SALTEX: A Professional Showcase with Geoff Webb

Hello, I'm Chris Biddle, and welcome to Inside Agrita, featuring those lovely folk who are engaged at the heart of the farm and grass machinery industry, known collectively as land based engineering.

And thank you for joining me.

In our previous episode, Keith Christian and I discussed the evolving show scene for the turf management industry.

At the end of this month, we will see the 78th staging of Soltex.

That's a sports amenities landscaping trade exhibition, which was first held in 1938 at the Hurlingham Club, albeit under a different name.

And that has been continuing despite an eight year gap during the Second World War and a one year break during COVID pandemic in 2020.

So today I'm delighted to welcome Jeff Webb, the chief executive of the Grounds Management association, the GMA, the organizers of Sortex.

Geoff, a warm welcome.

But first we must acknowledge the imminent retirement of some of the quite rightly regarded as Mister Soltex.

I'm referring, of course, to Derek Walder, who joined the IOG as it was then in 1969, when the show was at Bospor park, and became operations director in 1979 when the show moved to Windsor.

And this coming show will be his 42nd Soltex.

Geoff, what are your feelings and thoughts about Derek's extraordinary career?

Derek is just.

We throw around the word legend a lot, but that's what he is, and not just in the grounds care sector for the work that he does, but he epitomizes this can do work ethic that I think pervades our profession.

I don't think Derek will mind me revealing that he's 87 years young this year, and to continue to do what he does in the way he does that.

And also along with others that should be mentioned, like Les Gibbs, who's equally getting longer in the tooth, but not quite as long as Derek.

You've had that commitment and passion and pride that they've put into the sword sex show, which many people know about.

And Derek's a really interesting character.

He's started out life with some difficulties.

He's very modest about this, but he only recovered his sight as a nine year old, had to go to a specialist school in Brighton.

And one of the funny stories was he only revealed that to me one day as we were going around a pre set up Windsor on a John Deere Gator and suddenly told me no peripheral vision.

By the way, I'm not sure whether John Deere realized quite what Derek's driving ability was or lack of sight was, but he always had a tunnel vision when it came to Saltex and a drive and a passion for that, and he took everybody with him.

And as trade shows go through bell curves, and they have good times and they have lots of good times, and he's seen absolutely every element of that.

And I'm just waiting for his book because I think it'd be fascinating alongside the stories of the crazy gang when he was the head groundsman at Wimbledon and they had that famous victory over Liverpool in the FA cup.

Indeed.

And as far as the show in Soltex is concerned, any sort of memorable moments that you can think of him coping with all the slings and arrows, of putting a show together.

I think more recently, I think it was to come back from COVID it was such a difficult time for any exhibition organizer, and we were obviously in the same boat as everybody else, and you didn't really know.

Having gained a lot of momentum, having moved into the NEC in 2014, to have a sort of effectively a two year gap, it was going into the unknown, how would the show be received?

There was still a lot of nervousness around making contact with people in public places, etcetera.

And we got a real buzz from that particular show.

And I think we all had a huge sigh of relief, but also a celebration of the fact that we were back and able to engage.

And that's what really the trade shows do, is enables people to connect.

And I think that's what we've all learned going forwards up to where we are now, is the beauty of interpersonal contact is still king, even though that we're talking about new challenges and new threats like AI or automation, all these things, human to human contact, is really important.

Yes.

Yeah.

If I might just put in my own personal tribute, a memory of Derek.

It was a rather surreal moment to some years ago, both he and I, as so called experts.

He was the expert, I was the so called.

We were invited to appear on a BBC watchdog program, which was prime time then, to judge the best lawnmower out of a cast of about eight machines, which they'd set up a course with chicanes and goodness knows what.

And these machines ranged from an Atco Royale fine turf machine, costing well over four figures, right down to a fly mo minimo, which I think you could buy for about 30 quid then.

And at the end of this test, where the testers were roaring around this track, the interviewer quite seriously asked which was the best mower.

And both Derek and I looked at one another.

Our mouths fell open, and obviously there was no particular answer to that, but we had a really good lunch on the BBC and it was held at the cricket ground at Arundel.

So it was a good day out, but in the end fairly fruitless and certainly quite surreal.

I think with Derek, if he didn't exist, you'd never invent him.

So my best wishes to him in his retirement.

Geoff, any talk of trade shows at the moment must include the emergence of a third machinery show for the turf care sector, which took place in September.

An outdoor show.

Is that resulting in saltex, or rather the GMA, considering its future options for Saltex?

Not really.

We're full steam ahead.

But what I would say is we always ask the question, what on earth are we doing to ourselves?

And to quote a famous leader, however beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.

And that's what we do after every edition of Soltex.

And I think it's really important to put across to anybody who's listening that we have a forward thinking board with a lot of open mindedness and also putting together with the staff team, we've now got a really strong strategy.

