Taking Place

Responding at length to Deb’s question . . .

Landscape architecture is a funny trade, and attracting landscape architects to events isn’t easy.  Here are some thoughts on how to motivate them:

Landscape architects make up a tiny minority within the design professions, the “green industry,” and the green movement.  Most events of potential interest to landscape architects are primarily designed for other audiences.  Attending another profession’s workshop can be eye-opening, but it can also be a waste of time.  So if you think that your event is a good fit for landscape architects, say so clearly.  (Even consider including “for Landscape Architects” in the title of the event.)  If you’re not sure it’s really geared towards landscape architects — but you don’t want to change the event at the expense of other audiences — divide it into segments and give prospective attendees a menu that helps them select the parts that fit.  Invite the landscape architects to the part that’s for them.  If they’re interested enough to attend the other portions, so much the better.

If the event can contribute to a landscape architect’s ability to serve the public’s health, safety, and welfare, see if you can have it recognized for continuing education (CE) credits by landscape architecture licensing boards, or their surrogates, in neighboring states.  (Massachusetts does not require CE for landscape architects, but many Massachusetts landscape architects are licensed in states that do.)  Working with the states can be cumbersome, so another route is to affiliate with an “approved sponsor” (an organization like the BSA or the BSLA that is known by the states and that knows how the states work).  All other things being equal, a landscape architect will choose an event that provides CE credits over one that doesn’t.

Check the calendar.  September is the first month that everyone’s back to work, and the last month of more or less reliably good weather, and it’s the time that landscape architects and their clients shake off the dog day doldrums and realize they’ve got deadlines and board meetings coming up.  (Not to mention the ASLA annual meeting.)  Maybe October is better?

Finally, don’t assume that lack of attendance means lack of interest.  Landscape architects reluctantly accept that they can’t know everything about everything they do, that they must choose their battles, and that good practice includes working with (and learning from) specialists.  It follows that if the work can be done by a specialist, the landscape architect needs to have a general understanding but not an expert’s depth.  For a landscape architect who isn’t intimately involved with the subject matter of the workshop, it may be enough to file the event notice as a reminder of whom to call when that expertise is needed.  And that’s not such a bad thing.  Thanks to people like Deb and blogs like hers, there are ways to learn about almost any subject without leaving one’s desk.  It’s not the same as seeing a demo in person, but it’s good information and it’s available in a way it never was before.  And with less dust.