We are pleased to announce that AGS and Ken Lane of Hathaway & Lane are presenting a Forecasting Workshop at Cultivate ’24.

The workshop is entitled “Forecasting Workshop: It’s a Strategy, Not a Tactic”.

The workshop will be presented Saturday July 13, 2024, as part of the Cultivate Hands-On Workshops and is scheduled from 10 AM – 4 PM and will include Lunch for $299.

Special Bonus!  If you use us for your forecasting consulting/project needs in the first engagement, we will credit the course’s price back to you!

Why Forecasts are needed now more than ever

Traditionally, growers and retailers in the Gardening & Horticulture space built most forecasts on the back of an envelope or just used their memory and intuitive knowledge to know what to plant.

Last year plus or minus was generally the formula.

Then COVID hit and the supply chain was turned on its head. For some growers, it dramatically impacted sales, some in negative ways and others in very positive ways.

Suddenly, with the added uncertainty of these national and global situations, good forecasts are a competitive edge as well as tantamount to your company’s health.  A grower must have tools and data views that help them better predict profitability!

What this workshop will cover

You will learn the fundamentals of forecasting for a greenhouse/nursery business, starting with an overview of what forecasting is, how it’s used, and various tools and methodologies to help build a better forecast.

You will also see real life examples from real businesses (albeit anonymized, but directionally correct).

You will also learn what data you need and how to consider the impact of other factors in producing the final ‘number’ to plan for.

You will get an overview of the key fundamentals of Excel (one tool you can use) to help you better organize, manipulate, calculate, and build the data you need for your forecasts.

You will gain hands-on experience in different ways to make forecasting a strength within your organization and a strategy for building your profitability.

Who should attend?

• People who want to LEARN how to build forecasts
• People who want to BRUSH UP their forecasting skills
• People who want to EXPAND their purview of the company they work for
• Second/Third/Fourth generation company owners who NEED TO KNOW everything.
• People who DO this work
• People who MANAGE the people that DO this work

Workshop Instructors

Ken Lane runs Hathaway & Lane Direct, LLC, (HLD) a data-driven consultancy supporting businesses with Forecasting, Marketing, and Strategic Planning support. Providing clients with uncannily accurate forecasts for twenty years – including extreme times of inflation, recession, 9/11, 2008, and three wars – Ken can take complicated processes and make them seem easy…and accurate.

John Beauford is the President/CTO of Advanced Grower Solutions (AGS), serving growers since 2004 with software, data and analytics, and consulting solutions. John has more than 25 years of experience developing software, data analytic,s and technology products, and helping businesses use technology to further their results for organizations from Fortune 100 companies to startups including his own businesses. John has extensive experience with grower data and helping growers with all aspects of their IT and data areas including data automation, costing, modeling, forecasting, pricing, data flows, analytics, and systems integrations.

So bring your laptop, your Excel skills, and all the people in your company who can benefit from this investment of time and technology.  

Signup for Cultivate ’24 Forecasting Workshop today!!

Learn more here.