It seems like an eternity has passed since Grow! 2020 took place at Loving in Charlotte, N.C. Now the calendar turns to 2021 and Marty Grunder, president and CEO of The Grow Group and Grunder Landscaping Co., is thrilled to host Grow! 2021 next week, Feb. 24-26 in New Orleans.
This year’s event takes place at Mullin, a company that has grown from a $1 million company to a $13.5 million company over the last seven years. Led by Mullin President Chase Mullin, attendees will get to tour the company’s newly constructed facility and see the processes instituted to help create an efficient workflow.
“(Mullin’s) facility is brand new, he’s only been there around two years. He studied a lot of facilities before he built his own,” says Grunder. “It’s not overdone, nice but not ostentatious. The facility has a nice flow. New Orleans is a tough place to find real estate, it’s a tough place to maneuver.”
Grunder says beyond the on-site tour of Mullin, attendees can look forward to multiple educational seminars. Seminars are custom made for the size of the company — for example, companies hoping to grow to $1 million; companies trying to grow from $1 million to $2.5 million; and $5 million companies vying to become $10 million companies. There are also seminars on human resources, production, sales, leadership, marketing and motivation.
Grunder says that when he created Grow! more than 20 years ago, he tried to create an event he would want to attend himself.
“The best way Grow! attendees learn is from seeing,” Grunder tells Landscape Management. “The tour of Mullin is going to be fantastic. Chase has a lovely place, he’s grown his company six times in the last five years — he’s six times larger than he was five years ago. And his story is very relatable. He went to school, got into the landscaping business and has done really well. I think everyone will get something out of seeing his operation and meeting his team.”
“Words can’t even describe my excitement,” Mullin told LM last year when the announcement was made that his company would be hosting Grow! 2021. “Hosting Grow! has been a goal of mine for years … I’m truly looking forward to the critique after the attendees visit … having all of those outside eyes looking in should be really insightful.”
Related content: Click here to read LM’s 5 Questions interview with Chase Mullin.
Grunder says he’s excited to give his opening remarks in the ballroom of the Hilton New Orleans Riverside and tell attendees what he thinks they’re capable of accomplishing in 2021. He has also highlighted his seminar on training, where he stresses that training is an investment, not an expense.
But most of all he’s excited to be in-person with Grow! 2021 attendees after a year of limited face-to-face meetings because of COVID-19. Grow! will be held in a much larger ballroom than typically needed, so attendees can still be in person yet socially distant.
“I’m a people person. This is killing me. I can’t wait to see people,” Grunder says. “The Grow Group has pivoted very nicely. We’ve delivered probably as much virtual training online as anyone else in the green industry in the last nine months. But it’s hard. You’re talking to a computer. I’m getting good feedback but I’m not seeing anybody. I’ll be able to see people, see their expressions, folks will be able to network in a socially distant fashion. It’s going to be exciting to have some sense of normalcy.”
Tickets are still available for Grow! 2021, and the Hilton New Orleans Riverside still has a block of discounted rooms available for Grow! attendees. Grunder says he has high expectations for the event despite the burden of the pandemic.
“New Orleans is a big city. Chase can’t go from $1 million to 13.5 million in seven years without people,” Grunder says. “That’s the mystery, and I’m not saying growth is easy, but it’s probably not as hard as many make it out to be.”
