Every year the Industry Awards goes from strength to strength and we take pride in making it fair and robust. The judging panel is an integral part of the process as we combine judges marks with public votes to find our winners. The judges are a selection of industry specialists and the categories are split between them. This year the public voting and panel judging will take place online starting on 29th July and after the nominees have uploaded their information.
We will provide the links to vote as soon as voting opens.
Join us for the FleurEx weekend and the Awards Evening by purchasing tickets through the link below!
Thank you to all the judges in advance of your hard work and you can read all about your industry experts below.
Moderator: Nikki Meader
Nikki owns and runs West Malling Flowers in Kent. Nikki has taken the shop from strength to strength catering for all aspects of floristry, retail, weddings and funeral work. Nikki and her team have gained a well deserved reputation for quality and service which has lead to multiple awards including BFA retail florist of the year 2015 and 2016 before she joined the board. Nikki is currently Chair of the BFA and plays a vital role in organising our large florist focused events.
2023 Judges Panel
Johnathan Mosley
Jonathan has been working professionally within the floristry industry for over thirty years. He is a proud recipient of the Honorary membership of the IPF and was awarded the RHS Harlow Carr medal for services to Floristry in the North of England. As a British flower ambassador he is a proud advocate for seasonal flowers. Jonathan is one of the UK most widely recognised florists and he regularly appears on TV and in the media. He presents his popular flower demonstrations at the UK’s leading flower shows.
Katrina Skybak-Doyle
The founder and creative drive behind Cloud Hill Flowers is Katrina Skybak Doyle. The name “Cloud Hill” is “Skybak” translated from Norwegian as Katrina is half Norwegian.
Katrina is passionate about flowers and the art of floristry and qualified with Distinction in Floristry from Writtle University College. She is a studio based floral designer where floristry is part of Katrina’s day to day and even her family life, where her young daughter is an aspiring florist! Katrina lives with her husband and two young children in Little Baddow in the Essex countryside.
Katrina has worked extensively within the events, catering and hospitality industries in London, Essex, Suffolk & Spain. She is able to see a wedding or event from every perspective! As an experienced award-winning event stylist and a creative floral designer, she is able to concentrate on the detail and focus on the wow factor. Katrina is and has always adored flowers, using sustainable methods, creative design and loves making meaningful floral designs a reality.
Tracy Tomlinson
Tracy is the former manager of the BFA and her passion for floristry lies in both retail and competitions. Having owned her own retail shop for many years in Coventry she has also achieved several RHS medals and is the lead technical advisor for Florint in International competition work. Tracy is a UK Floristry Judges Guild member and a passionate industry supporter.
Mark Entwistle
Mark has been in the floral industry for 35 years. After passing his exams and taking part in many competitions, he worked as a tutor before becoming the Creative Director of The Black Rose in Knutsford, Cheshire, where he worked on catering to clients bespoke needs as well as wedding and event work. Mark has won many RHS medals and a few years ago took his Demonstrator exams. Mark now works all over the UK delivering demonstrations and workshops whilst also freelancing on weddings and events.
Julia Ryde
A florist with well over 20 years’ experience, Julia has spent most of her career in vocational education, teaching floristry and floral design at both FE and HE (levels 2-6). She has supported many students to achieve their potential and develop worthwhile careers and is passionate about empowering women to achieve success within this amazing industry. Julia has an MA in Education, and a string of other qualifications, but still maintains roots in commercial floristry. In 2011, Julia became a member of the Judges Guild after passing the UK judges examinations and has held various positions with the Guild over the years. Julia has developed the competitors training programme for the Guild and is currently the chair of the UKFJG.
Julia is passionate about competitions as a means to enhance training and education, she has recently returned to her roots as a retail florist.
John Davidson
Our BFA Commercial Operations Director John has a background in finance and investment banking before he joined the Tom Brown wholesale team. Johns family have a long history in the floral industry from florists to wholesalers and he has a passion to help all aspects of our industry succeed.
Sarah Horne
As an internationally renowned, creative floral artist Sarah has been awarded three Chelsea Gold medals for Professional Floristry and has also won the prestigious title of Chelsea Florist of the Year 2011. Her team have been delivering floral joy to the Royal Leamington Spa area for 40 years through her retail store.
Whilst working on a project to take Royal Leamington Spa to The Chelsea Flower Show in 2014 Sarah discovered she could draw, and now the world of art has opened up a whole new chapter. Her signature pen and ink illustrations now adorn the beautiful range of English giftware, Sarah Horne Botanicals, which is sold both Nationally and Internationally.
Simon Ogrizek
Simon has worked in the floral and horticulture industry since 1988 and graduated in Gardening technology, Floristry and Landscaping in 1991. Simon has degrees in Agronomy and Horticulture and is currently the President of Florint who are the global trade association for Floriculture. He has held this position since 2018 but been a Florint board member since 2011.
Simon is a certified international Florint judge and assessor which he achieved in 2002. He works on the technical committee for large scale international competitions and has done so since 2006. Simon also chaired the technical committee for the World Cup held in Berlin in 2015. For the 2019 Interflora World Cup in Philadelphia, he served as leader of the Jury and technical committee.
In his home country of Slovenia he is president of the Slovenian Florist Association and is the owner of the Floral and landscape consulting company.
Simon is passionate about education and is President of the Slovenian education committee at the chamber of craft and small business. In addition he is a governing board member of CEDEFOP (European centre for the development of vocational and educational training)
Simon is a lecturer for floristry, gardening and landscaping and is a member of a few state education commissions for agriculture, confirmed by the school minister of Solvenia. Simon has promoted and presented horticulture for over 12 years with more than 600 television shows under his belt working with VTV and national television.
Jo Biddle
Training and Education Director is an English Master Florist and qualified teacher and has taught Floristry related subjects for over 20 years, during which time she owned a successful floristry retail business in Lincolnshire for 10 years. She has helped to develop the new Level 2 Apprenticeship Florist Standard and completed her European Masters qualification in Floristry. Jo teaches on the Level 5 Master Diploma programme and oversees and verifies the apprenticeship programmes.
Join us to celebrate the winners at our awards evening. Tickets to both the FloriCon weekend and the Awards can be purchased through the link below
