Glee 2026 Agenda

Discover three days of garden retail seminars, keynote sessions and expert-led talks at the NEC Birmingham. From garden centre operations and retail strategy to sustainability and the future of horticulture, every session is built around what actually matters to your business.

Hear from the people running some of the UK's most respected garden centres, alongside the researchers and strategists tracking change across the industry. Sessions span two dedicated stages: Centre Stage, covering garden retail trends, leadership and business strategy, and the Feed Your Business Stage, dedicated to food and beverage retail, hospitality innovation and turning your food offering into a genuine profit driver.

Glee Speakers

Loading
08 Sept 2026
    • Innovation & Ideas
    New Product Showcase
    Garden retail's brightest innovators are buzzing with excitement to pitch their groundbreaking new products! Watch as exhibitors create quite the buzz presenting to our expert judging panel, each hopi ...
    • Know Your Market
    • Food & Hospitality
    • Innovation & Ideas
    Feed Your Business Stage
    Coffee has long been part of the garden centre offer — but the gap between operators who treat it as a destination and those who treat it as a sideline has never been wider. As consumer expectations s ...
    • Know Your Market
    • Lead & Grow
    Centre Stage
    What’s really happening in garden retail right now and what consumer trends are set to shape the market to come? Drawing on the HTA’s unrivalled data ecosystem, Laura Loveridge & Harry Redman bring to ...
    • Work Smarter
    • Food & Hospitality
    Feed Your Business Stage
    Your menu isn’t just a list, it’s your most powerful profit tool. In this straight-talking session, we unpack the mechanics of menu engineering for garden centre hospitality.   From layout psychology ...
    • Know Your Market
    • Work Smarter
    • Win More Customers
    Centre Stage
    Most retailers have the data, very few are using it properly. In this practical, no-nonsense session, Vanessa Cranford breaks down how garden retailers can turn everyday data into better decisions, st ...
    • Innovation & Ideas
    New Product Showcase
    Garden retail's brightest innovators are buzzing with excitement to pitch their groundbreaking new products! Watch as exhibitors create quite the buzz presenting to our expert judging panel, each hopi ...
    • Future Ready
    • People Power
    Feed Your Business Stage
    Documentation, training and communication form the foundation of effective due diligence in allergen and food safety management. This session will explore why robust, business-appropriate systems are ...
    • Lead & Grow
    • Work Smarter
    Centre Stage
    Most retailers have the data, very few are using it properly. In this practical, no-nonsense session, Vanessa Cranford breaks down how garden retailers can turn everyday data into better decisions, st ...
    • Work Smarter
    • Win More Customers
    • Food & Hospitality
    Feed Your Business Stage
    Self-order screens, milk automation, QR codes, app ordering… the tech is here, but how far should you go?   This session explores how to use automation to improve speed of service and consistency with ...
    • Win More Customers
    • Innovation & Ideas
    Centre Stage
    Join the one and only Michael Perry – Mr Plant Geek – for an exciting journey into the future of horticulture that's sure to leave you buzzing with inspiration! Starting with a captivating presentatio ...
    • Innovation & Ideas
    New Product Showcase
    The moment we've all been buzzing about has finally arrived! Join us for the grand finale as we announce the winners of the Glee New Product Awards and crown this year's innovation champions. After a ...
09 Sept 2026
    • Future Ready
    • Work Smarter
    Centre Stage
    Water is one of the most overlooked and least understood costs in garden retail. In this practical panel discussion, Wave are joined by the National Trust to explore how better visibility and control ...
    • Work Smarter
    • Food & Hospitality
    Feed Your Business Stage
    Your menu isn’t just a list, it’s your most powerful profit tool. In this straight-talking session, we unpack the mechanics of menu engineering for garden centre hospitality.   From layout psychology ...
    • Lead & Grow
    • Innovation & Ideas
    Centre Stage
    • People Power
    • Food & Hospitality
    Feed Your Business Stage
    Finding great hospitality talent has never been harder — but some operators are consistently getting it right. Drawing on decades of experience recruiting across the hospitality sector, Penny Cook sha ...
    • People Power
    • Lead & Grow
    Centre Stage
    Finding and keeping the right people remains one of the biggest challenges facing garden retail — but it’s not a problem without solutions. In this candid panel discussion, Guy Moreton (MorePeople) br ...
    • Win More Customers
    • Food & Hospitality
    Feed Your Business Stage
    As garden centres evolve and attract an increasingly diverse audience, their restaurants need to do more than simply serve food - they must offer compelling reasons for people to stay, explore, and re ...
    • Lead & Grow
    • Innovation & Ideas
    Centre Stage
    After a full trading cycle leading Squire’s Garden Centres, Sam Dickson brings a fresh, outside-in perspective on one of the UK’s most established garden retail businesses. With senior experience acro ...
    • Lead & Grow
    • Work Smarter
    • Food & Hospitality
    Feed Your Business Stage
    With responsibility for more than 80 catering sites across British Garden Centres, Ricky Towers oversees one of the largest hospitality operations in UK garden retail. In this candid fireside conversa ...
    • Win More Customers
    • Innovation & Ideas
    Centre Stage
    Join the one and only Michael Perry – Mr Plant Geek – for an exciting journey into the future of horticulture that's sure to leave you buzzing with inspiration! Starting with a captivating presentatio ...
10 Sept 2026
    • Win More Customers
    • Innovation & Ideas
    Centre Stage
    Join the one and only Michael Perry – Mr Plant Geek – for an exciting journey into the future of horticulture that's sure to leave you buzzing with inspiration! Starting with a captivating presentatio ...
    • Work Smarter
    • Food & Hospitality
    Feed Your Business Stage
    Your menu isn’t just a list, it’s your most powerful profit tool. In this straight-talking session, we unpack the mechanics of menu engineering for garden centre hospitality.   From layout psychology ...
    • Future Ready
    • Lead & Grow
    • Work Smarter
    Centre Stage
    Hillier isn’t talking about sustainability, they’re proving what it looks like in practice. As one of the UK’s leading growers and garden centre operators and an HTA Sustainability Reference Site, the ...
    • Win More Customers
    • Food & Hospitality
    • Innovation & Ideas
    Feed Your Business Stage
    Unique customer food propositions are the difference between simply selling food, or owning it! In this session, discover how leading garden centres and farm shops are creating memorable food experien ...
    • Innovation & Ideas
    Centre Stage
    Get ready to bloom for a brilliant cause as Floral Thursday takes hold of Glee! Join us for the grand draw of our charity raffle plus prizes for the best dressed floral teams and individuals who've em ...

See what else is shaping retail

Alongside the Glee agenda, you'll also have access to the Autumn Fair sessions covering retail crime prevention, visual merchandising, social media strategy and live Dragons' Den-style product pitches. Discover fresh ideas and practical takeaways from some of retail's leading experts.

View Autumn Fair agenda