Sales and business development manager

Starting in this issue of Horticulture Review, we begin a monthly series featuring staff members of LO, requested by new president Tom Intven, who wants to raise the awareness and appreciation of LO’s staff among the general membership. We hope to show both the professional and personal sides of LO staffers.
 

Q. What is your basic job at LO?  

A. I work in the trade show department and I assist with selling exhibit space at Garden Expo and Congress. I take a larger role in operations at these two events. I am the marketplace manager at Canada Blooms and the Snow and Ice Symposium, handling the majority of the both sales and operations at these events, with assistance from the trade show department team at certain times of the year. In addition to the shows, I am continuously looking for opportunities where LO can subcontract our show management services and assist with other association events, or co-location of events.
 

Q. What is your background before coming to LO, and when did you begin work at LO?  

A. Before coming to LO, I worked in the event rental industry starting back in 1980. It began as a part-time job that lead (over 28 years) to the creation of a trade show services department for the company that grew and merged with other companies over the years. I finished my career with Stronco Show Services in August of 2008, at which time I joined LO. In fact, I served the Landscape Ontario shows for 19 years prior to joining this great team.  
 

Q. When not at work, where can you be found?

A. For the most part at home, I live to be with my wife Nancy and my two daughters, Carley and Cassandra. Having commuted for the past 19 years, I enjoy time spent at home with my family and friends.
 

Q. When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?  

A. Growing up I wanted to be a truck driver, and as it turned out, working in the rental business, I did in fact get my truck driver’s licence and drove trucks for two years before I went into the office in sales. I still hold a DZ licence today.
 

Q. What inspires you during your time at LO?  

A. The amount of experience we have in the trade show department at LO and the staff members’ willingness to share tasks as a group. They not only share knowledge, but everyone helps with the workload and the day-to-day grind of it all. We are truly a team that works toward the one common goal, which is to put the best possible event together for our members and the industry in general. In fact, the amount of experience within the entire association is very humbling. As you look at the different departments and see the experience around us, we are truly fortunate.
 

Q. Name your all-time favourite movie, musical group and TV show.  

A. Christmas Vacation, Elton John and Two and a Half Men.
 

Q. If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?

A. I would love to go to Europe and spend three to four weeks traveling to all of the different countries.
 

Q. Tell us one thing about you that few of your colleagues know about you.  

A. As a kid growing up, we moved 17 times. That being said, I only went to one grade school and one high school. I guess that is why I gravitated to a business that sets up temporary events, packs them up, moves them to a new location and sets them up again. It was a foreshadowing for the life I was destined to live, and one that I truly love.