And just to say our headlines really in our strategy, are to attract new talent and accelerate the growth of a diverse workforce.

And I think you've seen evidence of that in the last year when you look at the occasion where we got the Arsenal and Tottenham Women's Super League game to be managed by 13 female ground staff, and that increased the spike of interest in our sector through the media no end.

We've charted the different stories that we've managed to promote through the year and that was by far and away the peak of interest.

But we're also there to support sustainable business growth and protect the sector's interests.

So soltex, just by it being an income generator for the GMA, helps to enable these sort of programs and opportunities to exist.

And then thirdly, I think it's always a back with membership bodies these days because the Internet is quickly available.

But we are there to build industry reputation and then promote the sector's contribution both to society and to the economy.

And we press those buttons all the time.

And for example, in workforce development, which is a really important factor for not just our profession, but we're in there competing with every other profession to get youngsters through.

What we do is elevate that profession, highlight the expertise and the career pathways and make sure we can get those people working in grounds management.

What we want to do is grow the availability of a diverse talent pool, attract the next generation of people who then hopefully will enter and work and volunteer in the grounds, care industry over the years.

How important is or has been the income from sore Tex to the association?

It's always been important and it continues to be important.

What's been really interesting is through, I think, having the plan of action that I just outlined and having a strategy.

The reliance on that has dropped off because we've been more successful in other programs.

But as I say, we always look forward and we always challenge ourselves.

So we've just been going through an in house staff restructure.

We've just recently relaunched our website and our membership proposition as well.

And we're looking at entire board changes between now and 2028.

And what we're going to look to do is make sure that we have people with the right commercial skills, the marketing, the sales of finance, backgrounds in technical and trade and exhibitions.

So we balance that up between members from the industry sectors, but also making sure we've got the key skill sets required at board level to plan and execute strategies so that we are current and we can actually react in real time to the issues and challenges that the industry faces.

I'm sure the debate about shows will go on whether September is the right time, or November or January, whether it's indoors or outdoors.

And I guess shows will evolve over the years and I'm sure that the GMA will be a central part of that if we could come on to the GMA itself.

This is your 90th year, your 90th anniversary, and I read that it was founded in a pub in the City of London, which seems natural for groundskeeping staff, although I guess the conditions were totally different then.

Why is the GMA vital to the stature and importance of the grounds care sector and those who work in it?

Geoff, I think in a nutshell, what we're there to look at is promoting the career of individuals, whether that's volunteers or professionals, and accelerating their knowledge and understanding to give them the best chance to be successful in those careers.

And we've done that over many years through our education offer and through more recently, we've brought in, I think, a game changer, which is called the grounds management framework.

And if you want to go onto the new section of our website, we've actually got a grounds management framework quiz where, if you remember, it will show you by looking at a range of questions, breaking down your personal knowledge, your operational knowledge or your management knowledge, to give you an overall level of where you sit in a spectrum of understanding when it comes to your skills and knowledge.

So that that's effectively always been the main offer of the GMA is education and your progression within that.

So, for example, if I went on to it, I probably would have a good personal knowledge, but my operations and my management and my overall level would probably be quite basic.

But what we're doing is breaking that down, looking at, as I say, the personal aspect of that.

So you could start with none or limited knowledge of the role and career pathway of a groundskeeper, for example.

You could have a more detailed knowledge of knowing the type of machinery and tools used in preparation and the tasks they can perform, how they use equipment and machinery safely.

And then in your operations knowledge, you could be able to carry out basic pitch repair work.

As an example, then we look at pitch preparation.

Do you have limited, or do you have good knowledge of how to prepare a pitch ready for a match?

And then we look at your qualification in turf and grounds management.

So what is your knowledge of turf management practices and standards?

Do you have awareness of basic turf management practices and standards, etcetera?

And then we can look at the assessment of that.

Do you know how to undertake an assessment of a pitch?

For example, are you able to undertake a basic visual assessment of a pitch, et cetera, et cetera?

And you can build on that.

Even looking at your knowledge of construction, do you understand the role of agronomists range of techniques used in sports pitch construction?

What do you know about outsourcing and contractors?

Are you aware of the role of external contractors and consultants?

And then we look obviously at health and safety and we do a lot of work.

We have a lot of documentation on our website and a whole library as a resource available to our membership because many people have limited knowledge of health and safety.

So we can build those skills into this matrix.

And as I say, you can come out now and you can look at where you sit in your site and look at your management techniques and look at your skill level and the way the website is now set up.

It's a personal portal, so you can also look at how many courses you may have taken in the past year.

You can log that all we've got a course id, a course name, it will tell you your start date, etcetera.

So what we're doing is now developing a sort of personal cv for our membership so that you can see if you've got any gaps in your provision of knowledge, where you might need to top up or where you may need to go to get further understanding, to take on the roles and the tasks that you might find in your particular workplace.

