What a year we have had! This year’s weather front has certainly tested the patience of our turf professionals. The extended drought-like periods have taken their toll on the physical condition of our natural turf playing surfaces.

Especially so on those facilities that have no significant watering facilities, many grass roots football and rugby pitches are looking significantly brown in colour. More worrying though, is that these surfaces will be very hard and unable to take a stud.

The RFU have recently issued guidance to help clubs in these situations. 

Also Sport England have information about drought conditions.

If the drought conditions continue, it will be interesting to see how many games are called off due to the hardness of the pitch? Let’s hope we get some significant rain in the coming months to help rejuvenate these playing surfaces.

As for cricket and bowls clubs, it is now time to start planning your end of season renovations. With many grass surfaces becoming hydrophobic due to the extreme hot and dry conditions, a decent renovation will help put that right. Some deep aeration, scarification, top dressing and reseeding will help restore your playing surfaces.

For me, I am now looking forward to attending our annual industry shows, that will begin with GroundsFest on 9th and 10th September at Stoneleigh Park, Warwickshire - now into its third year and becoming an increasingly popular show to attend.

I, along with other members of TurfPro and our sister title Service Dealer, will be attending this year’s show. As one of twelve media partners we will have a stand (42A), so will be looking forward to seeing you on our stand. 

I have also been invited to be on one of the show’s many educational seminars. At 11am on Tuesday 9th, I along with Professor John Moverley of Lantra, Mike Chappell, md of Chappell Enterprises UK, Tom Arnold, chair of UK Lawncare Association & owner of TopGrass UK, David Fisher, Lantra head of Landscaping & Rural, Victoria Fiander, horticulture consultant & end point assessor, and Richard Stow, md of Weedfree Limited, will be talking about the issues of recruitment and retention in our industry.

With over 250 exhibitors attending, this year’s show sounds well worth the time and effort to attend. Also, finally after many years of telling people we need to see schools invited to our industry exhibitions, thanks to the collaboration between Lantra, BIGGA and BAR, a number of local schools will be coached in to attend GroundsFest - with the pupils having the opportunity to meet up with many of the exhibitors at the show.

I feel this is a great achievement. I been saying for many years we need a national campaign to go into schools to sell our industry. Hopefully this new initiative will allow the potential next generation to see what our industry is about and what career opportunities we have on offer.

We then have Saltex at the NEC 12th and 13th November. Another two day show that offers the chance to keep up to date with the latest trends, technology advancements and educational opportunities within our industry.

Finally, we then have BIGGA’s popular BTME show in Harrogate from the 18th-21st January 2026.

For me personally, I enjoy attending all the shows. However, in recent years, especially since Covid and the fact we are currently facing a tough economic climate, many exhibitors are being faced with choosing which show suits their requirements - and more importantly which show gives them the best return on their investment.

Once you consider the cost of exhibiting, travel, and accommodation, the price of attending all these shows is becoming more increasingly prohibitive.

It will be interesting to see the attendance figures for this year’s editions:

• Last year SALTEX say they welcomed 7,300+ attendees. 
• At BTME 2024 the trade show itself say they saw 4,234 unique visitors.
• As for GroundsFest they say that in 2024 they saw 8,014 visitors across two days - 4,738 on day one and 3,276 on day two.

For me personally, these shows should be attracting far more people to their events - especially when you consider the number of professional grounds people, gardeners and contractors and associated workers within the sports turf and horticulture industry.

Should we not be expecting more than 20,000 people to be attending these events?

It will be interesting how these shows develop in the next few years. I have always maintained we need one major show that encompasses all our horticultural, sports turf and amenity sectors needs.

Surely a new collaborative way of working together as an industry should see the likes of GMA, BIGGA, Fields In Trust, BALI, RHS, PMA, APSE, BAGMA, Arboriculture associations, other landscape organisations and the educational sectors come together for one big celebration of our industry once a year.

Maybe then the sheer size and scale of this event would attract future generations to want and come and work in our industry? I believe to solve the recruitment crisis in our industry across the board, we need to establish a new industry start-up programme that sees, 5,000 youngsters a year joining, for the next five years.

With the aim to attract 25,000 people to come and work in this diverse and challenging industry, it is time to stop acting in isolation and begin to work together as a collective to achieve this aim.

I look forward to seeing you at any of the above shows, where I will be busy trying to convince our organisations and leading industry professionals to take up the challenge of better collaborative working.