THE ROSE BED - Sea to Sky Meeting Management Inc.

World Rose
Convention & Festival
Vancouver • Canada
Convention:
June 18-24, 2009
Festival:
June 19-21, 2009
World Rose Convention
and Festival Update –
Zero months and counting!
By Dale Akerstrom, Vancouver Rose Society
I
was thinking this morning about what the
experience of working towards the 2009
World Rose Convention and Festival has
been like. The image that came to mind was
of going tobogganing as a kid in Alberta (yes,
that is completely unrelated to roses, but I will
explain!) After six years of hoping, planning,
brainstorming, organizing, scheduling, working,
meeting, deciding, managing, and executing
this project, we are nearly at the point of “liftoff.”
After planning our best route and trudging up to
the top, it’s just about time to point our toboggan
down the hill, push off, hang on, and go for the
ride of our lives!
To recap: the World Rose Convention is
happening at the Westin Bayshore Hotel in
Vancouver from June 18-24 th , 2009. The
Convention features international speakers on
rose topics, daily tours, and social events. You
can register for the week or for 3 days. Even
if you are not registered for the Convention,
you can still take in many of the social events,
e.g. the Dinner at the Museum of Anthropology,
the Farewell Dinner, the daily tours, and the
pre-and post-Convention tours. Register
for these events on the Convention website,
www. worldrose-vancouver2009.com or by
phone.
And the second fabulous event in the middle
of the Convention, the World Rose Festival, is
happening at the new Vancouver Convention
Centre, from June 19-21 st , 2009. It’s open
to the public, and will have wonderful display
gardens, the Rose Show, floral art exhibits,
gardening merchandise booths, speakers,
demonstrations, a café, a bookstore, and a
Kid’s Garden area. The VRS will be selling
roses from Select Roses, and other rosethemed
articles, at our Festival “store.” Tickets
for the Festival are $18 in advance, and $22 at
the door. There are also discounts for seniors,
students, children, groups, and a special
3-day pass – check out the Festival website,
www. worldrosefestival.com for details. You
can get tickets online, or at various garden
centres, or from Brenda Viney.
So, we’re celebrating the VRS’s 60 th
anniversary in style by having these two
once-in-a-lifetime events. It promises to be a
wild, hectic, memorable, exciting, exhausting,
and exhilarating time! We have our two
indefatigable Co-Chairs, Brenda Viney and
Darlene Sanders, to thank for their tireless
dedication to these events. From winning the
bid for the Convention in 2003 at the World Rose
Convention in Scotland, they have shepherded
this project to its near-fruition. They have made
countless decisions along the way, gathered
a group of people around them to help with
4 June 2009
The Rose Bed