Miami’s Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden has been working with EPIC Entertainment Group, a producer of themed entertainment, live events, and immersive environments, since 2018, when the firm was brought in to enhance the attraction’s annual holiday light show.
Since then, the partnership has grown, with EPIC now managing and overseeing all guest-facing day-to-day operations such as retail, admissions, facilities, security and parking, as well as event production and operation. As a result of the collaboration, Fairchild has seen a record number of visitors, and the company’s strategies are helping to enhance the guest experience, build repeat visits, and boost revenue.
To learn more about the relationship and how Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden is benefitting from EPIC Entertainment Group’s experiential marketing model in action, we spoke to Fairchild’s deputy director, Nannette Zapata, alongside EPIC’s founders and managing partners, Steve Sheldon and Charity Hill.
Fairchild: more than a botanic garden
Established in 1936, Fairchild is the United States’ first tropical botanical garden. Located in Miami, Florida, Fairchild was designed by landscape architect William Lyman Phillips, who also contributed to the design of Central Park. The garden’s layout combines narrow pathways with expansive vistas, creating a stunning visual and sensory experience.
Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden is not merely a botanical garden but a community-centric institution deeply rooted in science and education. With the most extensive STEM program in botany globally, Fairchild engages over 70-80% of low-income students from diverse backgrounds, offering them unparalleled access to scientific education and resources. The garden collaborates with NASA through the Growing Beyond Earth project, where students worldwide help determine which plants are best suited for growth on the International Space Station.
Additionally, the Million Orchid Project aims to restore a million orchids to South Florida and involves students in hands-on cultivation and conservation activities. These initiatives reflect Fairchild’s commitment to fostering youth scientific literacy and environmental stewardship.
Commitment to the guest experience
Fairchild’s dedication to the guest experience is rooted in the belief that humans are intrinsically connected to nature. The garden aims to give visitors an immersive experience that awakens a sense of wonder and tranquillity. The layout minimises noise pollution and strategically positions buildings around the perimeter, ensuring visitors fully immerse themselves in the natural surroundings.
Zapata emphasises that exceptional guest service must complement the garden’s beauty. Visitors are treated not as customers but as guests, with the garden staff acting as gracious hosts. This philosophy ensures that every aspect of the visitor experience, from the natural environment to the service provided, contributes to a memorable and enriching visit.
“The garden is the most important thing, and everything we do supports that. We’ve been voted one of the most beautiful gardens in the world. But if our service is lousy, then we’re certainly not the most beautiful because you won’t enjoy it if your experience was ruined by bad service.”
This commitment to the guest experience is a core value that EPIC Entertainment shares, says Hill:
“When we go forward with a project, it begins and ends with the guest, which often sets us apart. When we’re curating an experience, from start to finish, we are thinking, what result do we want our guests to attain? Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden and EPIC are very much aligned in that approach when we’re looking at what our event schedule, the retail experience, the offerings from admissions and tickets and membership, and the educational and entertainment components look like.”
The start of a successful partnership
Fairchild’s collaboration with EPIC Entertainment began with the annual holiday light show, with EPIC handling operations and ticketing. The relationship has since grown, and now EPIC plays a crucial role in various events and activations at the garden. The firm brings expertise in guest services and operations, enhancing Fairchild’s ability to provide exceptional experiences. Its innovation and knowledge of industry trends also keep Fairchild’s offerings fresh and engaging.
Zapata praises EPIC’s professionalism and their deep understanding of Fairchild’s unique environment, ensuring that events are seamlessly integrated into the garden without compromising its natural beauty:
“When we worked on that first project together, they saw the value of the space and ensured that the light experience was not just plopped on. The garden cannot simply be the canvas; it supplements the experience – it has to feel all as one thing, and they understand that.”
“In addition, I appreciated how thorough they were in the guest services and operations components, working alongside our team and ensuring that the temporary staff were well trained, not just to the standards of the show, but rather the standards of the garden. They understood that while there is a distinction operationally, to the guest, everything is Fairchild.
