GWA @ MANTS 2016

GWA members at MANTS 2016 Press Breakfast. Photo Credit: GWA President Kirk R. Brown.

By Louise Clarke

GWA started the New Year with our first booth at the 45th annual Mid-Atlantic Nursery Trade Show (MANTS).  We descended on the Baltimore Convention Center on January 6, 7, and 8, 2016 for this mid-winter event. Thursday morning began with a media reception hosted by Vanessa and Kelly Finney of Quercus Management who organizes MANTS, where several of the 1,000 exhibitors spoke about their products, while hungry garden writers enjoyed a complimentary breakfast. We were delighted to discover that the media room was also available for us all day as a quiet workplace and an area to store personal belongings. The GWA group photo (above) at the reception included 26, but many more of us were seen later on the enormous 300,000 square foot trade show floor.

Introducing GWA Grows: Call For Guest Blog Posts

By Ann McCormick

These are exciting times for GWA members as we transform our public image to reflect what a great group we really are. As part of the many changes in the organization, I have been tasked by Kirk Brown to shepherd a new blog, GWA Grows, into publication. Through this new blog I want to make the open, friendly heart of this organization visible and accessible through first person accounts of the life of a garden communicator. GWA is a really great organization and I want the world to know this.

Executive Director’s Message: Allow Me To Introduce You To Some of the New GWA Team

To reiterate Kirk’s statement yesterday, I am honored to serve as GWA’s new executive director as it begins its relationship with Kellen at its New York headquarters. We have such an exciting opportunity to bring GWA into the future and a strategy to get us there. It is my pleasure to introduce you to some of the GWA team, who will be assisting me with this import work:

President’s Message: New Year, New Outlook

Happy 2016! With this new year comes a new era for GWA. Kellen, a global association management company, begins its tenure serving as GWA’s headquarters and management.

I am excited to introduce our new executive director, Maria
Ungaro. Maria has been at Kellen for almost 20 years with many clients, but most recently as the Executive Director for The Content Council, New York Women in Communications (NYWICI) and the NYWICI Foundation- the largest foundation for women’s communication’s scholarships in the United States.