The British and International Golf Greenkeepers Association (BIGGA) has revealed the number of delegates who attended the BTME exhibition and associated events.

Held from 17-19 January 2017 in the Harrogate International Centre the event saw 4,460 individual visitors head through the doors throughout the three-day event.

That number is a 10% increase from the 4.046 visitors who attended BTME in 2016.



145 exhibitors spanned the event's four halls - which also included GolfBIC, the Golf Business & Industry Convention, and BIGGA’s Continue to Learn education programme.

The average number of visits per attendee was 1.46, meaning almost half of the delegates stayed for more than one day. BIGGA say this reaffirms BTME’s status as a multi-day occasion, where events held throughout the evening form as much a part of the experience as the show itself.

BIGGA believe the cornerstone of BTME is the Continue to Learn education programme, comprising this year of 240 hours of education. Warmly received by BIGGA members, 2,375 education spaces were sold prior to the event.

BIGGA Head of Member Development Sami Strutt said: “Continue to Learn at BTME 2017 was superb. Attendance was up and the feedback for the entire programme has been extremely positive. The Learning and Development team worked hard to deliver a smooth running event for members and visitors, and I’m glad to say we achieved just that.”

Taking place across multiple venues in the town, Continue to Learn’s 83 seminars and workshops were delivered by more than 75 speakers and amounted to more than 3,084 individual education experiences.

Across Continue to Learn, that added up to 6,096 combined hours of greenkeeper education - enough for more than two hours’ education for every golf course in the UK.