Bring the whole crew

The biggest show in the industry is an opportunity for dealers and landscapers to take their teams to Louisville to see the latest advancements in equipment, seeds, fertilizer, irrigation and more.

Lawn Cure, based in Sellersburg, Indiana, is sending 12 to 14 employees to GIE+EXPO this year, including Sales and Service Manager Jeff Smith. He’s been with the company for 36 years and says there aren’t too many GIE+EXPOs that the company has missed.

“We send our entire tech crew over there,” he says. “The general manager, myself, the technician manager – we make a day of it. The technicians seem to enjoy it. There’s plenty to learn. Of course, they come back with goodie bags full of stuff too.”

He says the technicians are most interested in the equipment side of the show while he and the general manager gravitate toward the vendors. He’s focused on the vendors and the new products out there like seeds, fertilizers and weed and pest control products.

“We don’t always meet new vendors. Sometimes it’s the bigger boys that are there, not the individual vendors,” Smith says. “But still, there’s a lot of people we’ve come to know over our 38 years of being in business and it’s a nice time to reacquaint ourselves with a few of them – some of the major vendors we deal with. It’s an opportunity for us to touch base with them in the regular season and not in the off season.”

That’s not to say that Smith stays away from the demonstration area. He says his company has gone through many different generations of equipment over the years so he’s always looking for the latest “bells and whistles.”

And Jeff Ridgeway, merchandise manager at Do It Best Corp. in Fort Wayne, Indiana, says GIE+EXPO is a chance to “assess products and programs” for his customers in the hardware arena.

“The guys work hard all year so it’s a chance for them to get out and not have to wear a uniform and see what’s going on,” he says.

Smith recommends wearing comfortable shoes since the trade show has more than 750 exhibits and a 20-acre outdoor demonstration area. He says getting to try out equipment before he makes a purchasing decision is extremely helpful.

“It’s always interesting to find out what’s going to be new, so we try to cover every square inch of the floor,” Smith says. “It keeps getting bigger and bigger, and I keep getting older and older, so that’s not as easy to do anymore.”

Matt Bieber of DR Power in Vergennes, Vermont, says the product focus is ideal for him and his team since they can be around the people they work with all year. Plus, they can get hands-on experience with the new equipment. “Because there is so much in a condensed area, we get it all knocked out,” he says.