About Nancy: AIFD

Two weeks ago, I was lucky enough to attend my very first AIFD Symposium in San Francisco.  The AIFD Symposium is the Super Bowl for Floral Designers.  Expert designers from around the world fly in to touch and see new techniques and learn from the world's foremost experts.

This year's speakers and designers included many local experts and designers including Soho Sakai, Waterlily Pond, Michael Daigian, Steven Brown from CCSF and other fan favorites like Pim van den Aaker and Rene van Rems.

When I was debating about whether I should attend the Symposium, my good friend, Leighsa Montrose of Branch Out suggested that I volunteer because by volunteering I would get a chance to work behind the scenes.   I had no idea what a volunteer did but the minute I stepped into the floral workroom, I was engulfed with mini projects including organizing sections of the floral room, cleaning flowers, making boxes, arranging small bouquets, and prepping work for larger arrangements.  At times, I was overwhelmed but mainly, I was delighted like a child in a candy store.  The ability to create and play with flowers is a floral designers dream.  And not being responsible for a design was equally quite relaxing.  Working in a team environment was such joy because everyone had one goal in mind - have fun.

Here are a few of the inspiring finished work.  I'll post more photos in another post, so stay tuned.
Please let me know what you think of these because innovation isn't always about pretty flowers.