And all this, of course, is a path to professionalism, which I know that the community are proud of the image of groundskeeping and green keeping is often misunderstood and misreported.

There have been some crazy remarks made recently which called into question the knowledge of certain commentators as to what was going on in front of them.

But your guys and girls do an incredible job and you rightly mentioned the all women grounds team at the Emirates for the Arsenal and Tottenham women's league game.

Geoff, we've had record rainfall in September, traditionally the very end of the cricket season, and yet we've had some very high profile one day internationals played and completed during the month.

For instance, at Lords recently in front of a full house of 26,000 odd for a game against the old Australia, played just a few days before October, there was torrential downpour in the morning, but after a short delay, an exciting game was played because lords had invested in a highly porous outfield a few years ago and the ground staff worked wonders to allow the game to start in safe playing conditions.

Some years ago, that would just not have been possible.

The game would have had to be abandoned and a huge amount of money would have had to be returned to the purchases of the tickets, which had been an absolute sellout.

I think in general, the media, don't they give your guys and girls a pretty good crack of the whip in terms of actually commenting on their ability to get a game on?

Yeah, I can give you three examples, in fact, to back up what you've just said.

We do look at the coverage that we get, for example, in July this year in the Guardian, Gary Barwell, who's the head of sports turf at Edgebaston and is a GMA ambassador.

He reached almost 35 million people with his interview about the life of a cricket groundskeeper.

That's a fantastic example of the changing nature of the way that we can now react to press speculation on what the job entails.

The other one that I mentioned in March 2024, this was on Talksport.

It was a landmark moment, really, for the Women's Super League and women in football, and they collaborated with the grounds Management association and, as I said, organized the first all fame grounds team to work on a WSL game.

In fact, Gary before had engaged again with Meg Lay and others and put on the first Ashes test managed by a full female grands team.

So there's two really good examples and then more locally, what we try and do as well.

And this is probably more related to, say, the grassroots.

I can just give you an example from the Northumberland Gazette, where the GMA urged clubs to take action, to be proactive with their pitch maintenance ahead of the coming season, reaching over 16 million people.

So there's a real range there of examples where we are able to make an impact.

And what I found interesting about the point we're making about this is a rugby league example.

I think the podcasts have probably got more famous by being attacked post the comment made by the person in question than it had before that.

And I'm glad that we were able to work with really the entire sector.

I could see it coming together on social media and obviously we put out a statement ourselves where we were just disgusted with the comment.

And I think that individual has learned a lesson.

I know he's been in touch with our own comms team and reached out to us and I think he's been taught a lesson and in fact I think he's got more respect now.

And others I know who've talked to some of the ground staff in rugby league clubs have found that there is a body behind this sector that has got some teeth to it and will react.

Whether it's been put in a position of difficulty or when one of our members comes under attack, or when a section comes under attack, we're there to support this sector.

Yeah, those are very practical examples.

And what brought it to mind is one memorable occasion that I was involved in when I was editing turf professional magazine.

We'd chosen Jason Booth, then head groundsman for Leeds Rhinos at Headingley, and now, of course, chief operating officer of the GMA, as our groundsman of the season.

I was to present it to Jason on the pitch at half time during the rhinos versus Hull match.

There had been torrential rain during the day and the only reason the game was being played, I think, is because it was being televised.

So there was I, ankle deep in water and mud splattered trousers, presenting the award to Jason for his immaculate pitches during the year.

But that, I guess, really sums up the lot and the role of groundsman, doesn't it?

Coping with the elements, getting the game on and talking about waterlogged pitches.

The instances of sports fields being underwater seems to be all too common these days.

And the call on your flood advice must be growing daily.

Yeah.

Climate change is becoming nutritional, I think, and that's obviously going to be a key feature of learning life, which it has been really for the last two or three years.

The extreme of weather are challenging the very best ground staff out there.

And it's something that I think it's really interesting in the way that the whole industry reacts to this, because I think sometimes from outside looking in.

People take a simplistic view of our sector, but actually we're applying quite a lot of research, innovation and technology, which you do get by going to solute or other trade shows, and you find out that we're actually quite a forward thinking sector in itself.

And I do think that year on year you start to see the trends coming through from, if you like, the research that may go into how do I battle climate change as an example?

And we learn all the time, but I do think one of the big issues that needs to be managed better, it's basically down to human resourcing within sports facilities, especially leading sports facilities.

We often talk to quite leading sports clubs about ground staff teams and whether they have enough of them.

And our research backs up that quite often pay is one thing, but it's not universal that pay is just an isolated issue.

More often than not it's hours worked and the overtime that's a paid or unpaid that becomes major obstacle.

So one of the things that weve looked at is how do we help our membership manage stress, for example.

