2025 Texas Floral Expo
Beyond the Bio: Rocio Silva
Meet the Speaker — Rocio Silva AIFD CFD PFCI
Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico, is home to Rocio Silva AIFD CFD PFCI. She was inducted into AIFD in 2011 and is a member of the Mexican Council of Judges in Horticulture and Design. Silva holds the Professional Floral Communicator International designation from the Society of American Florists. She judges countless competitions as an AIFD Certified Evaluator and Accredited National Garden Club Judge. Silva is a past president of the Latin American Society of AIFD Members; a co-founder and director of the Instituto Mexicano Técnico Floral, which is the first floral design school in Mexico; and a floral designer for Oasis Floral Mexico.
Read MoreBeyond the Bio: Chris Collum-Williams
Meet the Speaker — Chris Collum-Williams AIFD CFD TMF
Chris Collum-Williams was the featured speaker at the 2024 Texas Floral Showcase in Salado. He will present two sessions at the Texas Floral Expo on June 27-29, 2025.
His 32-year career began in Levelland, Texas, as a delivery driver. As a Texas Master Florist, Collum-Williams launched a freelance career with jobs across the United States. He won the WesTexas New Mexico Florist Association (WTNM) Silver Cup Competition, and in 2010, he was inducted into the American Institute of Floral Designers (AIFD). Collum-Williams won the Texas Cup Competition and was named Texas Designer of the Year in 2015. He is a WTNM Past President, recipient of the WTNM Silver Rose Award and currently serves as a director on the AIFD National Board.
Read MoreBeyond the Bio: Hitomi Gilliam
Meet the Speaker — Hitomi Gilliam AIFD
Hitomi Gilliam will present two sessions at the 2025 Texas Floral Expo. She began her career as a farmer-florist, a greenhouse grower and landscape designer turned retail florist for the first half of her working life. She became a floral educator, presenting design programs and workshops worldwide for the past 35 years. Gilliam and her son Colin Gilliam founded DESIGN358, an education-based event company. She has published extensive floral educational programming with Colin as the executive producer and authored eight books.
A recipient of the American Horticultural Society’s Frances Jones Poeltker Award and a Gold Honors Best of Show winner at the Singapore Garden Festival Windows to the World International Floral Exhibit, Hitomi was inducted into the American Institute of Floral Designers (AIFD) in 1986. She has presented 10 main stage programs at various AIFD Symposia, received the prestigious AIFD Award of Design Influence in 1998 and was a featured artist at the Les Fleurs Sauvages Art Exhibit at Sotheby’s Institute of Art in New York City. She served as a judge for the 2020 Tournament of Roses Parade and is a Teleflora Education Specialist.
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