Ep. 558 Landscape Industry Insight from NALP’s ELEVATE Conference
Rancho Mesa's Alyssa Burley and Vice President of the Landscape and Tree Care Group, Drew Garcia, recap NALP’s ELEVATE Conference and share takeaways for the landscape industry.
Show Notes: https: Subscribe to Rancho Mesa's Newsletter
Director/Host: Alyssa Burley
Guest: Drew Garcia
Producer/Editor: Megan Lockhart
Music: "Home" by JHS Pedals, “Breaking News Intro” by nem0production
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Transcript
Alyssa Burley: You’re listening to Rancho Mesa’s StudioOne™ podcast, where each week we break down complex insurance and safety topics to help your business thrive.
I’m your host, Alyssa Burley and my guest is Drew Garcia, Vice President of the Landscape and Tree Care Group with Rancho Mesa. Today, we’re going to talk about the Elevate conference that recently took place.
Drew, welcome to the show.
Drew Garcia: Alyssa, thanks for having me.
AB: Now, you've attended the National Association of Landscape Professionals, Elevate Conference, and Expo for the past six years or so. And it makes sense since you focus specifically on the landscape industry. So will you give our listeners an overview of the event who typically attends and where it was hosted this year?
DG: So Elevate is hosted by the National Association of Landscape Professionals. And it's actually, I think this was their fourth event on their own. So prior to this, they used to do their event called Landscapes, which was in Louisville, Kentucky. And it was at the same time as the Equipment Expo, which still goes on in Louisville today.
But NALP separated and they do theirs near and around the same time, but it is called Elevate now. So I think this is the fourth year that they've done that. It was in Phoenix, Arizona this year. So it was a quick flight for us over from California. And it attracts all size lawn, landscape, and some tree care companies
that are going there to get a lot of good education. There's a lot of good sessions that are primarily held by other contractors. So that's what's really cool is you're getting first-hand experience from, at the contractor level. So, someone that’s in it with you and they’ve got experience that they can lean on and share with you, so that’s really cool. The education piece I think is probably number one
And then networking, and you’ve got a lot of suppliers and vendors that are out there that are specific to the industry, so creating new relationships, learning more about products that are either coming down the line or that are there to help support your business today. There’s a lot of that going on. I would say overall it’s the education and networking and then kind of just learning what’s coming down the line from all the great suppliers and vendors.
AB: All right. That sounds like it would be a really interesting event to attend. So what brings you back to this event every year? And why do you think industry professionals should attend?
DG: I look at it from the Rancho Mesa lens. You know, we're focused on the green industry. So 10 years of doing that and we're not going anywhere. So we're in this industry for the long haul. We get a lot of are what's going on with the industry from this event each year. So we want to know what's the new technology, how are businesses becoming better with safety and risk management. What are the tools that they're using? What are they seeing in terms of exposure and risk? Because all of that can come out in conversation, whether it's in education and you're listening to somebody talk about telematics or dash cams or fleet safety or you're grabbing a coffee and you bumped into somebody and now you're talking about how they're managing their safety tailgate topics or they're talking about different insurance programs that might be out there. So we get a lot of our industry knowledge from the event and we bring that back to our team and try to make it make sense for how we deliver our product to our customers. So it's huge for us in terms of just overall knowledge of the industry.
And then I would say from the contractor side, we recommend everybody goes to it. Just because, it’s got great energy, like I mentioned the great education, networking opportunities and it’s all size businesses. So you’ve got someone that might be starting a business that’s out there for the first time, and then you’ve got the nationals that are there with representation to talk about areas that they’re looking to improve, or what they’re doing. And so you just kind of get a really good picture of the industry at large. And I think everybody can benefit from being in that environment.
AB: Yeah. And it sounds like people are really open to sharing and collaborating and talking about what's working, what's not. And if you're not going to those types of events, you're not getting that from, I guess, your competitors. But, you know, everybody seems to come together and just want to help each other at those types of events.
So I heard that Rancho Mesa hosted a cocktail hour for clients and other attendees who are at Elevate. Tell us about that event.
DG: Oh, it's great for us. So yeah, this is our third year of doing that. We're hosting a little get together. And it's typically Monday night after all the education and event programming has ended for the day. We'll do like a little two hour get together with our clients. And It's such a great time for us to kind of just, you know, relax, catch up with people. We're not talking about business, kind of just catching up on family stuff, what's going on, you know, what's interesting. And then allow our clients to, you know, network and meet each other too. So another opportunity for networking. But it's something I really look forward to and I really appreciate our clients that take the time to visit us. Because on that same night, you've got all the other great, you know, industry suppliers and sponsors that are there that are probably also hosting events. And for everyone to take some time to come visit us and catch up, it's so great. And it's something I look forward to every year.
AB: Yeah. And even if somebody comes and they're not an actual Rancho Mesa client, it's fun to see them year after year and get to know them and really become friends, you know, that are in the industry.
DG: Yeah, you know, relationship building is the key to all of this, and that's what you're going to get from the event, whether it's our little event that you're coming to or just NALP's Elevate Conference in general. You're building these long-term relationships that you can lean on throughout the entire year. So if you met a landscape company in Georgia that does commercial maintenance, and you're in Arizona, and you do commercial maintenance, you're going to have some similarity in terms of customer issues, operational issues and then now you have somebody that you can call on you know to say, “Hey how are you guys troubleshooting this?” Or “How you how you getting over this?” And that's powerful you know so being able to build those relationships and then lean on them when you need them is one of the best things and most rewarding things you get from the event.
AB: Absolutely. So what was your favorite part of the whole Elevate experience?
DG: I wish I could say the rodeo I wish I would have gone. So they did a big at the end of the conference the kind of Elevate bash was at the rodeo grounds out there. And I had to prepare for an 8 a.m. topic on premise liability slip and fall for landscape companies, so I wanted to make sure I was in the right mind to deliver my presentation the following morning, early. And so I had to forgo the fun, but I mean everybody the next day was just saying, “You missed it, such an unbelievable time.” You know, everyone had a great time out there. I imagine it was all rodeo, you know, activities. So anything you can imagine that happens at a rodeo, I think happened there. And everybody really had a good time.
AB: All right. Well, maybe next year you'll be able to participate.
DG: Exactly. Exactly. Yep. I'm looking forward to that.
AB: All right. Well, Drew, if listeners have questions about managing their landscape business risk or maybe they're interested in learning more about the NALP, what's the best way to get in touch with you?
DG: They can send me an email. And my email is drewgarcia@ranchomesa.com.
AB: All right. Well, Drew, thanks for joining me in StudioOne.
DG: Thank you.
AB: Thanks for tuning in to our latest episode produced by StudioOne. If you enjoyed what you heard, please share this episode and subscribe. For more insights like this, visit us at RanchoMesa.com and subscribe to our weekly newsletter.