Tue Aug 5 2008

2008 Australian Turfgrass Trade Exhibition A Major Success

 The 24th Australian Turfgrass Conference and Trade Exhibition held 21-25 July 2008, in Melbourne at the Exhibition and Convention Centre carried the theme 'Our New Tomorrow' and it hosted a distinguished line-up of international and national speakers. A Turfgrass Trade Exhibition was also held in conjunction with the two final days of the conference with over 100 suppliers, big and small, displaying all manner of products and machinery for all areas of the turf industry.

The Melbourne conference attracted over 1500 attendees with delegates from all over the Pacific Rim which encompassed turf managers from most sectors of the industry. The wider turf management community came together for the industry's premier education and trade exhibition experience with five educations streams presented during the week - golf course management, sportsfield management, turf technicians, bowling greenkeepers and general managers.

In one discussion titled Preparing for the US Open Championships Tim Moraghan of Aspire Consulting and a former Director of Championship Agronomy for the USGA, gave his insight on the preparation of a US Open facility. Mr. Moraghan said "planning would start a minimum of 5-years ahead of the actual event, covering construction projects, determining volunteer and vendor needs, organising equipment and preparation of agronomic practices. If there was any renovation or construction work to be done, then involvement may even start 6-8 years in advance."

The worldwide hot topic of "carbon credits" was discussed in Exploring the future role of fine turf in carbon offset schemes by Terry Muir of Environmental Business Solutions. "With the Federal Government scheduled to introduce a National Emissions Trading Scheme between 2010 and 2012 their is little doubt that golf courses and playing fields will have a role to play in carbon management and trading schemes." "The industry has been at the leading edge of environmental best practices for many years, they can now start to achieve the recognition of their efforts by generating internationally recognised carbon credits." says Mr. Muir "We believe in a very short period of time we will have a pooled carbon exchange with millions of carbon credits that can sold to groups such as the World Banks Carbon Finance Unit," Muir continued.

The Australian turf industry continues to be challenged by the effects of climate change (including water shortages and unpredictable weather), client demands for the best playing surfaces, shortages of qualified and experienced staff, reducing budgets and the responsibilities of being good environmental stewards. The turf manager continues to be the person responsible for initiating and implementing change at a time where turf as we have known it is becoming more difficult to provide. Turf managers are always adapting to change whether it is introducing new turf species, employing new methods or searching for the edge that will provide the sportsperson with the best and safest possible playing surfaces.

This year was the first time the AGCSA invited golf facility General Managers to attend the Thursday seminars and trade show. The final two Thursday afternoon sessions were capped off by insightful presentations on teamwork from Symon Scott, General Manager and David Warwick, Superintendent of Avondale Golf Club. Time and staff management strategies were discussed by Daryl Sellars, Turfwise Consulting and Gary Dempsey, Superintendent -New South Wales Golf Club, site of the recently announced 2010 Australian Open. The main topic in the follow up audience discussions was the challenge of finding staff for the maintenance department and that operating culture has started to bring a change attitude in regards to bringing female staff into the maintenance department. Though there was no clear answer to these issues, a few employee shortage sources were identified such as college interns from the US that are needing practical experience and would love the chance to work "down under'. The dialogue all week was very open between the general managers and turf professionals in attendance as they definitely both agreed that good communication is always the key to a good operation.

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Author Mike Orloff www.golfindustrycentral.com.au ©Copyright 2008