“Experts are always going to do things better than non-experts. We’re horticulturalists and educators; that’s what we are good at. But EPIC is an entertainment business. It’s what they do. The idea was that if we give that side of the business to a company with the right expertise, it will improve.
“It turned out to be the right decision for Fairchild. We’ve been at this for three or four years, and everything is improving daily.”
Making memories
EPIC also knew that the experiences it was providing needed to have meaning, says Hill:
“It’s one thing to provide entertainment, but at a place like Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, which has such an amazing mission, we have to make sure that it’s both educational and entertaining; it has to have a purpose. So, let’s not just do dinosaurs in the garden. Let’s bring in the whole Jurassic Age and talk about the flora and fauna in the garden from that era. It’s about weaving that story through the experience, so your guest leaves fulfilled in myriad ways.”
Sheldon adds:
“We shape the experience that our guests have, and so we have to take that responsibility seriously. People are choosing to spend their discretionary time and dollars and make what could potentially be core memories with their families with us.
“We say to our team, what you do and how you help this guest to have an experience could be the difference between them walking away and going ‘Oh, my gosh, what a phenomenal experience’ or leading to a kid that remembers for the rest of their lives, versus ‘Oh, this was awful’ or just a fleeting moment that they never remember again. You get to choose how you help these guests.
“The garden is so committed to guest experience to the point that they have sometimes challenged us in terms of whether the guest not only walked away happy but did they walk away with the biggest smile we could possibly put on their face. They want to take guest satisfaction to the next level.
“It has been fun to partner with an organisation that is fully committed to ensuring guests have a great experience.”
Special events and activations
Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden hosts various events throughout the year, each designed to highlight different aspects of the garden and its collections. Significant events include the Orchid, Mango, and Chocolate Festivals, each focusing on specific plant species and their stories. These events not only draw visitors but also educate them about the garden’s diverse collections and the importance of plant conservation.
During the summer, the garden features family-friendly shows like Jurassic Garden, which uses dinosaurs to teach children about prehistoric plants. Evening events, such as concerts and nighttime garden strolls, offer visitors a chance to experience the garden in a different light, literally and figuratively. These events emphasise the garden’s beauty at dusk and night, providing a unique perspective on the natural environment.
Revenue from these events supports Fairchild’s extensive education and science programs. Visitors are informed that their participation helps fund the education of local students, making their visit a meaningful contribution to the community.
Talking about the event strategy, Sheldon says:
“When we first embarked on this relationship with the garden, they had some traditional events they knew they wanted to continue with. Things like the Mango Festival and the Orchid Festival are part of the garden and are important to the members and guests. So, we wanted to enhance those events.
“We also wanted to add more seasonal events throughout the year, and then we wanted to layer in experiences that would be like a one-month-long experience or activation, such as we had recently with Enchanted Fairies. These drive people to return and also drive new visitors as well throughout the year.”
See also: Experiential marketing: how events can be a secret weapon in boosting loyalty & revenue
Expanding the demographic at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden
A key goal was to expand the demographic of the garden:
“We wanted to connect with younger people,” says Hill. “Things like the Mango and Chocolate Festivals are amazing, but we wanted to make them speak to three generations. Everybody loves chocolate. But we thought about how to make that event more immersive and educational.
“Going back to that educating while entertaining component, there’s a way for a young audience to take that in, and then there’s a way for your typical plant lover to take that in. We try to differentiate those audiences.
“For example, with the Orchid Festival, we draw the date night crowd with speciality cocktails and vanilla tasting. Then, we offer craft activities for the kids, like painting orchids and petals. Meanwhile, the plant lover might be able to take in a sound bath based on the frequency of certain plants. There’s something that speaks to everyone. Coming from a perspective where we know production pretty well, we can layer those things in faster than many people could.”
“We’ve also worked to activate new elements, like evenings,” says Sheldon. “The garden is so beautiful in the evening, but like most gardens, it closes around five o’clock in the afternoon, and there were very few opportunities for people to experience the garden at night.
