Upfront: “Industry Innovations” insights
By Steve Noe
Each year, starting with the Green Industry & Equipment Expo (GIE+EXPO) in October, the fast and furious Green Industry trade show season kicks off for me and my colleagues at OPE’s Green Media sister publications Landscape and Irrigation, Arbor Age and SportsTurf as we try to bring you the latest information on our respective markets.
At these shows, we are bombarded with media requests to attend press conferences, booth visits, and seminars or presentations during show hours and then receptions after show hours, leaving us very little time to do much of anything else. However, we do manage to do our best during our limited “free” time to walk the show floor, kick some tires, and test drive products because, like all show attendees, we want to see what’s new and exciting with all of the exhibitors. Along the way, we also collect several media kits (many of them thankfully on flash drives versus the bulky binders and folders back in the day) and pour through their contents upon returning to our offices when pulling together our post-show coverage.
This year, all of the Green Media editors decided to pool our vast resources together and compare notes on many of the products that grabbed, or were called to, our attention at the trade shows, and share those products with you in the “Industry Innovations” story (see page 12). Before you read the story, I want to make it crystal clear that by featuring these products in the article, we are by no means endorsing them, nor are we suggesting that they are any better than other competitive products currently available on the market. We featured the products simply because they caught our eye or were brought to our attention by other means, and we wanted to share them with you — since we’re assuming you would be hard pressed to attend all of these trade shows and certainly wouldn’t be privy to all of the information that we receive.
As you may recall, I also highlighted several new products in my “GIE+EXPO 2013 Show Recap” in December 2013 OPE, so please be sure to reference that article as well when looking for information on the latest products. Also, check out the online version of that article for bonus new product coverage at www.outdoorpowerequipment.com. And, of course, please continue to follow our new product coverage throughout the year both in the print and digital editions of OPE, as well as on our website and our Facebook page at GreenMediaMags.
OPE Editor Steve Noe
snoe@specialtyim.com
