Dennis & SISIS Announce Seminars

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Dennis & SISIS Announce Seminars: Dennis and SISIS have confirmed key dates and locations for their 2018 series of bowling green maintenance seminars.

Committed to educating greenkeepers and raising the standards of bowling greens, Dennis and SISIS have long supported the sport of bowls. Their bowling green maintenance seminars continue to go from strength to strength with delegates praising them for helping make an improvement to their greens.

Dennis & SISIS Announce Seminars

The informative, educational and interactive seminars combine insightful seminars and practical tips while a number of industry experts also take to the stage to discuss a wide range of key topics.

Attendees can expect tips on early spring maintenance of bowling greens, grant funding support, and choosing the correct grass seed. A complimentary lunch, which signals the halfway point, offers great networking opportunities before attendees make their way outside to an on-the-green demonstration. The demonstration not only provides a perfect opportunity to see some of the sport’s best maintenance equipment in action but also brings together the morning education with the practical elements of applying it to the greens.

In the afternoon, delegates can gain a greater understanding of chemicals and fertilizers before the day concludes with the hugely popular Turf Clinic Q&A session – allowing attendees to ask advice about their own projects or any issues that they may have.

Dennis & SISIS Announce Seminars

The seminar schedule can be found below:

  • April 17th – Herne Bay Bowls Club, Kent
  • April 18th – Townsend Hook Bowls Club, Kent
  • April 24th – Exonia Bowls Club, Devon
  • April 25th – Oxford City & County Bowls Club, Oxford
  • April 26th – Ye Olde Knowle Bowls Club, Solihull
  • May 15th – Hunmanby Bowls Club, North Yorkshire
  • May 16th – Roundwood Sports & Social Club, Rawmarsh
  • May 17th – Tadcaster Magnet Sports & Social Club, Tadcaster

All seminars start with registration at 9am. To register for the FREE and highly informative seminars, please contact Roger Moore on 01332 824777 or email roger.moore@dennisuk.com.

Further information about the range of bowls maintenance products available can be found by visiting www.dennisuk.com / www.sisis.com

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Ireland’s First Discover Kubota Event

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Ireland’s First ‘Discover Kubota’ Event: Kubota is continuing to invest into Ireland’s agriculture, groundcare and construction industries by teaming up with long-standing dealers Atkins and MP Crowley to the host ‘Discover Kubota’ event.

Being held on 24th March at the prestigious Munster Agricultural Society Showground in Cork, the event will offer Ireland’s farmers, ground maintenance teams and construction professionals the opportunity to test drive a wide range of Kubota’s innovative and high performance solutions.

Ireland's First ‘Discover Kubota’ Event

From 10am to 4pm, visitors will have the chance to find out more about each machine and compare various models, meeting machinery experts from both the dealerships and Kubota to ask questions they might have.

Mark Wolfe, Managing Director of Atkins, said: “As Ireland’s longest standing farming machinery business, we are committed to providing Ireland with the highest standard in machinery, which is why we have been a Kubota dealer for over 30 years. The upcoming event provides visitors with the perfect opportunity to have a go, get on the machines and see how they really perform.

“Kubota is a fantastic brand for us to offer to our customers. It’s a market leader in terms of innovation with a wide portfolio of products, whilst its quick development cycle is second to none. The day will enable us and MP Crowley to demonstrate to Ireland just why Kubota’s machinery is so popular and offer new customers across all sectors the chance to test drive the machines they’re interested in.”

Throughout the day, visitors will have the opportunity to navigate various machines across its test track, travelling across different terrains and obstacles, including a river crossing which will enable them to discover which model can fulfil their specific requirements.

Kubota’s popular M7001, MGX-III and M5001 agricultural tractors will be available to test drive, whilst its leading groundcare machinery including its GR Series ride-on mowers and BX sub-compact tractors. A range of Kubota’s petrol and diesel utility vehicles will also be available to demo, including Kubota’s popular RTV-X900 model. MP Crowley will be providing a comprehensive range of construction machinery for users to operate, including mini-excavators, wheel loaders and track dumpers.

Karen Tipping, Marketing Manager for Kubota UK, said: “The upcoming ‘Discover Kubota’ event is a great way for us to get in front of existing and potential customers to showcase first hand the capability of our machines. This is the first event of its kind in Ireland, raising our profile of what Kubota machinery has to offer across Ireland’s groundcare, agricultural and construction industries.

“The Kubota UK marketing team is dedicated to supporting our dealer network with their marketing activities, and this upcoming event will allow visitors to not only get behind the machines, but get face-to-face with Ireland’s leading machinery experts.”

