Organisers and exhibitors at the recent BIGGA Turf Management Exhibition in Harrogate held this past week are breathing a collective sigh of relief as Harrogate Week ends, with many saying that the event had well exceeded their expectations.
BIGGA chief executive John Pemberton said that, in advance, there had been ‘apprehension and concern’ about the impact that the present economic climate would have. In the end, the training and education programme had been better attended and more successful than ever while exhibition attendance figures, although down on last year, would still be around 6,000 for the week.
The exhibition had got off to a relatively slow start on the Tuesday morning reports Geoffrey Russell, Mananaging Director of Golf Business News. This may have been caused by many visitors electing to travel to Harrogate on the first morning of the event, thus saving on accommodation costs. By midday, however, the exhibition halls (reduced from five to four this year because of the biennial absence of some of the major machinery suppliers) were as crowded as ever and on Tuesday and Wednesday nights the town’s hotels achieved much higher occupancy rates.
The seminar programme this year included several that were free of charge and at many of these there was standing room only. Newly elected chairman of BIGGA, Peter Todd, a long standing client of Weed Free from The London Golf Club, said that this year he had sent more of his staff to attend the education programme than he had in 2008. “In this climate,” he said, “it’s even more important to up your game to meet the challenges ahead.”
We wish Peter every bit of success over the next 12 months as Chairman of BIGGA.
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