One of the best parts about the Irrigation Show and Education Week is that it takes place in November or December, allowing business owners, manufacturers and everyone in the industry to collectively look back on the year they’ve had.
But through the educational classes, networking events and trade show floor that hit New Orleans from Dec. 8-11, another key opportunity is to look forward into 2026 and think about what can help grow the industry.
“We hope attendees left feeling educated, inspired and better equipped to move their businesses and careers forward,” says Brittany Tyrrell, senior meeting and events manager for the Irrigation Association.
And whether the almost 2,400 attendees were engaged in classes or meeting with their favorite manufacturers, these practical takeaways often included understanding what the next big trends are for irrigation pros.
A wireless world
Irrigation contractors are busy, often having to run to hundreds of different sites to troubleshoot, adjust or update the controller. When labor is hard to come by and time is even scarcer, the ability to work remotely is starting to become massive for pros.
“The two key areas I see the most interest in and the most advancement in is wireless valve management, as well as weather-based and, more specifically, cloud-based system management,” says Don Davis, irrigation training manager for SiteOne Landscape Supply. “A typical contractor simply can’t be on the jobsite every day, monitoring and adjusting run times. A cloud-based irrigation system can make that contractor better at what they do.”
Wireless communication and remote monitoring can notify contractors of problems within the system and influence maintenance decisions, which also helps take advantage of another big 2026 trend: increasing revenue streams.
Anthony Long, senior product manager for Hunter Industries, says the company’s Hydrawise controller, system and app allow contractors to change how business is done amidst time and labor shortages. For example, instead of changing a controller on-site for a larger fee, pros can do it remotely and bill a reduced off-site service charge. However, they’re also able to charge for monthly monitoring and maintenance fees or other Wi-Fi-based controller services, adding ways to generate consistent revenue.
“Contractors are getting much tighter about how they manage people, and particularly, time and labor is just so short,” Long says. “The more we can do in the office, and the more we can get our less tech-savvy people to do work, we can keep our tech heavy guys out in the field working.”
Smart solutions
Along the lines of wireless communication, smart controllers in general are growing in popularity among contractors — and clients, too.
Martin Wirtz, a regular Irrigation Show attendee and COO of Burge Sprinkler Company in Maryland, says as a Hunter Industries fan, almost 80 percent of his clients are now on a Hydrawise system.
“I think there’s just certain things that were more foreign that are now becoming the industry standard,” Wirtz says.
And the almost inescapable inclusion of AI in many aspects of business management was another hot topic at the Irrigation Show, with many educational opportunities focusing on how to really take advantage of it in 2026.
For more insight on what the industry predicts as the next big thing, the IA will release its 2026 Landscape Irrigation Contractor Outlook Report — based on 173 responses from landscape contractors — to IA members in the upcoming months.
