Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and continued regulatory uncertainty, the 2020 GIE+EXPO show will be postponed until next year, according to the Outdoor Power Equipment Institute (OPEI).
Show ownership and management of GIE+EXPO have been monitoring the situation closely, and have been working with state and local authorities to put on the safest show possible. The unpredictable nature of such a rapidly evolving environment prohibited this year’s show from taking place safely.
Planning is already underway for GIE+EXPO 2021, which is scheduled to take place Oct. 20-22 in Louisville. Registration is currently open for next year’s event here.
“The health and safety of our attendees and exhibitors is critical, and it is with profound regret that we announce the cancellation of our 2020 event,” said Kris Kiser, president and CEO of OPEI, and managing partner of GIE+EXPO. “We’re looking forward to 2021 and already gearing up to make our next show a dynamic and engaging experience for the entire industry. I encourage exhibitors and attendees that have already registered or secured exhibit space to roll those monies forward to the 2021 show.”
The annual trade show is sponsored by the Outdoor Power Equipment Institute, Professional Grounds Management Society and National Association of Landscape Professionals.
“After the last four months of the events that have transpired, it does logically make sense that the event would be canceled,” said Michael Bedell, owner of Bedell Property Management in Milford, Mich. “I just hope that myself and other contractors make opportunities to network, whether that’s just with people in their own market or take advantage of other networking opportunities to network and grow their business. The short-term challenge is we’re going to miss out on all the equipment we’re going to see that influence our buying decisions for the year. Hopefully, things normalize, and we can go back to normal for 2021 and everyone stays healthy and safe in the interim … even though we can’t do it at the family reunion this year.”
Next fall, attendees and exhibitors will experience several updates to the Kentucky Exposition Center grounds. The facility is undertaking $8 million in outdoor improvements and enhancements, including:
- Replacing the main entry gates to improve ingress and egress.
- Expanding paved areas on the north side of the building to increase exhibit space opportunities.
- Relocating more than 126,000 cubic yards of dirt, the equivalent of 63 football fields (more than 1 million wheelbarrows full) to the outdoor demonstration area to improve drainage and irrigation to the grounds.
- Adding permanent driving lanes to the demo area.
- Improving pedestrian access from nearby hotels by adding sidewalks that extend from Phillips Lane to the new main gate.
GIE+EXPO has called Louisville home since the trade show began nearly 40 years ago. “We want to thank our host city for its ongoing support of our show,” Kiser said. “In particular, I want to thank Karen Williams, president of Louisville Tourism, for her tireless efforts to help us through this process. She and the city have been terrific partners of the show, and we look forward to an outstanding event in 2021.
“Manufacturers, landscapers, and outdoor power equipment dealers have been deemed essential during this ongoing pandemic, and the industry continues to play a major role in keeping greenspaces around the country safe and accessible,” Kiser said “What we’ve learned during this period is the extraordinary importance of the living landscape to our mental and physical health, especially for homeowners who have a yard. We saw the ongoing need for the TurfMutt education program by parents and educators, with the robust distribution of our curriculum by Scholastic, the U.S. Green Building Council’s Global Learning Lab, and the Wildlife Habitat Council, among others,” Kiser continued. “The new voice of our Foundation, Mutt Mulligan, has been busy promoting the importance of living landscapes.”
GIE+EXPO is the 16th largest trade show in North America according to event figures, with more than 24,000 people attending in 2019, the sixth record-breaking year in a row for GIE+EXPO. The industry’s largest show hosted more than 1,000 exhibitors and more than 20 acres of outdoor demonstration area for attendees to ride, drive, dig, and cut with the industry’s latest equipment. More than 26,500 contractors, dealers, and exhibitors attended from all 50 states and more than 40 countries.
“GIE+EXPO is always a great opportunity for us to meet in-person with our readers and our supporters of the magazine … to not have the show this year is a bitter pill,” said Bill Roddy, Landscape Management’s publisher. “But business goes on and we’ll be excited to return to the show in 2021. In the meantime, it makes our work all the more important, to help our readers learn about the companies and new solutions to help them get the job done better.”
Earlier this year, the Outdoor Power Equipment Institute (OPEI) announced it will move into 100 percent ownership of the trade show, the international landscape, outdoor living and equipment exposition starting in 2022. The National Association of Landscape Professionals (NALP) will separate from the annual Landscapes meeting and host its own stand-alone conference.
Other green industry trade show cancellations include the Irrigation Show, which was scheduled for Nov. 30-Dec. 4 in San Antonio, Texas, and The Tree Care Industry Association (TCIA) has made its TCI Expo a virtual summit, to be held Jan. 13-15, 2021. The in-person 2021 Irrigation Show and Education Week will be held in San Diego on Dec. 6-10, 2021.
