You can e-mail, facebook, post to discussion forums, send text messages and IM all you want, but nothing takes the place of meeting face-to-face. There's just no substitute for the mental energy that sparks when you physically sit down and talk with people in the same business.  Those critical "Aha!" moments of enlightenment — when you suddenly see the answer to a longstanding challenge — happen more over coffee than a keyboard.

And when it comes to post-recession opportunities, the freshest-thinkers are likely to scoop up them up first.

In his June 2 e-newsletter Bill Schodowski of Delaware Valley Floral Group put it this way:  ""It's time to re-tool... re-group... and re-energize. . . . Coming out of the recession all of the rules have changed.  The customer has changed....and our industry has changed.  This is not the time to do 'same old...same old.'  Spend some time with some of our industry's brightest talents and work on solutions...and set direction for future success. I am going to attend (SAF Growth Solutions) and I urge each of you to attend as well."