The Turf Guru

Symposium A Success!

With the economy struggling and new tough laws banning pesticides it has left the turf industry in tough times. And with having to put on a symposium in our first year communications class it made sense to put on a symposium entitled turf in tough times: doing more with less. We started preparing for this in September put really got down to work in October.  Even with a class of thirty students this was a lot to take on as most of us had never had to do anything like this before. But with the help of our teachers we were able bring it all together and make it a success.

This past friday was the big day. About three months of work all came down to this day. We had invited guests, got our sponsors and had three industry leading speakers. It started off with coffee and networking at eight o’clock then at nine we had our first speaker Dr. Tom Hsiang discussing about the effects on diseases and alternative controls. Next up was Ron Schiedel the co-owner of Green Horizons sod farm after a short break we had one of our sponsors give a short presentation. Our final speaker was Keith Bartlett from St. George’s Golf and Country Club he discussed handling the Canadian Open with the current economic state. We ended it with beat the clock which was five of our students bringing forth new ideas relating to the turfgrass industry.

Overall we had positive feedback about this symposium. This was a great learning experience for all of us. Personally I gained a lot from this symposium the biggest thing for me was being able to come over  the nervousness of speaking in front of a large crowd. I believe our guests were able to take away some knowledgeable information and were also able to have a great lunch! I can’t wait to see next years symposium!!

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