The Fresh Produce & Floral Council’s Southern California Expo July 15 at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim drew 1,500 participants and over 200 exhibitors in 200 booths, about 40 percent representing the floral industry.

“Navigating the Future,” the show’s slogan, opened with its Keynote Awards Breakfast where Capt. Richard Phillips delivered the keynote address about his ordeal at sea after Somali pirates hijacked his ship and held him hostage for five days in 2009.

The theme ‘People at the Heart of the Industry’ aptly captures the intentions to highlight the great relationships that make our industry so unique as set out by outgoing QPMA President Marie Gosselin of Les Serres du St-Laurent (Savoura). Accompanied by her husband, Marc Boutet, and alongside co-hosts Convention Chair Enrico Charest of Sobeys Quebec Inc. and his partner, Marie-Pierre Daigneault, Gosselin capped an eventful year with a successful closing banquet.

Specialty cut flower growers from across the country will head to the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States Oct. 19-22 for the 2014 national conference and tradeshow of the Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers in Newark, DE. The theme of the show is Growing Growers, according to a news release.

The 2014 Floral Distribution Conference Oct. 22-24 at the Trump National Doral Resort in Miami will focus on networking, business opportunities and education. Under the banner “Connect, Learn, and Grow,” the two-and-a-half day event is designed to provide high-impact value, according to an association news release.

Miami International Airport is the No. 1 United States airport for imported perishables with 91.4 percent of all imported cut flowers arriving at MIA and 70 percent of all perishables. These volumes have increased over the years and allowed the various businesses at MIA to grow and to offer quick service.

The future of transporting fresh-cut flowers worldwide could quite literally undergo a sea change. Maersk Container Industry of Denmark is partnering with Boston-based technology company Primaira LLC to develop an air cleaning system in Star Cool Integrated refrigerated shipping containers, according to a company news release. The Bluezone patented technology uses an ozone concentration 300 times higher than anything else on the market to eliminate molds, fungi, ethylene and bacteria. This will increase the geographical reach of containerized transport.