Boston and APLD Conference 2017

By Katie Weber - President-elect, APLDWA
Katie Weber Landscape Design

This year's APLD conference was my seventh since 2006, and my fourth in four years. I've been to some fantastic places: Pasadena, Portland, San Francisco, Orlando, Washington D.C., Santa Fe, and now Boston; and every year I get more out of the experience of going. Let me try and explain.

I just recently realized that I think of the annual conference as my life raft. It carries me from year to year; it's a job survival tool, providing that jolt of inspiration, infusion of knowledge, and personal support from fellow designers that as a sole proprietor I'm starved for. Without my raft, I'd flounder as a designer. And it's the spending time with 'my people', my tribe of designers and contractors from all over the country, that gets better and better every year and makes the conference experience more valuable with each year. As a good friend of mine said, "people join people." I couldn't agree more.

In Boston, the lectures were amazing (Julie Moir Messervy!) and the gardens were beautiful. Here are some my favorite garden moments:

































And for every beautiful garden space, I had an equal number of 'people time' moments:


The view from my seat at Fenway Park for Boston vs. NY.


Visited the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and thoroughly enjoyed the indoor garden courtyard.


Eating lots of lobster!


Roommate and Commander-in-chief, Lisa Port.


Incoming national president, Danilo Maffei, makes everything look good!


Visiting Spectacle Island before flying home.


When Joe Salemi announced that the next conference will be in Toronto, ON (September 13-17, 2018), I immediately put it into my calendar. How can I NOT go?


This year's APLDWA contingent (left to right): myself, Lisa Port, APLD, Jeremy Adams, Tina Nyce, FAPLD, Kevin Monohan, Susie Thompson, APLD, and Naomi Goodman.