The Advanced Grower Solutions team enjoyed attending Cultivate ’24. We were able to see a lot of our customers, talk to growers looking for software and services, catch up with partners and suppliers and reunite with old friends.

It was a brisk show with lots of buzz and traffic.

Here are a few themes that coalesced during Cultivate ’24.

Traffic

The Cultivate ’24 show was just buzzing with people this year. I haven’t seen this level of booth traffic in the last few years. Usually, the traffic ebbs and flows but this year we had steady flow of traffic literally all day each of the first 2 days. Thanks to everyone who stopped by and talked to us.

Forecasting

Ken Lane and I had great attendance at our Cultivate ’24 Forecasting Workshop. So naturally, it spawned many discussions both in the classroom breakout sessions for working on individual grower forecasts as well as customers stopping by the booth to discuss their forecasting situation.

I believe that analytical forecasting is going to be more important for growers to deal with changing market conditions. We are grateful for Ken Lane’s partnership to help growers do the analytical and market work to come up with forecasts that take advantage of opportunities and mitigate risks. We offer a Customer Grower Sales Forecast solution to provide growers a data driven forecast. Learn more here.

Inventory

Inventory management is still a very hard problem to manage in our industry. Several prospects came by the booth to discuss inventory and the challenges associated with it and how software and processes can improve the visibility and movement of it through the product life cycle.

There are so many variables that impact inventory, and it is very dynamic.

The challenges of live-good inventory require tools, processes and diligence by grower staff to get it right.

Customer Support

Any customer purchasing a complicated system is going to want good, competent and responsive customer support.

Invariably prospects come by discussing our products and the topic of customer support comes up. This year was no exception. Sometimes they complain about a competitor not giving the attention they need and wanting to know how we are different. Other times they are concerned about support responsiveness and knowledge when considering a new purchase. We are fortunate at Advanced Grower Solutions to have an experienced, knowledgeable and responsive support team. Learn about our exceptional customer service and training.

Payments

There was a lot of discussion around payments and how growers collect monies owed.

Many growers are taking more and more credit cards to provide convenience to their customers and improve their cash flow. They are concerned about the fees that come with taking credit cards. Advanced Grower Solutions is fortunate to be partnered with Propelr, who provides excellent service and can help growers reduce their credit card fees and pocket the savings with GrowerPay.

Integrations

Connecting systems was also a theme of discussion. Whether connecting backend data flows for availability or shipping or moving data back and forth between a direct-to-consumer e-commerce there was a lot of talk about integrations.

Integrations are valuable to growers because they improve accuracy and reduce back-office effort to handle what are usually data intensive tasks. 

Partnerships and Affiliations

It was also a year of new affiliations and partnerships. Advanced Grower Solutions is fortunate to partner with forecasting expert Ken Lane from Hathaway and Lane Direct to educate and provide consulting to growers on a variety of aspects of forecasting to improve business results.

We are also grateful for the partnership we have with Pivot Point Business. Their work with growers for financial and exit planning is crucial to growers achieving their goals. Chris, Todd, Larry, and all the gang over there are very knowledgeable and a great asset for growers to utilize as they plan for their futures.

Further, our payments partner Propelr was with us this year, Jennifer Cunningham was on hand at Cultivate to talk to growers about their payment situation, educate them on what was possible, and work with them to reduce the fees they pay while retaining the convenience.

Finally, congratulations to the Growmentum team, whom I work with. They were the Cultivate ’24 Technology of the Year winners!

“Its too early to panic”

Dr. Charlie Hall’s presentation was spot on as usual and his in-depth analysis of the economic state of the industry was very informative.

He was able to show the positive results we have seen as well as where the industry is encountering headwinds. He also shared detailed sales results, key economic factors including housing statistics as well as how the raw material costing index has changed, showing inflation has slowed for some of the key input materials.

The data was a mixture of good news and cautious optimism.

Dr. Hall’s reminder, based on the economic and industry statistics was ‘it’s too early to panic’.

Cultivate ’24 Wrap up

So in all, a great show this year. Thanks to AmericanHort and all the folks there who work tirelessly to make the show what it is. Looking forward to next year!

If you are a grower looking to improve your operation, contact us so that we can get you up and running with the industry’s leading grower software today! To learn more or to schedule a demo contact us.