Throughout the day representatives and service engineers from Kubota’s aftersales team will also be on hand to provide visitors with further information about its unique Kubota Care and Kubota Finance offerings.

For more information on Kubota and its extensive range of solutions visit www.kubota.co.uk or call 01844 268000.

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SALTEX Winners Six Nations Trip

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SALTEX Winners Six Nations Trip: After claiming the SALTEX College Cup title for the second year running, students from CAFRE College in Antrim, Northern Ireland, enjoyed an unforgettable experience of helping with pitch preparations at the 2018 Six Nations Championships at BT Murrayfield Stadium in Scotland.

The SALTEX College Cup, sponsored by Ransomes, and organised by the Institute of Groundsmanship (IOG), is a national student-led sports-turf challenge. It is an academic test of turf management knowledge for student competitors who are enrolled at colleges throughout the UK on relevant courses of study. Launched at the show in 2016, CAFRE was the first college to have its name engraved on the trophy and as part of the prize, the winning students were part of the Wembley grounds team at the 2017 FA Cup Final.

SALTEX Winners Six Nations Trip

CAFRE returned to SALTEX 2017 where they saw off competition from four other colleges to reclaim the trophy. As well as receiving a £500 cheque and £50 Amazon vouchers for each student, the CAFRE team was presented with another prize that money can’t buy – preparing the pitch at the 2018 Six Nations Championships for the Scotland vs England game.

The CAFRE team arrived at BT Murrayfield on the Friday afternoon before Saturday’s match and were soon mowing the pitch – firmly cementing the students’ names on the very small and exclusive list of people to have cut the BT Murrayfield pitch.

After a 7am start on the big day, the CAFRE team were part of the busy yet meticulously planned pitch preparations, and it would not be long before their work would be broadcasted to millions worldwide.

Commenting on the day, CAFRE student Matthew Barr said: “I found the whole experience incredible and one that I will never forget. I also learnt a lot of new techniques that I will be able to implement in my own work.

“My personal highlights of the weekend were being part of the grounds team and watching Scotland beat England for the first time in 10 years – the atmosphere was fantastic! Everyone was so welcoming and friendly.”

Alex Latto, assistant head groundsman at BT Murrayfield, was delighted to have the CAFRE students working alongside him: “Hosting the winners of the SALTEX College Cup was something we were really keen to do. Having the opportunity to help develop further some of the most promising students the turf care industry has to offer was a great experience for us.

The lads demonstrated good knowledge and practical experience and were willing to muck in with the unglamorous jobs associated with event set up. They left us with the assurance that they’d had an educational and enjoyable experience and we enjoyed working alongside them.”

Dan Prest, the IOG’s head of membership services, felt honoured to see such a finely tuned grounds team at work and was quick to thank everyone involved.

“I was amazed by the willingness of the BT Murrayfield grounds team to be here, there and everywhere for the greater good. It really was a case of all hands to the pump but they still gave the CAFRE students the best possible experience.

“Many thanks to Ransomes for their continuing support of this competition, Garry Blackadder, Jim Dawson, Alex Latto and Joanne Laing at BT Murrayfield for their support, work ethic and good nature in allowing the winners of the SALTEX College Cup to assist in a Six Nations’ match that will go down in history.”

All colleges interested in participating in the 2018 SALTEX College Cup should email Dan Prest at dprest@iog.org for more details.

To view show highlights and key interviews please visit www.youtube.com/MyIOG

For more information visit www.iogsaltex.com

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200 Sign Ups For SALTEX 2018

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200 Sign Ups For SALTEX 2018: The early signs for the 73rd edition of SALTEX (Sports, Amenities and Landscaping Trade Exhibition) are extremely positive after show organisers reported another record-breaking loyalty period, stand upgrades and an influx of debut exhibitors.

For the third successive year, SALTEX has seen an overwhelming amount of exhibitors re-book their stands. With nearly 200 companies confirming stand space early, the 2018 floor plan already boasts a strong showing of renowned exhibitors, many of which have purchased extra stand space.

200 Sign Ups For SALTEX 2018

GKB Machines is one of those exhibitors that has significantly upgraded its stand. The company, which specialises in innovative maintenance machines for sports pitches, took the decision to increase its presence at the show based on a successful SALTEX 2017.

Operations director Tom Shinkins said: “We’ve been at SALTEX for three years now and each year we have found it a great show to highlight new products and introduce our machines to the market. Off the back of SALTEX 2017 I’ve already been out to do a lot of demonstrations and have sold kit as a direct result of the show.

