This year’s
Synthetic Turf Council (STC) Fall Member’s Meeting was held Oct. 5-7 in
Atlanta, Georgia. The mood was upbeat and the outlook positive, as most
producers and suppliers are bullish on the future for synthetic turf.
This was the
first STC meeting for incoming president Al Garver. He is just the third
president in the STC’s 12-year history. He has served a 32-year military career
in the Air Force and National Guard and Reserve, combined with civilian work in high-level
strategic planning and communications. He also has championed member-focused
advocacy, public policy objectives, and membership programs.
This year’s
programming had a heavy focus on environmental and health & safety news.
The health & safety message is that the industry is being proactive in
providing accurate information on the safety of crumb rubber infill, even with
some of the supply now coming from Chinese tires, which are made in a different
way.
The
meeting’s keynote address was delivered by Dick Vermeil, a Super Bowl
championship NFL coach who won the league’s coach of the year award four times.
His speech was on common sense principles of leadership. The audience was
genuinely engaged with Vermeil and everyone we talked to found him very
entertaining. Some of the themes in his speech included perseverance, vision,
overcoming adversity and the importance of mentors.
A large
number of Americhem customers were in attendance, so we really got to do a lot
of networking during the meeting. There was a trade show display area which was
well attended. Some of the optimism can be attributed to the fact that
municipalities are starting to have some capital free up for sports field and
landscape projects. Landscape as a category is growing, especially in Canada,
where prevention of natural pests makes turf a winning alternative. One
interesting Canadian application is the installation of turf between the lanes
of divided highways, an extremely low maintenance alternative. Drought issues
in California and the American West present opportunities for turf, particularly
in residential and commercial landscaping.
Aside from
the health and environmental themes, there were several talks on construction.
Many turf fields have failed due to poor installations, so this was an
important theme.
Our
commercial team found that this STC meeting was a great place to network. It
was a great opportunity to meet a lot of different people in a unique setting.
There were a large number of senior leadership personnel from member companies
and it was great to be able to meet with them, including those we met for the
first time. We look forward to the next semi-annual meeting this spring in New
Orleans.
Matt Johnson
Segment Director – Carpet & Turf
Americhem, Inc.
Bryan Walker
National Account Manager
Americhem, Inc.
Marty Staten
Account Manager
Americhem, Inc.
No comments:
Post a Comment