Dickson & McGonigle, Inc. An Overview of its Shows

See Also: Biographies of Karla Ficker and Cynthia O’Connor, owners of Dickson & McGonigle, Inc.

Karla Ficker and Cynthia O’Connor, co-owners of Dickson & McGonigle Inc., own two annual home shows in Maine and New Hampshire: the Seacoast Home, Garden & Flower Show at the Whittemore Center at UNH, Durham, NH, co-produced by Ficker and O’Connor; and the Maine Home, Remodeling and Garden Show at the Cumberland County Civic Center, Portland, Maine, produced by O’Connor. Ficker produces a third show, the Home, Garden & Flower Show at Fryeburg Fairgrounds in Fryeburg, Maine. Each of the shows features exhibitors from a wide variety of business and services ranging from national franchises to entrepreneurial start-ups.

In 2005, Ficker and O’Connor put together the Meet the Chefs cooking series for all three venues. The series is now an integral part of each show and has featured guest chefs from such renowned Maine and New Hampshire restaurants as The Balsams in Dixville Notch,NH; the Mountain View Grand in Whitefield, NH; the Samoset in Rockland, Maine; Wentworth-by-the-Sea in Portsmouth, NH, and Eve’s at the Garden at the Portland Harbor Hotel, Portland, Maine.

Dickson & McGonigle produced its first show in 1987. In 1989, the Maine Home, Remodeling & Restoration Show was born. Renamed as the Maine Home, Remodeling and Garden Show, the show continues to attract thousands of visitors annually. The show focuses on home-related products and services and features on-going demonstrations at exhibitor’s booths and seminars presented by experts and well-known personalities.

The Seacoast Home, Garden & Flower Show is a three-day show, two days of which are concurrent with the Annual UNH Greenhouse Open House. Since its beginnings in 1994, the show has expanded to occupy the entire Whittemore Center and outdoor space. This show and the Fryeburg show are endorsed by the New Hampshire Landscape Associations (NHLA) and the Maine Landscape and Nursery Association (MeLNA).

In 2005, the Landscape and Floral Pavilions were created to increase the impact of the displays and allow visitors to enjoy these spaces apart from the bustling arena floor below.

The youngest show, the Home, Garden & Flower Show at Fryeburg Fairgrounds, originated as a small regional show housed in the Ham Ice Arena in Conway, NH. After its second year, the show had outgrown that facility and it found a new home at the Fryeburg Fairgrounds in Fryeburg, Maine, where the growth potential is unlimited. In 2005, the show expanded to 60,000 square feet of indoor exhibitor space in six of the fair’s exhibit halls, and a third day was added to the schedule. In 2006, the Outdoor Marketplaces were added where local greenhouses and garden centers set up shop to provide seedlings, plants, flowering trees and shrubs, and all the accoutrements necessary for spring gardening. Also in 2006, the show experimented with a few boat and water sport vendors. The experiment was a success and boats and water toys will occupy a new space in 2007.