iLandscape Keeps the Show Lively

By Meta L. Levin What can you expect from iLandscape in 2022? After a year of going virtual, ILCA’s favorite event is back baby! — and in a very big way.

Yes, the Gnomes are back. The raffles are back, so is the woodcarver. Don’t forget the EXHIBITORS! But mostly, the people will be back for iLandscape 2022: One Fiesta —All United • Todos Unidos.

“We are committed to bringing everyone back together,” says Dave Warning, iLandscape Experience Committee chair. The annual Illinois and Wisconsin landscape show is scheduled for February 2-4, 2022 and will be returning to the Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center in Schaumburg, IL.

As the One Fiesta name implies, this year’s iLandscape will have a Latino theme, with lots of color, games, music and food, Warning says. “This culture is an important part of our industry.”

ILCA Executive Director Scott Grams is excited about the coming event. “I love the theme and the creative energy that went into planning it,” he says. “2022 is supposed to feel like a party and coming together.”

There will be three days of education sessions, covering a wide variety of topics, including Spanish language offerings, an irrigation workshop and a student career day. Many will offer continuing education credits for landscape architects and certified arborists. “The education is going to be top notch,” says Grams. The Latino and Americano subcommittee will be digging deeper into the theme with a four-part cultural series, “Uniting Latino and American Culture in the Workplace,” scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday. It is free with trade show admission. Put together by a committee composed of Latino and American landscape professionals, this program will be presented in Spanish, but will be followed at a later date by an English language version, says Grams. It falls neatly into the iLandscape 2022 show theme, One Fiesta. “It’s all about bringing the cultures together. This is such a nice piece that clicks in with the theme, recognizing the culture strengths of everyone.”

The vendors are happy to be back, as well. “We are excited about how many vendors are coming back. Both rooms are filled,” says Warning.

Gardens galore

Even the convention center itself is putting its best foot forward. The bar and the Sam and Harry’s Restaurant both have been completely revamped. “The restaurant has been turned into a gastro pub,” says Grams. “It’s more laid back and relaxing.” In addition, the parking lot across the street from the convention center is now open to attendees, many of whom had to be bussed in from remote parking in the past.

While most of the One Fiesta will be a celebration, there will be a somber note, as well. The committee felt it was important to remember those the industry has lost during the last two years, whether from COVID 19 or other causes.

“We sustained a lot of losses and this is a way to pay tribute to them,” says Chris Walsh, who heads the Experience Committee’s Design and Layout subcommittee. Members felt a memorial garden was an appropriate way to honor those who died. Photographs and brief tributes, contributed by ILCA and WNLA members, will be framed and included in planters interspersed along the walls on which the iPix winners will be displayed in the Ballroom.

As befits an event targeting landscape contractors, landscape architects, horticulturists, arborists and other professionals, there will be gardens throughout the exhibit halls. “We’ve got some cool, neat gardens, put together by a talented committee,” Warning says.

All the gardens are designed to be places for attendees to sit, talk and renew acquaintances. “The theme is One Fiesta, so we decided to make it a celebration of space,” says Walsh. The Entry Garden will have a Fiesta theme with benches and chairs.

Tables, perfect places to grab a bite to eat or something to drink, and benches will dot the Mexican Plaza Garden with its fountain and bright colors. Look out for the plant truck from the Get Growing Foundation, too.

Adjacent to that the membership booth will morph into a Membership Bar/Cantina where attendees can sidle up to the bar and talk with staff or association officers in a relaxed garden atmosphere.

The Fiesta Stage will be surrounded by larger tables, where groups of eight or 10 people can get together for lunch, discussion and networking. It also can serve as added space for vendors to talk with customers, says Walsh.

In addition to the Memorial Garden, the Ballroom will feature a Cocina Garden. Another dining area, it will be near a smaller stage, from which musicians will play. Cocina is Spanish slang for kitchen.

Wednesday night Party Time

While attendees will be able to relax, chat and network in the comfort of the gardens, they’ll be able to celebrate and kick up their heels at the annual Wednesday evening party, scheduled from 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm. This year it will feature The Modern Day Romeos, a cover band that plays everything from Motown to classic rock, metal, as well as favorites from the 80s, 90s and 2000s. They include comedy in their act, as well as new versions of old favorites.

