Today's blog comes from slightly more exotic confines than the usual location of my humble desk at Service Dealer Towers.
I'm writing today from my hotel room in Louisville, Kentucky as it's my privilege to once again be covering the world's largest trade exhibition for the outdoor power equipment industry, Equip.
I'm here with a contingent from our magazine, representing the UK dealer trade. Enjoying the show alongside me have been owner of Service Dealer, Duncan Murray-Clarke, our video expert David Comiskey and Pete and Emma McArthur from dealership Strathbogie Forest & Garden.
I personally haven't attended Equip for three years and it's absolutely extraordinary to see how it has grown even bigger in the intervening period. Honestly, it's on another level. The size and scale of the show is genuinely a sight to behold. I'm sure any of our UK dealer readers couldn't fail to be impressed by the event that the OPEI exceeds themselves with each and every edition. They describe it as the show where the industry comes home, and despite the sheer hugeness of the endeavour, it does indeed feel like a celebratory gathering of people from across the US and the globe - all with a shared passion for the sector.
And this week, the show felt like even more of a party than usual. Only days before they opened their gates on Wednesday they were named as the Greatest Trade Show by Trade Show Executive - and incredibly, were cited as the third largest trade show of any industry in the United States! That's mightily impressive.
Our visit to Louisville this week, kicked off on Tuesday with a Welcome Celebration held at Churchill Downs racecourse, home of the famous Kentucky Derby.
Pete, Emma and Duncan at Churchill Downs racetrack
Here the thousands of attendees gathered ahead of the official opening of the show, to view the magnificent racing cathedral, have a drink and some food and get ready for the big kick off.
DAY 1
The show itself got underway on Wednesday, with what I always think is a superb innovation. From 9am till 12pm the indoor showfloor is exclusively open for dealers and the press. This allows for an environment of open and honest conversation between the dealers in attendance and their manufacturer suppliers - without fear of anything sensitive being heard by the wrong ears. It's also a quieter, more peaceful period for the stand-holders to spend some quality time with their dealer partners - without worrying that they have a crowd of end-user customers building up on their exhibit, not being dealt with. It works superbly as a concept.
I've thought for a while that this kind of dealer exclusive session could be a development that our UK shows might think about incorporating. Seeing it action again this week, and indeed to speaking to some manufacturer representatives who told me just how valuable they consider those hours to be for catching up with their network, I do believe that if any of our shows at home were to offer this idea, it would be appreciated. Certainly by our dealer readers I suspect.
Whilst this show preview was taking place, the thousands of early arrivers were entertained by the keynote speaker who this year was Jessie Cole, owner of the Savannah Bananas baseball team. Well I say baseball, in order to turn around the failing team that he had bought, Jessie (who was clad in all bright, banana yellow) reinvented the game to make it more entertaining and rebranded it Bananaball! Which is basically tons of tricks, stunts, music, food and family fun, all designed to give the public what they want.
His motivational speech to the small business owners in attendance was that it was their job to turn their customers into fans. He said that those that become successful do what others won't - but to get there you will have to go through the messy first. He also stressed that it's stories that make companies cool in the eyes of their fans - so what are your stories? It was inspiring stuff to get the day off to a great start.
Once these dealer-exclusive hours concluded, the show was then opened to the end-users visitors - the vast majority of whom, I think it's fair to say, come from the landscaper / contractor sector, rather than the sportsturf industry. It was at this point that the vast outdoor demonstration area is opened and when a UK visitor gets to really comprehend just how ginormous this show truly is! Both in terms of footprint and visitor numbers.
The showground in its entirety is simply vast. I asked Chuck Bowen of the OPEI how long he thought it would take to walk from one end to the other and he said at least 30 minutes - and that would be without bumping into people! He told me that moving visitors around the site could be something they look at options for in the future.
As well as spending hours walking up and down the vast aisles and demonstration plots checking out the exhibitors, I spent time both days attending various press conferences held by manufacturers such as STIHL, Honda, Briggs & Stratton and Toro amongst others.
Getting inked on the STIHL stand!
On STIHL's stand (where you could sign up for a genuine STIHL tattoo to be emblazoned on you live at the show!) their top management spoke about the 80+ new innovations coming in 2026. Included in this were a new water pump line-up; upgraded cut-off machines; their latest developments in mobile and static charging technology; a top handled chainsaw and various mowers.
