https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4d6fj2eUP4
It's that time again -- our chance to review and reflect on all we achieved and experienced in the year that's just come to a close -- this time, 2021. I'm joined by two key members of the Slow Flowers Team -- Karen Thornton, our operations and events manager, and Niesha Blancas, our social media manager, who helped review our highlights and wrap things up for 2021. As historians have taught us, you can't plan for the future without knowing the past, right?!
Karen and Niesha are such valuable members of our team and I'm so grateful for their talents and commitment to the Slow Flower Mission! This year, rather than taking a chronological, month-by-month walk through 2021, we thought it would be useful to touch on each of our programs, channels and activities by topic.
Membership:
In 2021, we achieved our highest level of membership since the launch of Slowflowers.com in 2013 -- 880 members in all 50 states and most Canadian provinces. What a wonderful growing community of progressive, sustainably-minded, flower people. Our monthly Member Meet-ups were a highlight for me -- beginning last January when we hosted Rachel Johnson of Simply Grounded, who led our session on Sogetsu Ikebana. The monthly meet-ups averaged 50 attendees all year long -- some more, some less. Sometimes we had a number of presenters; other times we included break-out sessions. The meet-ups began in 2020 as a way to connect with each other during the early days of the COVID pandemic. None of us realized how valuable these Zoom calls would become over the ensuing months. In 2021, we averaged 50 attendees each meet-up, and the replay videos have been watched more than 1,200 times.Continuing with Membership, one of my favorite accomplishments of the year was designing and producing the Member Marketing Toolkit, a digital 42-page booklet that answers all the questions our members might have regarding ways to participate and get the most out of your membership. And more recently, during October Member Appreciation Month, we produced a special Member Benefits Booklet with discounts and coupons from Slow Flowers Society and our sponsors.
Member Survey:The Slow Flowers Member Survey informs our planning and forecasting for the year to come. Here are some highlights:
Annual member survey4.6 satisfaction rating202175.26% (73 people) rate the value of their Slow Flowers membership as high value or very high value78.35% (76 people) are very satisfied or extremely satisfied with their Slow Flowers membership82.48% (80 people) are very likely or extremely likely to renew their membership in the upcoming year
Congratulations to our Winners! Everyone who completed the Survey and shared their details was included in a special drawing for two prizes.
Complimentary Slow Flowers Premium Membership for 1 year ($249 value): April Vomfell, Flathead Farmworks
Free Slow Flowers Dinner at Blue Hill at Stone Barns – June 27, 2022 in Pocantico Hills, New York ($350 value): Jennifer Kouvant, Six Dutchess Farm
Slowflowers.com
At Slowflowers.com, our original home online, we invested in some important upgrades to the software platform. Just unveiled in December, we're calling it Slowflowers.com 3.0. It was our goal to improve user experience for the consumer and functionality for our members. We are planning a virtual "spring cleaning" later in January to share some of the ways our members can maximize their profile and brand through Slowflowers.com 3.0, so keep an eye out for that in the coming weeks. We'll be sure to record the tutorial for replay viewers.
American Flowers Week
American Flowers Week - June 28-July 112 botanical couture looks# of downloads of the Botanical Couture Webinar: 45local and national press generatedPlus, we celebrated Canadian Flowers week - 7 day Instagram series July 15-21, 2021
The American Flowers Week looks were featured in the digital edition ...