“They are crowd interactive, with songs that you can sing along,” says Katrina House, who heads the Wednesday night party subcommittee.

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In keeping with the One Fiesta theme, partiers will be able to chow down at taco stations, snack on chips and salsa and partake from the requisite kegs of beer. Of course, says House, there will be plenty of desserts to satisfy party goers’ need for sweets.

The fun will continue during the band’s break with raffles, guessing games and other activities to keep the crowd entertained.

“Everybody is ready to get hands-on and interactive,” says House. “But we will be safe.”

Participants will not have to wait for the fun until evening. Attendees can take a breather from education and business with a long list of diversions.

Daytime entertainment subcommittee chair Mike Wesley ticks off a list that includes five arcade games and two life size wood tiki games. Wood carver Eric Widitz will make a return engagement outside the vestibule where people can watch him work. His carvings will be raffled off Wednesday and Thursday from the main stage. “He’s been at iLandscape multiple times,” says Wesley. “To see him carve a four-foot eagle with a chain saw, is pretty phenomenal to watch.” From 9 am to 11 am, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, Hector Fernandez will serenade show goers in the lobby playing classical guitar pieces. On Wednesday, Shady Play, a jazzy pop band, will play from 11:30 am to 1:30 pm on the Fiesta Stage and Liz and Hala, an acoustic duo, will perform during the same time in the Ballroom. And, from 2:30 pm to 4 pm, Thursday, a Mariachi Band will parade through the show to help kick off the Thursday night raffle, which will start around 4 pm in the main exhibit hall.

Thursday is Awards Banquet night, an evening jam packed with excitement, featuring the Excellence in Landscape Award Winners, the Person of the Year, the

Distinguished Service Award Winner, the 2021-2022 Scholarship winners and the Judges Platinum Award – the best of the best as chosen by the judges. The band BMR4 will entertain the crowd.

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Downhome Guitars, an acoustic duo, will play 11:30 am to 1:30 pm, Thursday from the Fiesta Stage, then from 2:30 to 4 pm from the Ballroom stage. Meanwhile a keyboard-guitar duo, will provide lunchtime music from 11:30 am to 1:30 pm on the Ballroom stage.

On Friday, there will be a solo keyboardist performing from 11:30 am to 1:30 pm, on the Ballroom stage and a keyboard-guitar duo entertaining the lunchtime crowd on the Fiesta Stage.

If you need a relaxing massage, from 10 am to 2 pm, Wednesday and Thursday, Nivati will provide chair massages in the Lobby. “In the past, they have been a huge hit,” says Wesley. For a little artistic fun, from 11 am to 3 pm, Bruce Carlevato will do “Caricatures by Bruce” in the hallway.

The Experience Committee has resurrected the “Boys and Gals of the Boulevard,” a popular attraction from a few years ago. These committee members will circulate through the show bearing nearly $3,500 in cash prizes, which they will bestow on unsuspecting show goers. “it’s up to their discretion,” says Wesley.

There will be a lot more prizes. “The Gnomes will be back,” says Rachelle Lurvey-Eifert, Raffles, Prizes and Contests subcommittee chair. “I hope people will enjoy finding them.” That includes the famous Golden Gnome, worth $100 to the lucky person who discovers him. The others will net the finder anywhere from $20 to $100. Thursday evening’s party for those not attending the Awards Banquet will include games like the Tiki Toss. “Toss the ring, get it on the hook and get cash,” says Lurvey-Eifert. There also will be some piñatas at which partiers can try their hands, as well as be guessing games, beverages and snacks, and raffles. Prizes include passes to the Chicago Botanic Garden, the Morton Arboretum, Boerner Botanic Garden and Mitchell Park Domes. iPix is back, too. Entrants can submit their own amateur photos in any of 12 categories, including black and white, flowers, garden art or structures, pets, public gardens, state or national parks, sunsets, trees, water, wildlife, winter and the wild card category. The winners’ pictures will be printed on canvas and displayed in the Ballroom, as well as earning prizes that range from the $500 grand prize, $100 first prize and $75 second prizes in each category, which will be announced at 4:30 pm on Thursday.

“We want everyone attending to be glad they took time out of their day to be there,” says Wesley. “We want them to call their friends and say, ‘what a cool show.’”

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