“It seemed a good idea to grow with the show. You can always guarantee that the one machine you don’t have on the stand is the one that people want to see, so with that in mind we have decided to increase our stand size to further highlight our range of equipment. We cater for both the natural and synthetic markets so SALTEX is a really good show for us because there are groundsmen who look after both surfaces.”

Such was the success of SALTEX 2017, the exhibition is also attracting new companies who have never before exhibited at the show.

Sports Metals, manufacturers of the Extracut-brush™ and suppliers of tines and bed knives, will be a new name on the exhibitor list. This family business consisting of husband and wife, Richard and Jane Jades, has seen rapid growth over the past couple of years and according to Richard, SALTEX is an opportunity not to be missed.

“We visited SALTEX last year, just to get a feel for the place, and loved the show. When you are a small company like us the fact that you can see hundreds of potential customers in the space of two days makes complete sense. With SALTEX being held at the end of October / early November, visitors will be thinking about what equipment and products they need going into the New Year. If I started going round to see all of those customers, it would probably take me until spring and by that time the majority of them would have already placed orders.

“It’s also about industry awareness,” Richard continues. “It is about letting groundsmen know that we have a product that could really make a difference. For the people that have already bought from us – I think it is good for a customer to see us at a show like SALTEX because it backs up their purchasing decision.”

Talurit UK, manufacturers of the GERRO™ COMBI System, which can be used for applications such as playgrounds and sports and leisure equipment, also decided to book a stand at SALTEX 2018 for the first time, based on attending previous shows as visitors.

“We have visited SALTEX to make sure that it would be the right show for us and we came to the conclusion that we will have a good target audience at the NEC for the products we manufacture. We are looking forward to putting faces to customers’ names and also to look at any competition that might be there to see what is new on the market.”

SALTEX 2018 will take place at the NEC, Birmingham on 31 October and 1 November.

To view show highlights and key interviews from SALTEX 2017 please visit www.youtube.com/MyIOG

For more information visit www.iogsaltex.com

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SALTEX Reveal Visitor Profile

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SALTEX Reveal Visitor Profile: After an independent audit confirmed a record-breaking attendance at the NEC for SALTEX 2017, the show’s visitor survey has now revealed a fascinating insight into the 8,909 people who attended.

With over 300 exhibitors and more show features than ever before it is perhaps no surprise that an incredible 89 per cent of SALTEX 2017 visitors rated their overall SALTEX experience as being either very good or excellent.

SALTEX Reveal Visitor Profile

The majority of the visitors were aged between 31 and 60 and represented a wide variety of businesses and organisations – with sports clubs, local authorities and schools, colleges and universities leading the way.

In further exploring the type of sports or recreation facility that the visitors were responsible for maintaining, football led the way closely followed by golf, parks, cricket, rugby and tennis.

More than 70 per cent of visitors held a senior position within their respective companies and over 80 per cent of them were either solely responsible or contributed to the purchasing process.

Almost 60 per cent attended SALTEX with a view to buying and 40 per cent said that they placed orders on the show floor.

In terms of product categories they were interested in:

  • Machinery, power and hand tools – 84 per cent
  • Seeds, turf, aggregates and treatments – 49 per cent
  • Sports surfaces, facilities and equipment – 43 per cent
  • Arboriculture and horticulture – 40 per cent
  • Landscaping and materials – 38 per cent

Primarily, attendees came to search for innovations and new products while 84 per cent said they attended due to the number and mix of exhibitors. 67 per cent said they attended SALTEX with the main objective of networking; 74 per cent said the location of the show was a determining factor in their decision to attend and nearly 50 per cent of attendees made use of their visit for training and educational opportunities.

Whatever their reasons for attending, an overwhelming 92 per cent of SALTEX 2017 visitors said that they were successful in meeting their objectives.

SALTEX continues to attract an international audience and a large proportion of European visitors attended from countries such as Ireland, Netherlands, Italy, Germany, France, Belgium, Czech Republic and Spain. Further afield, visitors from Sri Lanka, Japan, United Arab Emirates, Ivory Coast and Saudi Arabia also made the journey to the NEC.

Located in the centre of the country and easily accessible by car, train, bus and even aeroplane, it was no surprise that visitors attended from every corner of the UK. In particular, the counties of Warwickshire, Lancashire, Shropshire, Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire and London recorded a huge number of visitors.

SALTEX 2018 will take place at the NEC, Birmingham on 31 October and 1 November, and 92 per cent of SALTEX 2017 visitors concluded the survey by indicating that they will be returning.

To view show highlights and key interviews please visit www.youtube.com/MyIOG

For more information visit www.iogsaltex.com

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