Michael Dirr announced as keynote speaker and presenter for CENTS 2013

CENTS Marketplace, the Central Environmental Nursery Trade Show, announces that Michael Dirr will headline next year's event as its keynote speaker and presenter. Dirr is a Mercer scholar, international author of 13 books and more than 300 publications, and considered one of the green industry’s most celebrated plant experts.

“It’s wonderful for me to be able to return to Columbus and be part of the innovative CENTS business conference I’ve heard so much about,” Dirr said in a recent press release. “The ability to not only present at CENTS and the Ohio State University Nursery Short Course but really meet and speak with professionals who share my passion is truly meaningful.”

A professor of horticulture at the University of Georgia, his teaching, lectures, seminars, garden study tours and plant introduction programs have contributed to industry awareness, and his book “Dirr’s Hardy Trees and Shrubs” is the bestselling title of its genre.

Dirr has received numerous awards and honors during his career, most recently the Liberty Hyde Bailey Medal from the American Horticulture Society. He earned both his bachelor’s and master’s at The Ohio State University, and a doctorate in plant physiology at the University of Massachusetts. 

CENTS Marketplace will be held January 14-16, 2013 at The Greater Columbus Convention Center and is sponsored by the Ohio Nursery Landscape Association (ONLA). CENTS is offered annually to green industry professionals to provide business knowledge about sales, operations and profitability along with continuing education through The Ohio State University Nursery Short Course. The conference draws in more than 8,000 exhibitors and attendees including growers, independent garden centers, landscape contractors, arborists, turf and pest management professionals.