Another positive and buoyant SALTEX took place this week.
You can read more about it here and watch a series of short videos offering a flavour of show starting here - as well as on our YouTube channel.
Alongside all the reports from the upbeat show today, there is also the news you might have read of the AEA, the GMA and BIGGA releasing a joint statement - which they chose to do the day before SALTEX kicked off.
If we're being honest, the statement didn't actually have that much meat on its bones. Its central gist was to emphasise that the three organisations believe they should be open to looking at how they can work together better in the future. Which is an undeniably noble endeavour, if a little vague.
Where the statement did have a little more interest however, was in regards to our trade exhibitions. Talking specifically about the two main national shows for the UK commercial turfcare sector, SALTEX and BTME, the statement read "The revenue generated by these events provides significant re-investment into the communities both bodies serve."
The emboldening of the text above regarding the reinvestment into communities, is not something we've added. That is lifted directly from the statement that was sent out to media outlets this week.
One must assume it's there to stress the point that these shows are more than just money making enterprises for the trade associations.
The GMA and BIGGA are servants to their respective sectors' wellbeing. The injection of cash that their trade shows bring into their coffers each year is vital for the continuing provision of all the training, education and support they offer their turf professional members.
Now of course, this isn't exactly new information. People will have been aware that revenue from the shows has always been ploughed back into the greater good of the industry - so why choose to highlight this now?
Can we speculate that the recent news that more turfcare trade shows are on the horizon for next year, could have prompted this statement? With this public declaration this week are the trade associations reacting to these newcomers, by reminding the sector that their established shows have important roles to play in the industry, beyond the exhibitions themselves?
Presumably there must have been an agenda for both the statement and its timing, besides just saying they are all looking to work better together in the future?
Finally as an aside, would dealers perhaps have liked to have seen the trade body that represents their interests, BAGMA, mentioned somewhere in this joint statement of future collaboration? As it was, they merely received a reference in the footnotes, explaining how they were bought by the AEA in 2021.
Seems like an odd omission.
