Turfgrass Symposium a success

      On November 27th, 2009, the first year turfgrass management students held their turfgrass symposium at the Cutten Club in Guelph, Ontario. With the students gearing up for the symposium since the beginning of the semester it was a relief to see it come and go. With a turnout of over 120 people made this for a success. The day went smoothly with no real problems. The students were excited to see the results from all the hard work they put into it.

      Going into the symposium with confidence that things would turnout ok and that people would show up made for many students to be nervous. When students arrived at 7:00am to set up you could feel the anxiety in the room. Once people started showing up and the students started talking to their guests and meeting new people they started to loosen up. With a turnout of over 120 people made this successful. That was the number of guests we were expecting and it’s good to see they came and supported the symposium.

      Now that the day has come and gone the students can relax and focus on their studies. With the majority of the students meeting some of the professionals in the room really helped them for the future. They got to meet with professionals in the golf course industry, parks and recreation industtry, sod industry, etc. this really opened the world to the first year students, who hopefully gained a lot of valuable information out of it. I would like to thank everyone for coming and for my fellow classmates for helping put this symposium together.

Beat the clock symposium style

      The Symposium held by the Turfgrass students is less than a week away. The symposium takes place on the 27th of November at the Cutten Club in Guelph. Part of the day at the symposium consists of a beat the clock session held by the turfgrass students. The six students that have been chosen have provided us with there knowledge on a topic related to the turfgrass industry. They each have two minutes to enlighten us with what they feel interests them.

       The six students that are taking place in the beat the clock are: Matt Nixon, Brad Anderson, Annie Vallaincourt, Michael Gainfort, Geoff Griffin, and Dave Powley. These six students were the ones chosen by the class to take part in the beat the clock session at the symposium. There are a wide variety of topics brought up by each speaker. The majority of the topics are related to the turfgrass industry. The one speaker we have Dave Powley who finishes it off will be talking about electric mowers and how they might become the mower of the future for courses built in and or around homes.

      By having the beat the clock session just before lunch at the symposium it could allow for people to have conversations over what was said. It is also a good way to kind of make people think about their situation they have at their current golf course and how this information may help them in the future. The six individuals taking part will provide new ideas relating to the turfgrass industry. So why would you miss this? November 27th at the Cutten club, hope to see you there.

Turf Care

      Turf Care president Ron Craig is passionate about turf and golf. (http://www.turfcare.ca/index.php) He has situated his business as the largest distributor in Canada of turf equipment, irrigation systems, golf cars and lighting. He is proud of the products that they represent and he stands behind all that they sell. Their goal is to provide the best quality products and the best service.

      Turf Care and all its divisions have projected sales of $60 million for the year. They have over 1200 golf course customers that they cater to. The biggest thing for Turf care is selling commercial golf equipment. For them it’s about mowers. Their customers range from owner operators, to generations, to private, to resort. With this diversity in customers they have to be well aware of their products and what they can do for each type of customer. With their skilful and knowledgeable employees it makes them a tough company to beat, because they thrive for perfection and want the best for their customers it makes them a reliable company to buy from.

      If you want products that are reliable and will have a company that stands behind them 100%, why not buy from Turf Care. They only want what’s best for you and they do everything they can to provide you with the best. With all their divisions they offer a wide assortment of products for all types of people and businesses. This is has turned into more than just a golf course related company, their residential and commercial divisions has started to increase based on Turf Cares reputation.

The importance of communication

      On Monday November 2nd, we had a guest speaker in class to talk about communication and the importance of it. Tim O’Connor the president and CEO of Connor Golf Communications talked to us about his experience with communications and how could improve our communication skills. http://www.oconnorgolf.ca/  One of the key points of communication that he stressed was get your key message across. When talking to someone or asking them for a sponsorship the idea is to get your message across in three points or less.

      The Key message when communicating is important because it will either decide if someone is listening or just along for the ride. The main thing is you tell them what they want to hear. Like what can they benefit from this message? In terms of sponsorship, you tell them what they can get out of sponsoring you. What is in it for them? This is big because if there is nothing in it for the person what is the point for them to listen. They are always so busy and have plenty of other things to do. So if you can make it worth their time, in the end it can result in an effective message.

      The key message is the most important part of communications. The idea is to get the interest of the person you are talking to. Without their attention your point will not get across and you will not have a successful message. In sponsorship the key message is very important and you should always be prepared for the unexpected. The person you are talking to is only interested if it is worth their time and money.

Turfgrass students symposium

On November 27, 2009 the turfgrass students of Guelph University will be holding a symposium at the Cutten Club in Guelph. The symposium will be based on doing more with less: turf in tough times. The day will consist of speakers who are knowledgeable in the turf field. The speakers will be talking about doing more with less based on turf. Topics like the pesticide ban, and the economy will be discussed and how we could deal with them and what we could do to fight the effects of these topics.

The speakers will consist of: Keith Bartlett- Superintendent at St. Georges Golf and Country Club, Ron Schiedel- Co-owner of Green Horizons sod farms, and Dr. Tom Hsiang- Professor in Pathology. These industry professionals will be giving the problems we are facing today and the potential solutions. With having these professionals giving their opinion and also facts about the industry, it will give us a better understanding of what we can do to make our situation more promising.

By having knowledgeable industry professionals speaking at the symposium it will bring credibility and professionalism to the event. We can all benefit from their knowledge and understanding of the turf industry. By having knowledge of turf problems of the future and present we can all benefit by providing our input into potential solutions. The symposium on November 27, 2009 will be a major event for the first year turf students for them to introduce themselves to the industry and meet professionals that have been dealing with these issues.