Are you back in the swing of late summer / autumn's manufacturer-organised dealer days?

I joined some south-west England Stiga dealers this week at Wincanton Racecouse in Somerset, as part of the company's series of roadshow events that had kicked off on Monday down in Cornwall. As mentioned previously, there are several manufacturers who are running similar events across the country this month. I suspect most dealers reading this today will be attending, or will at least have been invited to, a gathering somewhere during September.

In-person events this autumn, certainly appear to be in the ascendancy compared to the Zooms and Teams which we all have become accustomed to over these 18 months. I'm sure virtual events wont disappear completely - I attended a STIHL one for international trade journalists this week for example - but I guess they will start to be used in support of live events where those are not practical.

For right now, it feels like real-life events are firmly back on the agenda. And I think the industry has missed them. I overheard several conversations with dealers talking amongst themselves at Wincanton, asking each other if they've attended many things like this yet and how it's good to get out and meet suppliers and peers once again.

Speaking to Gary Whitney, Stiga UK's md, he told me he was delighted with how the roadshows had begun and how he had high hopes for how the next couple of weeks would pan out, based on the bookings they had for each venue. He told me that they expected to see as many dealerships across the tour as they would at their traditional 3-day conference - roughly two-thirds of all their dealer partners.

The question presented itself therefore, will these roadshow events stay as a permanent fixture for Stiga?

The company's normal 3-day conference, which like everything else had to be cancelled last year, was always a huge event in the network's autumn calendar. With recent editions taking place at the National Motorcycle Museum near Birmingham's NEC, I've consistently been impressed with just how many of their dealers make the effort to attend.

But will these roadshow events be the preferred format of the future? Gary told me he would let his dealers dictate that to him. As such, all attendees at each stop-off will have a QR code on the reverse of their name badge which they are asked to scan to access a feedback survey. Gary said they would listen to the dealers' thoughts from this to determine if the tour is repeated in subsequent years.

Getting hands-on

What was of utmost importance to Gary, as it will be to all other suppliers who are holding events, is enabling the dealers to get hands-on with the new machines being launched. It was notable that unlike at the conference, Gary wasn't delivering one of his state-of-the-industry type addresses. He told me it was much more important this year to introduce the new machines and then get dealers in seats and hands on handlebars. It's this physical interaction with new kit that has been sorely lacking throughout all of this.

The presentations of the new machines - of which there were plenty - actually took a hybrid form. Stiga sales managers gave brief overviews of each new product, with further detail delivered via a series of demonstration videos. These clips were filmed both as a contingency in case the roadshow couldn't go ahead for any reason, but helpfully also, so they could be shown to the rest of the dealership team back at the premises. Available online, they can be used to keep everyone who didn't get to come along to one of the live events, in the loop regarding what's new.

And what was new? Well, battery machines and plenty of them! There were some petrol models too to be fair, but it was certainly cordless power that was the order of the day. Alongside the line up of electric walk-behinds and handheld items were also new battery powered ride-ons - including the Gyro model, steered by an innovative joystick controller. Also new for Stiga were a couple of robotic mower models - one of which, the Stig A, had the brain power to map the sky to make sure it only cut at times of the day when it knew it was going to receive adequate satellite signal. 

All of these new developments, Stiga were proud to point out, were developed in-house by their own R&D department, and significantly there were plenty of patents for various elements of design and manufacture spread across the ranges. This notion of applying a patent to their own innovations to prevent copyists, appeared to be a policy the manufacturer was keen to pursue.

I suspect dealers attending any manufacturer's event this autumn will come away feeling they've benefited having participated. During Covid, models have been released that dealers were only introduced to via the internet - which is nowhere near the same.

Having new kit explained in person and, crucially, being able to start them up and have a go, is something that I suspect both dealer and manufacturer will have a new found appreciation of this autumn.