Government Business

No other industry event offers such an opportunity to keep fully up-to-date by seeing all the machinery and equipment developments, technologies and management strategies for the effective maintenance and management of sports grounds and pitches, golf courses, local authority parks and playgrounds, stately homes, stadia, theme parks, country clubs, hotels and more.
    
Everything at IOG SALTEX is designed to make your life easier and more profitable, and it’s all on parade at Windsor Racecourse on 2-4 September.
    
This year’s show also features a not-to-be-missed series of free educational presentations and advice on the issues everyone’s talking about: ‘Timely advice for open space management’, plus there’s a host of special feature areas designed to add value to the time spent by visitors at the show:

• The new AEA Live Machinery Demonstration Arena
• The new Ernest Doe Specialist Dealer Centre, featuring Acacia Groundcare Rental Equipment 
• The Sports Turf Skills Village
• The off-road ATV Course, in association with Honda 
• The new Landscape Village - featuring the finals of the World Skills UK Landscape Gardening Competition
• The World of Arboriculture.  
  

As can be seen, there’s a product showcase for every sector of the open space management industry, highlighting top suppliers and all the top brands. Much of the machinery and equipment is also available for demonstration.
    
On display
This year, the organisers are making it even easier for visitors to include the show in their busy diaries with the introduction of one-day extended opening hours (until 7 pm on Wednesday 3 September) and a ‘round the show’ Roadtrain service to save some legwork at the expansive showground.
    
The myriad of companies at IOG SALTEX offer everything ever needed to ensure your job is made more effective and efficient, guaranteeing that the show is Europe’s only event that enables all open space professionals of every discipline to identify, discuss and source the equipment, technologies and skills required to overcome the demands they meet on a day-to-day basis.
    
IOG SALTEX 2008 will be held on 2-4 September at Windsor Racecourse, Berks, and will embrace fine turf and sports surfaces, turf maintenance equipment, children’s outdoor play and safety surfacing, landscaping, contractors, commercial vehicles, outdoor leisure and facilities management, as well as software and security equipment. The show is attended by open space management professionals and contractors – from groundsmen and greenkeepers through to play officers, architects, designers and surveyors as well as local authority and outdoor leisure facility managers.

Help at hand
With responsibility for 309 hectares of major urban and country parks, 65 play areas and numerous small areas of open space, the Leisure Services department of Swale Borough Council faces a major challenge to maintain and improve the region’s green landscape.
    
Located on the North Kent coast between London and Dover, the council provides a host of services to residents in Sittingbourne, Sheppey, Faversham and the surrounding parish areas.
    
Its leisure team of seven people includes 36-year-old Alan Marolia, the borough’s Parks and Children’s Play Officer, who has worked for the council for the past nine years. Responsible for a £1.2 million annual grounds maintenance budget as well as other significant amounts to spend on play area maintenance, including major lottery funding, his role is multi-faceted.
    
“We effectively see our responsibilities as covering pretty much any area that is green - that includes allotments, playgrounds, roadside verges and cemeteries as well as parks and gardens, recreation grounds and playing fields. Across the borough we need to ensure the broad range of public green space is maintained to the highest standard.”
    
For Alan Marolia, a key part of that delivery is an annual ‘catch-up’ visit to IOG SALTEX, an event he has been attending since his student days.
    
“My background even before joining the council has always been in horticulture, working in commercial nurseries, garden centres and landscaping, so IOG SALTEX has always been important to me. The only difference today is that when exhibitors see my name badge they are slightly more willing to talk to me than when I visited as a student - but I’ve got a long memory,” he jokes.

A valuable day out
Last year he returned to the show with several leisure services colleagues. “Windsor is only an hour away so we go up on the opening morning and make a real day of it. It’s good for teambuilding and we all have our own areas of specialism so between us we can cover large sections of the show.”
    
With specific responsibility for grounds maintenance and play, he finds that the show assembles everyone and everything he needs. “I find it incredibly beneficial because not only do I check out the very latest in plant, equipment, chemicals and even legislation, I also get the opportunity to catch up with people whose help and advice is invaluable.
    
“It’s not just salesmen that you meet on the stands but managing directors, area managers, other client officers and basically like-minded people who share a professional interest in all things horticultural.”
    
For him, another most important aspect is the ability to ‘see, touch and feel’ equipment, something that no amount of web surfing or reading of product literature can achieve.
    
“If you’re buying a new car you want to test drive it rather than just order off a catalogue picture. It’s the same with new play equipment. If I’m spending £20k-£30k, I want to actually see how it looks and performs before I invest.”  
    
Although the council’s leisure services team goes to the show with some specific ideas on who and what it needs to see, Alan Marolia is also a firm believer in having a good browse round and discovering stands that might not have been on the original target list.
    
“While I’m disciplined in terms of identifying what I definitely need to see at the show, I would always recommend having a look at some of the less obvious exhibitors. There are always new, interesting and different products and services to see and, with the best interests of our council residents in mind, that’s why it’s so important my team goes to the show every year.”

For more information
To be part of this unmissable experience, register now at www.iogsaltex.co.uk to receive your free entry badge and information about IOG SALTEX, or call the Ticket Hotline on 0844 557 2724.