BIGGA nembers have spoken out about the need for access to more turfgrass research and education, and the British and International Golf Greenkeepers Association has listened.
Jim Croxton, the association's chief executive officer, cites an expanded education schedule for daily attendance that was up by about 10 percent each day and 1,000 people overall at this year's BIGGA Turf Management Exhibition (BTME).
The association has gradually expanded education, from 2,000 hours in 2010 to 5,000 hours this year. That includes more offerings for those in entry-level positions and more speakers from the United States.
"I think (there is) a greater focus on value for money," Croxton said. "People have to justify their reason for attending. The key driver to that is education."
BTME once was primarily a trade show, and the new format and increased attendance due to education has been a hit with vendors eager to have more facetime with show-goers.
"People are coming to the conference as a conference, where it used to be just an exhibition and a few seminars," Croxton said. "They're planning their trips better, they're staying longer, which is great for us because they are spending more time engaging with exhibitors as well as the education. And of course they socialize a lot, and greenkeeping is a networking business."
During this year's show Rick Tegtmeier, CGCS, director of grounds at Des Moines Golf and Country Club, became just the 67th person to achieve the title of Master Greenkeeper since the BIGGA began recognizing the achievement 25 years ago.
Croxton noted a larger-than-usual presence from the U.S. this year both in terms of attendees and speakers, which included Beth Guertal, Ph.D., of Auburn; Jim Kerns, Ph.D., of North Carolina State; John Kaminski, Ph.D., of Penn State; Mark Kuhns, CGCS, of Baltusrol Golf Club, Stan Kostka, Ph.D., of Aquatrols, as well as TurfNet's Jon Kiger, who delivered three presentations in Harrogate.
The program also included more education aimed at entry-level workers in the turf-management field, as well as more education for seasoned greenkeepers hoping to make the leap into club management.
"We deliberately put a whole stream in this year for greenkeepers early in their career," Croxton said. "We're probably not doing enough on elements that linked greenkeeping to the business of golf. We're doing customer service, golf business, obviously lots of people management and resource management, those kinds of things. The agronomic side is still there. A lot of our guys are geeks for agronomy. They want to find out the latest research, but actually around that is a lot more rounded education to be a manager."