On Wednesday this week I attended a small show at the Business Design Centre in Islingston, called The Garden Press Event.

As its title suggests, it's an exhibition for gardening companies to showcase their latest products and services to a very specific audience of journalists who work in one area or another of the gardening media. Representatives of magazines, newspapers, websites, blogs and broadcast media all attend.

The majority of these attendees don't tend to work for trade journals like myself, most will be writing for information sources which are being read by domestic consumers - which is to whom the exhibitors at this show are wanting to get their message directly across to.

Mostly taking stands this week were companies whose products you'd see in garden centres - seeds, gloves, bird-feeders, plants, that kind of thing. However, there were several machinery brands in attendance, which made the visit worthwhile from a Service Dealer point of view.

Wandering between these machinery companies it was very quickly apparent which lawnmowing trend is gaining some serious traction this year - and it probably wont surprise many of you when I say it's robotics.

There was a robot invasion in Islington this week, with autonomous devices to be found front and centre on the stands of Cobra, Cub Cadet, Honda, Ambrogio, STIHL, Gardena and John Deere. 

What feels significant about these companies choosing to heavily promote these machines at this show, is precisely the mainstream nature of the event. The idea being that these robotic developments will be reported on in the mainstream press or in popular blogs and videos, shows the level of acceptance which the products are finding in UK. That gimmicky tag they were burdened with for years, seems to have been well and truly cast aside.

One of the reasons that several exhibitors who I spoke to, gave for this increased interest and associated sales levels, is because the concept is becoming ever more widely accepted by the dealer network themselves. Increasing numbers of dealers are seeing there is good money to be made from sales, plus installations and servicing work off these units and are becoming ever more enthusiastic in their promotion to their customers.

I was speaking to Ian Seagar on the Cub Cadet stand for example, who was telling me how they had recently held some robotic training days to introduce their dealers to the new XR models. You can read more about those events here but Ian reported real positivity amongst the network for the new machines. He said that Cub Cadet really believe that it's a growing market with huge potential.

Similar sentiments from Steve Morris of Honda who felt that awareness of the products in the UK was a problem previously, but now that's starting to change. Once dealers get on board with the technology and once the buying public start to see units at work in their neighbours' gardens, momentum can very quickly start to build. Steve said an important target audience for these machines, similar to cordless products, is the older gardener. Yes, some techy people who like gadgets will be interested, but the older generation of gardeners for whom pushing a mower around might be starting to become an issue, they can be very keen on the products.

Paul Chandler of Ambrogio believes that the technological advancements which the machines have been experiencing is pushing the market forward in the UK. The fact that some machines can now cover large areas, feature enhanced GPS navigation algorithms and because new software can be added into their databanks at any point, therefore making them future proofed, adds to their appeal. On their stand they were even promoting a smart tag to fit to a pet's collar, which means if a robot was approaching a furry friend, the blade is instantly switched off, allowing the robot to trundle on its way, posing no risk!

Also playing into this concept that a robot pottering around your garden is a benign, friendly presence, was Cobra's promotion of personalisation for the Mowbot's design. On the stand they had a machine in a camouflage wrap and one in a flowery design - whilst publicising the ability for customers to get online and, wiithin reason, design their own coverings. Peter Chaloner said, "We feel that people will really enjoy the concept and enjoy making the Mowbot theirs." It certainly plays into what you hear often that owners like to name their robots, ascribing them a personality.

Of course robots are not the only game in town. Speaking to Christopher Cooper on the Hyater stand, he said there are customers for whom stripes will always be of paramount importance. He felt that robots could potentially be taking from the ride-on market rather than the walk-behinds which Hayter and Toro specialise in.

But there seemed little doubt at the Garden Press Event this week, robotic mowing is crossing over into the mainstream. We'll have details about some of the new products featured, in an upcoming issue of Service Dealer magazine.

In the meantime though, what do you think? Are you seeing good business from robots? Do you think we're on the cusp of something massive? Or is it something you've heard before?

Let us know by leaving a comment below.