More than 70 professionals from across the country—Tucson, Denver, Philadelphia and more—gathered at Boston’s Omni Parker House Hotel from Aug. 9-11 for the National Association of Landscape Professionals (NALP) DBI Symposium.
The event provided insight for growing and sustaining a design/build/installation operation in the current market. The symposium also provided formal networking opportunities in the form of happy hours and a Dutch dinner.
“The breaks and talking to other business owners have been as valuable as the sessions,” said Billy Butts of ND Landscape in Georgetown, Mass. “It’s a tough business and the successful ones are going to things like this and learning.”
In addition to networking, the symposium featured 11 educational sessions. Attendees saw presentations from Hubspot’s Tyler Richer on inbound marketing, from Nemetschek Vectorworks’ Eric Gilbey and DynaScape’s Joe Salemi on modernizing workflows with design technology, Ken Thomas on his ‘Start Clean Finish Clean’ method and more.
Alex Pratt, area director of human resources at the Omni Parker House, gave advice on customer service from outside the industry. The staff at each of Omni’s 53 hotels employs the “Power of One,” a method of handling interactions with guests that can be adopted and translated to other industries.
The method is based upon principles such as common sense, devotion and undivided attention to the customer’s needs, and accountability.
“‘The Power of One’ gives our employees the ability to make decisions,” Pratt said of the practice that has led his company to a 7 percent employee turnover rate in an industry that typically sees a more than 50 percent turnover rate. “They feel tied to the success of the company.”
Scott Jamieson, vice president of Bartlett Tree Experts and NALP president, discussed issues, trends and the emerging focus surrounding large trees in landscape design. He also walked attendees through unique projects, such as the one he masterminded on Michigan Avenue in Chicago.
“Trees can accentuate existing architecture and bring purpose to existing buildings, but too often arborists are brought into the design process when it’s too late,” Jamieson said. “It’s important to get arborists involved at the earliest stage possible.”
Jamieson also shared tools to help professionals working with large trees. One of those tools was iTree, free software from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service that calculates the environmental benefits and dollar values associated with a specific tree. A related service, iTree Design can help users predict increasing size, environmental and economic benefits of a specific tree over the next decade.
At the end of each day, hands-on learning was also available.
After a presentation on living walls from George Irwin, president of Green Living Technologies International (GLTi), attendees were invited to take a self-guided tour to five sites across Boston with living walls. The tour culminated in a reception at GLTi’s Cityscapes office atop the John Hancock Tower, which features an atrium full of indoor living walls and other indoor plants the company offers.
To conclude the symposium, ND Landscape in nearby Georgetown, Mass., which does about $8.5 million in annual revenue, gave a facility tour and a peek into its meticulous operation.
ND is centered on a philosophy of efficiency. It is currently streamlining each job with tablets equipped with Boss Software, which tracks many facets of a job, including materials used and hours. It also relies on a pre-day preparation system that removes as much excess in materials or surprises on a job as possible by analyzing it before the work begins.
Co-owner Nicholas DiBenedetto said he was thrilled to open up the doors due to the learning environment that existed at the event.
“Yes, we missed a day of work, but in the end I think we will springboard off of this,” said DiBenedetto. “I would recommend anyone open up their facility for a tour, not only to clean their shop up but to clean the mental attitude toward their job. It makes you look at the 80 percent that is good.”