Honda meanwhile were giving a major launch to two new ZTR mowers - the Prozision and the Prozision Autonomous. The latter of these allowed a user to drive an area to be mown once, which the unit will then remember, and can subsequently be left to cut without an operator on board. It has the ability to store multiple cut routes in its memory allowing contractors to take the machine to multiple locations.
Briggs & Stratton were promoting their For Pros, By Pros theme for the show. This included developments to their Vanguard engines that meant they ran cooler; news that they are working on developments to their swappable Vanguard battery packs; an all new Ferris Z1 32" with Oil Xtend; and the launch of the all-new Z3002 Hurricane blower from Billy Goat.
Toro had representatives from their various product area departments discuss innovation in the company and the developments they were excited about. Areas mentioned included modifications to the Turf Master; new autonomous mowing solutions; and their hybrid fairways mowers. They said all departments were aiming to help their end-user customers face their biggest challenge, which at the moment tends to be staffing - hence the concentration on autonomy.
Also on Wednesday Service Dealer led a high profile discussion session on the main stage with NAEDA, considering similarities and differences in issues faced by dealers on both sides of the Atlantic. You can read about that in some more detail elsewhere today.
Tom Healy, Jason Huber, Pete and Duncan
One observation I did make at the end of the first day, once I had been able to take in both the inside and outside areas, was perhaps a slight dichotomy in the industry currently? Inside, many of the exhibits on display were sleek, AI-powered, robotic, clean, futuristic, technological developments. Then when you walked outside, you were hit with an absolute cacophony of roaring engine noise and the distinct smell of gasoline exhausts. And the vast numbers of people using the machines to make these noises and smells, appeared to absolutely love them!
So certainly in the U.S, I don't think many dealers will be ignoring gas options for their customers any time soon.
DAY 2
Yesterday, Day 2 of the show, saw the extraordinary Mutt Madness take place alongside the main exhibition. Imagine going to SALTEX, GroundsFest or BTME and coming home having adopted a cute new puppy! That's what this is. It sounds crazy, but it works at Equip and offers the visitors something different, allowing a bit of time away from the main show.
This year's edition took place in the main atrium of the huge venue, meaning the puppies attracted a ton of attention from both attendees and the local and national media. The show once again made a sizeable ($10,000) donation to the Kentucky Humane Society.
It was during Mutt Madness that I managed to speak with the man whose brainchild that is, and who in his role as President of the OPEI oversees the whole of Equip, Kris Kiser.
Kris Kiser speaking with Steve Gibbs
Kris and I discussed both the show itself and the current state of the wider US industry. We covered topics such as the trends in technology seen at the show; how robotics are taking off for both domestic and professional users in the US - but how there is still a very real place for gasoline. We also touched on the thorny issue of tariffs and how the uncertainly of those is impacting the U.S market. You can watch my full interview with Kris when our Digital Special Report is published soon.
Pete and Duncan with Sara Hey and Bob Clements
Also yesterday, we met up with our great friend and Service Dealer magazine columnist, Sara Hey of dealer training specialists Bob Clements International. Our contingent sat down for a roundtable discussion with Sara and Bob himself, taking in areas such as A.I use in the dealership; how technology will shape the dealership of the future; recruitment and retention and other areas of concern and opportunity for dealers on both sides of the pond.
Pete, Duncan and David filming in downtown Louisville
We shall have so much more from Equip across all of Service Dealer's channels in the coming weeks - including, as mentioned, a packed Digital Special Report. Duncan, Pete and David have spent this week recording many video interviews with the great and the good across the exhibition - as well as capturing our various in-depth sit-downs with the movers and shakers of the US outdoor power equipment industry. We will also, of course, bring you more coverage in the magazine.
Until then, I'd just like to thank the organisers of Equip for staging such a magnificent show and for making us all feel so welcomed and included in their celebration of the industry. It really is a genuine pleasure to attend this event. I feel confident in saying that if any of our UK dealer readers were able to find the time (and the finances) to make the trip over to Louisville at some point, they would not be disappointed. It's a true eye-opener and full of wonderful discoveries.
Pete summed it up this week, saying, "There is just nothing on this scale in the UK. It's really a remarkable achievement."
