Many of the industry’s professional bodies will be supporting SALTEX 2015 and have confirmed their presence at the exhibition, which will be held at the NEC Birmingham on the 4 & 5 November.

Daniel Lightfoot, John Moverley OBE, Henry Bechelet and Steve Gingell.

The British and International Golf Greenkeepers’ Association (BIGGA) and the Amenity Forum will join the Sport and Play Construction Association (SAPCA), the Arb Association, the Sports Turf Research Institute (STRI), the Institute for Occupational Safety & Health (IOSH) and the Parks Alliance in supporting SALTEX 2015’s LEARNING LIVE education programme.

BIGGA-badged seminars will include ‘Improve Turf Quality through Measuring, Analysing and Effective Planning’, presented by Steve Gingell, agronomy manager at the Sports Turf Research Institute (STRI). While an overview of Primo Maxx, the successful plant growth regulator and its use in sportsturf, will be presented by Daniel Lightfoot MG, UK business manager for Syngenta and Henry Bechelet, technical sales manager for Everris.

BIGGA’s educational seminars have always been well received at SALTEX and Jim Croxton, BIGGA’s CEO, revealed why the organisation is engaging again this year.

“We know that a lot of greenkeepers like to attend SALTEX because there is some cross over in exhibitors that are at both SALTEX and BTME. There is also a cross over for people who know groundsmen and are interested in going to catch up with friends and network. Putting education on at SALTEX is the logical next step. Not everyone can get to Harrogate and we feel it’s a benefit to our members to have education on wherever we can present it,” he said.

With the Institute of Groundsmanship (IOG) also having a frequent presence at the BTME exhibition, BIGGA’s head of member development Sami Strutt believes that the relationship between the two organisations is great for the industry.

“I think the IOG and BIGGA working together and presenting a united front for the turf industry as a whole, is very important. BIGGA is quite specific to greenkeeping but there is a much wider sporting industry out there that is reliant on turf being in the right condition and producing the right playing surfaces for the people using them. The two associations working together backs this up and goes a long way to ensuring it happens.”

Elsewhere in the show’s educational seminar timetable SAPCA-badged sessions will include: Standards for outdoor sports surfaces, presented by Mark Harrod; the maintenance of synthetic sport and play surfaces, by Gary Martin (chair of SAPCA’s Ancillary Contractors Group); the design of multi-use games areas (MUGAs), by Neil McHigh (chair of SAPCA’s Professional Services Group) and the design and construction of bases for synthetic sports surfaces by Dr Colin Young (a member of SAPCA’s Technical Committee).

John Moverley OBE, independent chair of the Amenity Forum, will also be taking to the stage to present a seminar entitled ‘Is there a future for pesticides?’ in which the Forum will be discussing the issue of the decreasing range of pesticides available to the sector and the implications. John will also be chairing a separate Question Time style session in which an invited panel will seek to answer questions on all matters relating to weed, pest and disease control.

The Amenity Forum has participated at a number of SALTEX exhibitions over the years and John believes that it is absolutely vital that the organisation has a presence there.

“There are many people in the industry that work really hard and care passionately about the work they do. I think SALTEX presents them with a great opportunity to come together to talk and learn more. If they come and talk about weed, pest and disease control as part of that then that is why we need to be there,” he said.

Other professional bodies supporting the show include: The Agricultural Engineers Association (AEA), the Association of Play Industries (API), the Crop Protection Association (CPA) and the British Agricultural & Garden Machinery Association (BAGMA).

Visitor registration to SALTEX 2015 is free. To confirm your attendance visit www.iogsaltex.com