It’s mid-December, which means in a normal year you’d be double-checking your hotel reservations for Baltimore (if you didn’t have it by now, you were out of luck) and possibly perusing the online menu of Kona Grill for the lunch offerings you could enjoy at MANTS.

Alas, this is no normal year, and sadly, none of us will be able to head out to Baltimore this January for what has always been the kickoff event of the winter trade show season. Instead, however, the fine folks at MANTS are offering a Business Hub on January 6 - 8 instead, featuring more than 530 exhibiting companies.

This sounds a little different than the virtual shows we’ve been attending all year, too. According to MANTS officials, the Hub’s intelligent matching technology will identify exhibitors who offer the products and services of interest to each attendee to provide a personalized starting point. You will receive 100 Connect Emails and 30 Connect Appointments you can use to reach out to exhibiting companies to schedule a time for conversation during the show.

If that isn’t enough, you can still search exhibitor profiles via the floorplan and an alphabetized list, as well as explore new and featured products. There will be virtual group sales presentations, live product demonstrations and hosted drop-in hours, too. You’ll have access to all the content provided by the Business Hub for 90 days after the show (a feature I’ve found helpful from virtual trade shows this year).

  
This fun display is a throwback to MANTS from a couple of years ago, and an example of the creative ideas you can glean from the event.

All this is available for $10 per person. Visit MANTS.com to find out more and register.

It’s weird, but true. As of right now, several of the markets are gearing up for in-person buying this winter, with strict COVID-19 rules in place. Total aside: We’ve heard based on experience at previous markets this year that few eating options are available in some locations, so make sure you have a lunch plan when you go.

International Market Centers announced its lineup of market dates for 2021, including the Atlanta Market January 12-19 (with temporaries open January 13-17) at AmericasMart Atlanta, and Las Vegas Market January 24-28 (temporaries January 24-27) at World Market Center Las Vegas. You can find more details and the updated COVID-19 plan at www.imcenters.com.

 
AmericasMart in Atlanta pre-COVID.

Dallas Market Center is on track to host its Total Home & Gift Market January 6-12. They have safety protocols in place and you can familiarize yourself with them before you go at www.dallasmarketcenter.com.

Other markets either have been canceled, moved to a different date or gone virtual, so be sure to check HortCalendar.com and click through to the event’s website for updates.

Ellen Wells writes our Tropical Topics enewsletter (if you don’t get it and you buy, sell or trade houseplants and tropicals, CLICK HERE immediately to sign up). She recently had the skinny on what’s happening with that show since they announced the cancellation of the live event. Here are those deets from Ellen:

I just received an email from the folks at FNGLA filled to the brim with information about the online version of the Tropical Plant International Expo (TPIE). They're trying their best to keep the most popular aspects of the show as part of the online programming. And while it'll be impossible to recreate the warm weather and swaying palm trees (unless that’s where you live), they can certainly offer online versions of the keynote, educational sessions, and plant and product listings that’ll rival what you’d get at an in-person event.

Speaking of keynotes, Max Luthy’s Opening Session, “Unstoppable: How Consumers Will Thrive in 2021” will be offered at NO CHARGE. How generous! It’s because FNGLA recognizes that Max’s insights never fail to help raise the bar for everyone who hears them. And we can also thank the session sponsor, LiveTrends, for that opportunity, too.

The original six TPIE educational sessions are also a go (online, that is). The fee for those has been reduced from $75 (the onsite price) to just $25. Both the keynotes and education sessions will be offered live (so you can ask questions) and will also be available as recorded sessions.

Other items to note:

• The Create Theatre workshops will be recorded sessions and will be complimentary.
• The Cool Products Awards are still on! Exhibitors will be able to nominate one of their products and The Garden Center Group’s Danny Summers will interview the exhibitor for product info. They’ll have it set up so that you, the viewer, can vote for what you like best. That’s a great idea!
• They're working on ways to get buyers and sellers in touch, and may even have a printed gallery of TPIE products if enough folks are interested. Stay tuned for more on exhibitor-attendee connections.

All of this is ongoing and fluid. More information will be available in the coming weeks. You’re encouraged to REGISTER for the virtual TPIE event. And, it goes without saying, thank you for your patience as the staff works on creating this new event.

We’re still finding that workshops and classes are still easily moved online, and, in fact, moving them online often allows more people to attend who otherwise might not be able to. So, with that in mind, we offer up the UConn Extension Webinar series for Greenhouse Growers.

The series, which runs Monday, January 4 through Friday, January 8 from Noon to 1:00 p.m. each day, is designed for commercial growers producing vegetables and herbs as seedlings or transplants in heated greenhouses. It features five different webinar sessions taught by what some might call an Avengers-level lineup of academia:

• Dr. Roberto Lopez of Michigan State University speaking on Achieving Transplant Uniformity
• Dr. Paul Fisher from University of Florida on Managing the Root-Zone in Plug Trays
• Dr. Neil Mattson from Cornell University speaking about Using Organic Fertilizers for Vegetable Transplants
• Leanne Pundt, University of Connecticut Extension Coordinator, on Identifying and Managing Pests of Vegetable Transplants
• Dr. Meg McGrath of Cornell University speaking about Identifying & Preventing Common Diseases in Herbs and Vegetable Seedlings in the Greenhouse

Connecticut growers and students can register for $25 for the whole series, while growers outside of the state can register at $25 per webinar (still a great price for valuable information).

CLICK HERE for more details and to register. Registration includes handouts for every presentation and pesticide recertification credits for Connecticut and New England states for three of the presentations (you can find these details in the link).

These webinars will be hosted by Dr. Rosa E. Raudales and Leanne, both with UConn Extension. The program is co-sponsored by UConn Extension and USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.