By: Ron Hall
I just returned from the Irrigation Association’s (IA) International Irrigation Show (IIS) in Tampa, FL. Again, I was reminded of irrigation’s importance to the continued health and growth of our Green Industry. Like some of you, maybe I’ve failed to give irrigation the attention that it deserves.
I don’t know that it’s all our fault though. Here’s why.
There seems to be a disconnect between the contractor segment of the Green Industry and the irrigation industry, at least in terms of trade shows. I understand that it’s mostly a timing issue. The Green Industry Expo (GIE), the landscape industry’s largest event, takes place just a week before the IIS. Few landscape companies have the money to send people to both.
Even so I don’t think having the two conferences and trade shows so close together serves either group very well.
This was my fifth IIS. Each year the emphasis on turf/landscape irrigation grows. Strangely, however, I don’t recall meeting a single landscape or lawn service irrigation manager or technician at the IIS, never mind a company owner. There might have been some there, but I didn’t run into them. I thought this was kind of curious.
I know that irrigation is vitally important to Florida’s Green Industry, indeed to the industry throughout the nation, including the Southeast, which is within driving distance of Tampa.
That got me to thinking about the recently concluded GIE event in Charlotte, NC. More than 5,000 landscape and grounds professionals were there. When I checked the trade show directory, I found out only 17 irrigation product manufacturers had a presence there. What better venue to reach contractors that, from what I learned at the International Irrigation Show, is one of the Green Industry’s largest target markets.
It seems to me that landscape contractors and suppliers to the irrigation industry have to get face-to-face if we’re really serious about practicing efficient landscape irrigation practices and water conservation.
Now, I’ll get down off my soapbox.
Here are some of my impressions after almost a week of educational sessions and talking to companies at this year’s IIS:
- There will be increased competition over who gets to use our finite fresh water resources. I’m convinced that in the near future (5 years? 10 years?) the availability of irrigation water will become the single most limiting factor to our industry’s continued growth.
- The Green Industry, which touches millions of consumers daily, is best positioned to educate the U.S. public on the need for and importance of proper landscape irrigation. It will have to partner with local and regional government bodies and water agencies.
- Irrigation product suppliers to the Green Industry are ahead of the contractors who install and maintain their systems. Today’s irrigation increasingly sophisticated technology can do marvelous things. Vendors use terms such as PC-operated, wireless, satellite-aided to describe it. In spite of manufacturers’ efforts to make this technology understandable and user friendly, many contractor and grounds pro end users don’t know what’s available and what it can do.
- Renovation or replacement of outdated irrigation systems represents a growing and potentially profitable contractor service opportunity, not to mention water and cost savings for clients.
The two biggest challenges facing the contractor and grounds segments of the Green Industry, in my opinion, are the availability of trained personnel (middle management and labor) and irrigation water.
We can go a long way in guaranteeing the latter by building a stronger relationship between the IA and the various contractor groups.
