Today we are chatting with Karen Barnes, founder of Karen Barnes floral industry consultancy. Karen is a wedding and events florist and teacher, works in product development & trend prediction for various global companies in the industry and is an international competition judge She also is a two-time  RHS Chelsea Flower Show gold medal winner We find out about Karens beginnings and how the many facets of her business work We chat about her product development/trend prediction roles and how these have seen her travel the world. We also touch on how she came into this type of work from her time as Head of product development for Interflora We talk about the rise of career change students coming into the industry and why we may have seen a large drop in entry level British school leavers hoping to have a career in flowers opting for traditional college floristry courses such as City & Guilds and National Diplomas We speak about floristry competitions, what it's like to be a judge,  how competition wins can benefit your profile, what the judges are looking for and her advice to those who would like to get into competition work (and lots more!) To find out more about Karen and her work please head over to https://www.karenbarnesconsultancy.com Find her on insta https://www.instagram.com/karenbarnes_kbc/ To find out more about floristry competitions please head to https://www.floristryjudgesguild.co.uk/competitions.htm https://www.britishfloristassociation.org/?s=competitions Thank you to Karen for such a wonderful conversation Support the show (http://www.instagram.com/girlflowerpodcast)