It was my pleasure yesterday to attend the Garden Media Guild Awards in the swanky surroundings of the Savoy hotel in London.

Myself and Service Dealer's owner Duncan Murray-Clarke, had been very kindly invited as guests of Briggs & Stratton who were sponsoring an award - all of which were celebrating the best of the gardening media across its many forms. Also representing the machinery industry at the event were STIHL and Honda who were also both sponsoring honours.

Ian Small Briggs & Stratton's Head of Sales and Marketing presented the Best Trade Journalist award to Darryl Moore of Garden Design Journal, Rebecca Rassie STIHL's PR and Communications Manager presented Best Journalist to Anna Pavord of Gardens Illustrated, and Honda's brand ambassador Danny Clarke presented the New Media of the Year award to Lucy Hall of Gardener's World Magazine.

There were a great number of awards and finalists across a plethora of categories. The Guild was honouring writers, photographers, broadcasters and publishers, all of whom were clearly deeply enthusiastic and passionate about gardening - and indeed about imparting this love for their subject to the wider public. The impression given yesterday was that the mainstream gardening media is certainly thriving, not only in traditional forms but in modern online channels as well.

Now I'm not sure how much of a look-in lawnmowers and chainsaws received in any of the nominated media (not much I'm guessing), but the knock-on effect of a buoyant gardening press can only be a good thing for independent machinery dealers.

With the current emphasis very much on growing and cultivating nature, rather than an obsession with decking and asphalt like we saw in the late 90s/early 2000s, the public's love of their gardens should hopefully be something which independent experts who are providing the tools required for this work, can harness.

Going on the atmosphere at these awards yesterday it certainly felt like there is optimism in the sector.

But how are you feeling about your business at the moment? What are your feelings for your business's prospects as we head into 2017?

It would be fantastic if you could let us know by taking our quick survey today please. It'll be very interesting to compare the results to what we saw when we ran a similar questionnaire this time last year. 

As we entered 2016 61% of dealers who responded told us they were confident or very confident about their business's prospects, with 44% saying they expected machinery sales to rise during the year.

Following this most tumultuous 12 months, I wonder if we'll see similar levels of optimism?

The survey won't take long to fill in and as ever we've left space for you to leave any comments you'd like to share with the industry. Also, we're asking for your opinion to see if there is a preference for a date for next years’ Service Dealer Conference & Awards.

We shall publish the results and a selection of comments in the next issue of Service Dealer magazine.

TAKE THE SURVEY