“We’ve developed a music series throughout the summer that offers people the opportunity to come and enjoy cocktails and light music and walk through the garden. Or, with the Jurassic Garden show, they can come and have cocktails with the dinosaurs and see them lit up at night. It’s about filling opportunities with programming that might not have previously existed.
“For attractions and venues that are open year-round, the changing content is really what helps to drive those new and repeat visitors.”
Experiential marketing
To that point, most attractions rely on new and repeat visitors to sustain revenue successfully.
“It’s not an easy feat to continually create different experiences, especially when you have other priorities,” says Sheldon. “For example, at Fairchild, the mission is all based on education and they do phenomenal programming. That created an opportunity for someone else to come in with a different perspective and look at all the other things we can add.”
“Steve and I are capable of creating these experiences that make you want to buy into them more, which means you’re bringing more revenue back to that mission,” adds Hill. “We can find and uncover those additional revenue streams and build them into something more robust to support furthering their mission.
“A lot of times, nonprofits work on such a small scale of budget that they don’t necessarily have the time to uncover all of this; they have the capability but maybe not the resources or the time. All of the event programming that we do is advertising. It’s immersive, social advertising, which is what people want, that organic connection. We’re killing two birds with one stone.”
In terms of the types of attractions that would benefit from this approach, she adds:
“Zoos, aquariums, gardens, heritage sites and monuments, and any locations that need help with their marketing budget would do very well to have a partner. They would be better off spending their money on enhancing the experience for their members and guests, which will, in turn, also market their programme and their location.
“It’s about redefining and re-examining how you spend your dollars and how you can make them work for you in multiple ways.”
Impact and future plans for Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden
The partnership with EPIC Entertainment has significantly boosted Fairchild’s revenue. This, in turn, supports the garden’s educational and scientific initiatives, ensuring that Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden can continue to provide valuable resources to the community.
Zapata highly recommends this collaboration model to other botanical gardens and heritage attractions, with the caveat that finding the right partner is crucial. The success of Fairchild’s partnership with EPIC lies in their shared values and complementary expertise, resulting in a synergistic relationship that enhances both organisations.
“It’s an unusual model because, essentially, we’ve disrupted the way things have traditionally been done to try something new,” says Zapata. “If it’s not the right partner, it won’t work, and you’ll never want to try it again. But the relationship with EPIC works perfectly. We understand that they’re going to know things that we don’t know – because this is what they do every single day.”
“It has been a great opportunity for us because Fairchild is so open to ideas and to us coming in with a fresh perspective on the garden,” says Sheldon. “For example, we saw a massive opportunity in the retail shop to redefine that experience and to add a new element, the first shop Bistro, which we introduced last year. That’s been extremely popular, serving coffee and curated, elevated snacks in the retail shop.
“The sky’s the limit, and they dream big in the garden,” adds Hill. “So, it’s great to dream with them and help some of that come to fruition. The garden itself is one of the most magical places on earth. Without any programming, it’s unique and beautiful unto itself, and it’s just enjoyable to play and develop those things with them.”
What’s next?
Looking ahead, Fairchild has a busy and exciting year planned. The summer will feature the Jurassic Garden exhibit, the famous Mango Festival, and a jazz concert series. As the year progresses, the garden will host additional plant shows and the much-anticipated holiday light show in collaboration with EPIC Entertainment.
Elsewhere, EPIC is also working on projects for several other attractions and recently extended its partnership with the popular Hersheypark Dark Nights season. The park has engaged the company to take on an extended role in the Halloween event that includes make-up, costume, and talent direction, in addition to overseeing production, stage management, and technical direction.
The partnership between Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden and EPIC Entertainment exemplifies how collaboration between experts in different fields can enhance visitor experiences while supporting broader educational and scientific goals. Fairchild’s commitment to providing a beautiful and immersive natural environment and EPIC’s expertise in event management and guest services creates a model that other institutions can emulate.
This successful partnership benefits the visitors and contributes significantly to the community, ultimately aiding Fairchild in its botanical education and conservation mission.
