Schedule of Events

In the 15th year of business, The Finishing Touchez made the giant leap from creating estimates in Microsoft Word into a software that had estimating, CRM and time-tracking capabilities. As a small company with few resources to invest in such a process, they took a slow and calculated approach to implementation. First, they started with just enhancement estimates. Then, they worked on our service estimates. Lastly, they attacked using the time tracking feature. Along the way, they've learned some important lessons that will help others to embrace the technological era we find ourselves in. Eckles intends to share practical tools and rules that can help anyone keep issues, assignments, deadlines and responsibilities organized during their journey, too.

Your customers and employees are using 2022 technology with tech-inflated expectations. They click for a coffee, tap for a ride, and can have just about anything delivered in moments. Your ability to meet their expectations will define your success.

Gerten looks at the green industry with a unique point of view. He spent 20 years building technology companies before making the leap into outdoor services in 2018 as the new owner of a landscaping company in Minnesota with 150 employees.

In this humorous talk, Wade cuts through the noise and shares his perspective on the top problems that can be solved today with technology. He also provides a roadmap for building a modern landscaping company that can meet the expectations of customers and employees into the future.

Stop staring at a table of numbers and instead tell an interesting story with easy-to-read charts and different platforms. Data visualization can move your company forward and help you communicate numbers and data across your organization.

Caitlin Justice, the director of finance at Blades of Green Lawn Care and B.O.G. Pest Control, will show you how to make even the most anti-numbers person understand what the data means for your company and why explaining the numbers is important.

She will focus on how to build effective storytelling dashboards and charts using any software platform.

During the pandemic, digital measures of marketing, communication, and estimating became popular, and Green Magic Landscapes took advantage. Carita Koen will explain the processes the company developed to help grow the bottom line and the challenges they faced along the way. Pivoting, adjusting, and embracing technology continues to keep Green Magic Landscapes in the forefront and sets them apart from the competition. She will illustrate how embracing technology has grown their bottom line by more than 50%. 

Maximizing processes and procedures are crucial to creating a successful business.  Without proper documentation and utilizing technology to streamline your operations, you will never be able to create profitable growth.  Manske isolated areas of improvements in his company and utilized technology to propel his company to expand into a multi-million-dollar organization with seven divisions. Manske will go over the following topics in this workshop to help you be efficient and profitable:

• Using technology to document and streamline processes
• Understanding platforms to market your services to clients
• Utilizing marketing to attract team members
• Understanding the data and building your business with your software

In this session Moreno will be speaking about using technology and processes to help manage water/irrigation on sites. He will focus on the procedures he’s used throughout the years from using smartphones to using the latest technology, like drones for gathering site information. Moreno will also focus on how these procedures will help save time and labor. He will provide information about gathering the data, using irrigation mathematical formulas to understand your site's conditions and water usage. Moreno will then go over the value of how the process will make your company stand out. The outcome will be for each person to come away with the ability to provide an extra level of water management by way of technological solutions, digital reports, a general array of water conservation products, ROI, budgeting, and sustainability for their clients.

Becoming an expert when it comes to hiring and retaining employees, prospecting new clients and communicating with existing customers makes all the difference in business. Leave this session with a toolbelt of new technologies, ideas, and strategies to let your target audience know why you are the best landscaping company to be employed by, and why they should continue to be your customer.

In this interactive session, attendees will learn and be able to implement proven strategies for efficiency and business improvement in the areas of 1) office set up and workflow, 2) fast estimating 3) Site visit reports. These are the areas in which many companies experience a slow drip of financial loss without realizing it. Just a few, often simple, tweaks utilizing technology made in the spirit of operational efficiency and client expectation management can result in significant financial savings over the course of a year and long into the future; efficiencies that can be realized by virtually any company, regardless of size. Participants will also have the opportunity to calculate their unrealized financial losses to better understand where changes can be made, and new strategies can be implemented. This session will be augmented with clear and educational PowerPoint slides and other audio/visual tools. There will be adequate opportunities throughout the workshop for attendees to ask questions and share ideas.

For years, autonomous mowers have always been a "couple years away" from making their mark in the industry. But now they are a reality in North America, with service providers popping up on a regular basis and manufacturers heavily investing in commercial and residential models. Panelists will discuss their process of purchasing and implementing them, what challenges they faced and where they see the technology going in the future.

Gas-powered equipment has long been the tradition in the industry, but manufacturers have been improving battery-powered equipment year over year. Even with that progress, the perception of the tools hasn't changed for some. Panelists will discuss what is true and what is a myth about battery-powered hand-helds, mowers, etc. and will discuss their experience with the equipment.

Technology can help boost a bottom line by allowing companies to operate more efficiently. But diving into technology can also leave teams isolated as they become more tech savvy. But becoming more of a digital operation can also be used to bring employees together and help them become more engaged in company initiatives. Panelists will discuss the strategies and tools they use to engage employees through video, virtual software, social media and many other digital avenues.