Leveraging Group Knowledge & Experience

by Danny Summers

The Fall Event 2025 set new records for The Group. Obviously, the easiest one to recognize is overall participation. It was the largest attendance since The Fall Event began in 2001.

But if you were with us, there are several other areas that are easily recognized as gaining momentum... Peer-Sharing and Use of Technologies.

Be TimeWise
This was the title of one main session at The Fall Event 2025. It was crafted by Souny Kennedy (BoomerWrangle) and moderated by Sarah Polzin (Down to Earth Garden Center) and included a panel of other Group Retailers:

• Amrit Brar (DeWayne's)
• Tyler Cerbo (Cerbo's Parsippany Greenhouses)
• Bobby Lewis (Meadows Farms)
• Heather Rollins (Fairview Garden Center)

Here's a quick overview of the session's description:

"Wisdom is where knowledge meets experience—and when education, training, and development are readily accessible, it can transform your team’s performance and elevate your customer experience.

Watch Sarah Polzin and panelists as they showcase the workplace solutions and applications that drive employee engagement, education, and retention.

Learn how innovative garden centers are embracing these solutions to use their time wisely, reduce inefficiencies, and work smarter—not harder."

Each of these Centers' panelists shared real-world examples of how they are leveraging the intranet platform BoomerWrangle has created, either YourGroupSpace or ConnectSpace. They included a number of applications added to their system to organize, communicate, and function better than they ever have before. This hour-long session was one of the most valuable in terms of showing new ways to make your Garden Center more operationally streamlined, efficient and therefore more profitable!

Watch Be TimeWise Now
The Be TimeWise session has now been added to The Fall Event 2025 Sessions recordings page in The Group WebSystem. Login and go to the Clients-Only Menu and down to TRAINING - The Fall Event 2025 Sessions link. I encourage you to share this incredible session with your team.

BoomerWrangle Technologies Coming to The Group in 2026
If you missed our announcement last week, The Group and BoomerWrangle will be bringing BoomerWrangle technologies, such as YourGroupSpace and others, as incredible offerings to Group Centers in 2026 through a joint venture. Watch for more details on these as we share them as add-on options in The Group's Spring Retainer Package. You can catch up on our announcement HERE.

Coming in 2026 - The Next Evolutions for The Group's Financial Programs
More enhancements are coming to The Group's WDR, the Annual P&L Study and even the Financial Basics Series this spring. Be sure to attend our December 11th GROUPtalk LIVE as Tim Quebedeaux shares how both of these Group Exclusive financial sharing and benchmarking programs will evolve even more.

And, staying in the Sharing and Technologies lane, this week Sid Raisch continues what he started at The Fall Event 2025, challenging everyone to learn how they can benefit from using AI in their operations.

Below, you will see a blog post from Sid recapping ideas he received from participants at The Fall Event 2025. These are areas Group Centers are currently using AI.

And this week's GROUPtalk LIVE on Thursday will feature more ideas with details and an outline from Sid and continue with peer sharing in Breakout Rooms. Watch for the Zoom invitation through GroupEs eList.

Obviously, there is a lot going on within The Group Community. The more active you can become, the more you will be Leveraging Group Knowledge & Experience!

Danny Summers
[email protected]
Tel: 678-909-7770
Cell: 678-761-7145

REMEMBER: Your interaction (by phone and email) with Group Service Providers such as Tim Quebedeaux, John Kennedy, Seawright & Associates, and of course Danny Summers are included in your retainer!