Putting together an annual conference is not unlike making a film. It requires a creative vision and a script; actors, musicians, art directors, costumers and dozens of technically adept craftspeople to bring a script to life; a director, some producers, and a business back-office to keep it on track; a great caterer for cast and crew; and finally a finely honed marketing strategy to bring the audience to the box office. Literally hundreds of talented people gather, become a team, do their thing, and then disperse (but not before the time-honored wrap party) - all in the service of bringing something special to life.

We hope you will agree that the APGA 2008 Annual Conference, The Big Picture, opening on June 22, 2008 in Pasadena for a limited engagement, deserves thumbs-up from APGA members, APGA member gardens, and all who are engaged with the public gardens movement. With the conference headquarters located in Pasadena, attendees will have an ideal base camp for experiencing the many sites, scenes and moods of Los Angeles and southern California. And within the meeting rooms of the Langham Huntington Hotel & Spa, on site at pre-conference workshops and tour destinations, and in visits to the four host gardens you will encounter creative resources, collegial colleagues, inspiration, education and in-service training opportunities galore. It will be like a dozen multiplexes, all showing a rich mix of the classics and the newest releases.

But The Big Picture attempts to do more than entertain you. Yes, we will pay our respects to southern California's most prominent (if not its biggest) industry and have some fun with it, too. More important, from our perch out here on the left Coast, exposed as we are in some unusual and quite personal ways to the major environmental and land-use issues of the day, we hope this conference will engage both your intellect and your imagination to connect you, your work, your institution and your sense of professional purpose to the big-picture issues of our time: climate change, biodiversity, conservation, energy policy, sustainability, and survivability in a mutable cultural and communication milieu. To that end, the 2008 Annual Conference consists of six diverse program tracks: Feature Presentations (Horticulture and Collections), Mysteries and Romance (Advancement and Development), Comedy and Drama (Administration and Management), Blockbusters and Coming Attractions (Marketing and Communications), Sci-Fi (Technology), and Action/Adventure (Education and Outreach).

Before the conference curtain goes up and during the feature presentation there will be ample time to meet and greet, hear above-the-title speakers who have looked at our precious planet from two entirely different perspectives, visit some wonderful and iconic places in southern California, and sample hospitality from Old Pasadena to Malibu. We hope you enjoy the show!