Landscape Architect Articles

Show to Show to Show . . . from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf Coast to the Ohio River11-03-16 | 11

Show to Show to Show . . . from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf Coast to the Ohio River
By George Schmok, Publisher

Last month we exhibited in, and I had the honor of attending three trade shows in one week: The Landscape Expo - Long Beach, the GIE Expo / Hardscape NA in Louisville, and the ASLA in New Orleans. It was a lot of travel (they lost my bags going to Louisville) but it was great to see so much of the industry in such a short time.

At all three shows there was a mostly positive vibe with exhibitors and attendees looking forward to closing out a challenging year on the upside and gearing up for another hard fought year of growth.

The first event was in Long Beach, Calif. There, the Landscape Expo is mostly a regional event, where the product emphasis is on wholesale equipment, plant material and supply. The largest share of attendees are municipal, parks, schools and facility maintenance professionals, followed by landscape contractors, arbor care professionals, pesticide operators, landscape architects and landscape designers.

At the Landscape Expo, attendees are shopping to buy goods, set up onsite demos, secure better supply contracts and learn more about their craft. Attendance there was up more than 30% over the previous year.

At the GIE Expo/Hardscape NA, there were about 20,000 attendees and virtually every major (and minor) equipment manufacturer exhibing both inside and outside, filling about two-thirds of the Louisville Convention Center and overflowing onto a huge field filled with the sounds of working lawn mowers, loaders, excavators, tractors and hand-held power equipment.

The other one-third of the exhibit hall was filled with all things "Hardscapes." Pavers, stone, retaining walls and the equipment used to install, protect, maintain and repair them were supplemented by other standard installation based goods like lighting, irrigation, pergolas and water features.

At GIE in Louisville, Kentucky"?ubeing within a six hour drive of about two thirds of the population of the U.S."?uthere are mostly landscape contractors and distributors as attendees. The distributors are there to meet with their major suppliers, find new manufacturers offering product lines to complement their existing lines and to service the attendees coming from all regions of the country.

The landscape contractors who attended GIE were there mostly to learn about their trade and see what's going to be available to improve their business in the years ahead. The largest subset of this group seemed to be the father-son combo, where dad, or grandpa, started the business and now the second or third generation is filling the shoes. I talked to a lot of attendees, and although this is not a scientific analysis, it seemed that while maintenance was a huge part of their business, most of the sons (the new generation) were focused on the installation part of the business.

Then we flew to New Orleans for the ASLA . . . Now, I have only been to New Orleans twice, including this trip, and both times it has been either during or within a few days of Halloween. What a crazy place . . .

Anyways, at ASLA there wasn't a single piece of equipment, unless you count the fountain or play equipment. There, the exhibitors exhibited those things that sit on the landscape after the land has been prepped and leveled. At ASLA, the attendees were either landscape architects or students, hard to say which was more, but they were there to see what would be going into the landscapes of the future.

Unlike the other two shows, where attendees were there to see the exhibit hall, at ASLA, they almost had to beg attendees to walk the aisles, offering free drinks, food and fellowship in the form of class reunions, art galleries, portrait taking and even including a marching band roaming the hall. Still the landscape architects are the ones who design the projects that those who attend the other two shows will build and maintain in the years ahead.

So what a week it was, crossing the country, exploring virtually the entire landscape industry from the guys who repair the sprinkler heads, to the folks who install the project, to the men and women who put the project to paper and all of the manufacturers, distributors and providers of goods and services supplying this great industry.

It was great to see so many of you out there, learn about your business and to hear your stories. So, as we sit down to celebrate Thanksgiving, it is great to know that we are a part of this wonderful, diverse and challenging industry that has such a huge affect on so many aspects of so many people's life's across the nation.

Keep up the great work, have a great holiday season ahead and we'll see you out there . . .

God Bless.

George Schmok, Publisher

As seen in LASN & LC/DBM magazines, November 2016.