Attendance at last month’s Independent Garden Center show jumped a full 36% over the previous year — to 6,043 registered attendees from 49 states and 24 countries. Considering that the majority of the exhibitors were selling ornamentals, hard goods and outdoor living products – not vegetable gardening products that boomed this past year – that sounds like a good sign to me.
Certainly it helps that the show is relatively new, well run, and comes at a good time of year for most attendees. Even so, 36% is a pretty big leap, and most of the exhibitors and spoke with reported excellent results from the show.
What do you think? Is this a harbinger of a better season around the corner for those companies whose 2009 business was flat or down?
