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Expo’s New Product Showcase seeks entries

September 10, 2010  By Dave Harrison


Sept. 10, 2010, Toronto – Landscape Ontario’s Expo, formerly Garden
& Floral Expo, is now accepting entries for its New Product
Showcase.

Sept. 10, 2010, Toronto – Landscape Ontario’s Expo 2010, formerly Garden & Floral Expo, is now accepting entries for its New Product Showcase. The showcase is the primary reason retail owners and buyers attend the annual trade show that takes place Oct. 19–20 at the Toronto Congress Centre.

Garden and floral retailers service their customers year-round. Fall is the end of their peak selling season and the time they switch focus to look for 2011 spring season’s “hot sellers.”

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Retailers use Expo 2010 as a time to find unique items that differentiate them from competitors – investigate expanding family product lines and meet vendor partners who offer products and programs that will significantly influence their future success.

“Expo effectively positions vendors with new product and plant introductions in front of their customers at the right time; when they are ready to buy,” says show manager Lorraine Ivanoff. “Having an item in the New Product Showcase helps industry suppliers promote their new products to the media, customers and potential customers. It’s a chance to get immediate customer feedback, monitor the competition and move the product to market faster. Our show is one of the most cost effective ways of connecting to the market when launching a product.”

Vendors ready to launch products are invited to submit their entries by Oct. 1 for evaluation by a panel of judges. Innovative products resulting from competitive pressures, cost challenges, increased customer expectations or governmental regulations and that are ready for distribution for the 2011 spring season are eligible.

“Our judges really want to see breakthrough products – the ones new to a company, our industry or new to the world,” says Michael LaPorte, of Clearview Nursery Ltd and a representative of the Expo 2010 New Products Committee. “Products that offer five to 10 times greater improvement performance combined with 30 to 50 per cent or greater reductions in costs. We are also interested in companies and products that offer incremental improvements – cost reductions, existing product line improvements, product additions in existing lines, and repositioned plants and products being introduced to the garden and floral markets.”

Landscape Ontario will give out the second annual Peoples’ Choice Award. It honours the “best new or improved” product featured in Expo 2010’s New Product Showcase. Show delegates visiting the showcase will have the opportunity to vote for the best new product or plant variety. Ballots can be deposited during show hours of 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Oct. 19, and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Oct. 20 in Greenstar Plant Products’ Booth (639) or at the Showcase. Winners will be announced on Nov. 1, 2010 on the Expo website.

The 2009 winning product was Root Pouch, a plant pot made of a fabric-like geotextile created from reclaimed plastic fibres and recycled natural materials. “To be chosen as the winner of the "Peoples’ Choice Award" for the best New and Green Product was an honour on many levels,” says Root Pouch vice-president Ashley Fromm. “The fact that Landscape Ontario put together such a contest shows a commitment to elevate a greener awareness of the impact our industry has on the environment.”

Manufacturers and distributors who have superior and differentiated new products, ones that deliver unique benefits and superior value to retail customers may visit www.loexpo.ca for information on exhibiting at Expo 2010 and to download the New Product and Plant entry form. For more information call Lorraine Ivanoff at 800-265-5656, ext. 366.

Greenstar Plant Products Inc. is sponsoring the New Product Showcase.

Admission to Expo 2010 is free until Oct, 1, 2010. After that date, onsite prices will increase to $15 for Landscape Ontario members and $20 for non-members. The three education programs being offered are ticketed events that are individually priced. Visit www.loexpo.ca to register online and for information on the symposiums and pricing.


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