version Attendee Registration
Download/Print Exhibitor Registration Form:
2012 Summer Meeting Exhibitor Registration-print version
SPEAKER PROFILES
Richard S. Gallagher 
Rich Gallagher is a former customer service executive and practicing psychotherapist who has spoken to over 20,000 people. This talk will be based on Rich’s ninth book of the same name, and Green Works Vermont’s 2012 meeting will be its first-ever live program! His other books include the national #1 customer service bestseller What to Say to a Porcupine and How to Tell Anyone Anything, and he has been featured in CNN.com, BusinessWeek, the New York Post, Dale Carnegie training, morning drive radio, and numerous other media outlets.
A member of the National Speakers Association, Rich’s materials have been excerpted in Dale Carnegie training and elsewhere, and he is a veteran of numerous speaking engagements, media appearances and corporate workshops. Visit him online at www.pointofcontactgroup.com, or on his YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/RichGallagherPOC.
Tim Schmaltz has been the VT State Plant Pathologist since October, 2005. Prior to becoming plant pathologist, Tim worked in environmental and groundwater protection as a private consultant in VT, VA, NJ and PA. His education background includes a BA in Geology from Colgate University, an MS (in- progress) in Forest Pathology and a GIS from UVM. His Master’s research focuses on statistical and spatial patterns of butternut canker
disease in VT.
Jon Turmel is the Vermont State Entomologist and keeps watch over pest developments for our industry. Jon is also an adjunct faculty lecturer at the University of Vermont.
Ann Hazelrigg: Ann is the plant pathologist and coordinator of the Plant Diagnostic Clinic for UVM Extension.