PANTS Canceled

Ellen C. Wells

PANTS—aka the Penn-Atlantic Nursery Trade Show—has been canceled for 2015. And it’s not a decision that was made by the Pennsylvania Landscape & Nursery Association, but by the show’s producers, Townsquare Expos, LLC. PANTS was originally scheduled for November 4-5, 2015.

The PLNA last produced the show back in 2012 and subsequently sold PANTS to an event company, MAC Events LLC. MAC was then acquired by Townsquare in 2014. While no longer owning the show, the PLNA did still have an interest in the show by helping to organize the educational programming and getting the word out about the show to the hort industry.

You may recall that PANTS had been a summer show—July to be specific. That’s a busy show month, to be sure. The 2015 show was to be the first to have been held in November. Given the short notice of cancellation, PLNA will not be able to pick up where Townsquare left off with the show planning. Without question, the PANTS cancellation leaves the Pennsylvania green industry in the lurch with regard to educational programming, CEUs, meetings, general statewide networking and the like. The PLNA Board of Directors will do some reviewing and brainstorming around what needs to be done to fill the gaps created. Stay tuned. GP