Dave is as nice than I expected and as warm a person as you'll ever meet.

I "met" Dave and Trish 6 years ago when cubits.org was formed. Today was a treat to meet Dave in person!

I was one of three panelists at the Scottsdale Plaza Resort in sunny Arizona and Dave asked us questions about our gardening purchasing, likes, and dislikes of online buying.

We were surprised with a myriad of excellent gardening tools, including a cobrahead tool and gift certificates for online buying.

How cool can that be? For gardeners to give their opinion?

WAY COOL!!!!

Becky thank you so much for sharing your meeting with Dave. What a great photo.

Fantastic Becky

That is really something, Becky! And Dave! who got a chance to meet Becky

How cool is that; you met a real life super hero! Thank you for sharing the moment.

It was wonderful to meet you in person along with @droughttolerant and @azgarden. The direct gardening association members had nothing but high praise for all three of you.

It was a real pleasure. I have a photo of all of us that was taken by my friend the CEO of jung seed.

I had so much fun going through the bag of goodies!

What a wonderful day @dave, @droughttolerant, @Boopaints

It was a real privilege to meet you and spend an afternoon with you. Never thought I would be able to meet Dave, Bonnie and Becky in person. ATP is awesome! Sincere thanks to Dave for making this possible.The members of DGA are a great group. Very kind, welcoming and generous people.

Your experience could be filed in the 'Will Wonders Never Cease' folder.

What a wonderful, exciting and fun day!

@dave, maybe the ATP members would like to learn about the Direct Gardening Association?

Here is their website:

https://dga.memberclicks.net/

They are the membership association of companies that sell gardening products direct to consumers and pretty much every gardening company you've heard of is a member. They have conferences twice a year where they meet and talk about the business and all that.

This is my second time attending (first was in 2006 in Chicago) and it is a lot of fun. The owners of all the companies are here and it's a great experience to be able to talk face to face with the people I've known all these years. It's also enlightening to see how friendly, personable and warm they all are with each other, even though many are direct competitors. The spirit of collaboration is extremely strong in this group and it's a delight to watch relationships form during these kinds of meetings.

They keep pressing me to have ATP officially join and maybe one day we will. I definitely always encourage all the companies that sell gardening products to join. It's not cheap but the benefit they gain from these conferences is certainly much more than the cost to attend.

I really can't say enough good things about the fine people I have met at these conferences. The owners of all these companies are all excellent people.

While at this conference I had numerous people approach me and say they love what we're doing at ATP and that they want to sponsor upcoming raffles. We might also have lined up a nice sponsor for the 2016 photo contest.

Ken Oakes (of Oakes Daylilies) is here and I spent a good deal of time talking with him. He wants to sponsor the entire daylilies database which would be awesome since he's got such a great company.

The president of Cobrahead tools is here, and he is also this year's president of the DGA. A very easy going and easy to talk with guy who I really enjoyed meeting.

The president of Gardener's Supply is here and I was able to visit with him about our businesses for over an hour. Gardener's Supply is lucky to have him as their leader.

I could go on and on.

"While at this conference I had numerous people approach me and say they love what we're doing at ATP and that they want to sponsor upcoming raffles."

That must be so gratifying! We look forward to the raffles even more now!

I say the same thing as Weedwhacker.

Becky is a most awesome person too!

I am still basking in the afterglow of such a great afternoon.
I think meeting new gardeners is one of my favorite things in life. We have so much in common, even when we garden differently.

I illustrate books as part of my career and I am thinking that writing a children's book about gardening should be on my bucket list. One of the members of the association asked a great question about whether or not our children also garden. My girls don't have any interest ( ) but my grandsons do. Because I am taking the time to teach them.

A book would be fabulous for little ones, to create interest.

My grandkids other grandma lives closer and when she helps them plant seeds they can see their results quicker than if they were to come here. I hope they like to plant, and if not now, later in life like me. Their Mom tried planting a garden last year so they are interested in eating from it. Cherry tomatoes are a big draw.

@Boopaints, for some people it takes a longer time to discover their NEED/LOVE for gardening, so do not be discouraged by your children's indifference. Once it's in your genes ...... well, it will emerge at some point!

I love nature since my early childhood, but was not interested in gardening. Everything changed when my mother died (I was just 17 years old). Was it a way to deal with grief? I don't know, but I have not stopped since then. Even when I lived in the big city I gardened on my 2 large balconies - thanks God there was no earthquake (quite common here) at the time, for my pots could have seriously harmed people escaping the building ......

Becky, I saw these great photos you posted on Facebook .... sounds like it was an interesting and fun time ... and good things to come for ATP as well!

Everybody wins!!!!!