And weve been thinking about that for a long time because its been a prevalent issue as the pressures of tv and the demands of sports seem to be going up and up in terms of cricket, theres lots of new formats to cricket and football.

Obviously with the advancement of women's football as well, we're not going to start building 40,000 pound new pitches.

We're going to be using the same pitches with increased demand, and that means more work for ground staff at all levels.

So I think it's really important to recognize that this is going to be an ongoing issue and something we're going to need to manage carefully.

Part of that is education, I think.

But we have just, with our new membership programme launched a free confidential counselling and wellbeing support service and that's available 24 7365 days a year.

And it offers support with counselling, legal information, finance, consumer information, career guidance, life coaching, mediation, which is really important in some instances.

We've got health information there, cancer support, autism support, even infertility and pregnancy loss, elder care support, parent coaching and international employee support as well.

And we've looked very carefully at the provider for that because we're not on our staff, the experts in some of these areas, and I know that people have reached out to the GMA or have opinions that we should be a union and we've never been that.

Although I can say that we are in discussion with unions again about how can we do some partnering up where it's necessary to do that.

But what we've got to do is provide a rounded package of support for the professionals that are being put under increasing pressure because the demands of sport are going through the roof.

And there will become a breaking point with sport if you don't actually work out what the impact is on the workforce.

And in this case, you hear about player strikes, for example, because they're saying in football, there are too many games.

It's just at breaking point.

Who's thought about the ground staff that sit behind the preparation of those sports and those games?

And that's what we're doing with this move, with our membership assistance program.

And, by the way, that's also going to be available to the families of our members, not just the member themselves.

There's lots of things we're trying to do in the background, and again, the investment in Soltex is vital because it allows us to subsidize programs such as this and bring them to the fore and then support the workforce that's out there.

Yeah, now, that's most interesting and a really good rundown of a lot of things that you're doing at the moment.

And I always think, Geoff, the grounds team are rather like, a good referee should never be the story, and I think if the ground staff or the preparation of a pitch or whatever becomes a story, then that can be often negative.

So I think the fact is that.

And until it becomes a story, then they're doing a heck of a good job.

Absolutely.

Geoff.

If we could come on to sortex itself, which will be on the 30th and 31 October this month at the National Exhibition Centre.

Once again, how's the show shaping up?

Are you pleased with the take up?

Yeah, like always, the pre reg is looking good.

We're pleased with the keynote speakers that we've got with the learning live program, which is growing in its reputation.

So we have three theatres this year.

We've got a main stage, a spotlight stage, and a community sport stage, and we've got some big names representing big bodies.

So we've got UEFA and FIFA coming in.

We've got the funding bodies from sport for this country as well.

And I think one of the things that you will see is an expanded community sports zone that we had in its concept stage, really, last year.

But we know that we've got some good links with several of the companies that got involved with that last year, and that will be a join to the GMA hub.

And really, what we're looking to do is join all the dots together.

So you get the funding bodies with the cash available to give back out to grants linked to the companies that will be in the hall, who've got the kit and equipment that these clubs need to carry out the work they need to do to get their pitches up to scratch.

So we're creating that virtuous circle and then we've got some other things that we will be doing and also looking at Soltex after hours, and we will be doing some nice things linked back to where we opened up.

Our guest of honor will be Derek Walder, and I hope that as many people can come along to that straight after the show from 530 onwards.

A star guest indeed.

And Keith Christian, in the conversation that we had from the previous issue, called the NEC a cozy place.

I guess if it's blowing a hoolie outside, then the NEC is a cozy place for people to mingle and listen to lectures and educational events.

What features do you think can visitors really look forward to?

I know you mentioned the educational section.

Are there any other things that you think that they would like to engage with?

I think the clubhouse is becoming a good feature that we brought in last year because one of the comments we had before, and again, this is where reflecting back and you look at each edition, you try and build something back in the clubhouse was very popular last year.

Again, it was conception stage when we launched that last year, but we're building on that and there's more networking, so I think you'll see more show floor networking.

It's got a new look and feel to that.

We've got more informal meetups planned and we're looking at some.

Coming back to your point on cosiness, we've got some fireside chats actually on industry topics and the works in progress.

Expect some of that.

Good.

Soltex has evolved over the years.

What have you learned from previous Soltex shows?

I'll get the impression from what you've just said that it's as much about the education, it's as much about the machinery and the exhibits, but actually it's probably more about people.

Would you agree?

We've delivered consistent results with our visitor numbers ever since we've been at the NEC.

For us, as I'm sure you're aware, Chris, that the last couple of years, unfortunately, Windsor led to the decisions that we then had to take in terms of numbers and the inconsistency really of the venue in terms of weather.

And we've just talked about weather getting more extreme.

What the NEC does is it guarantees you the event, but the most extreme circumstances and obviously Covid being the most extreme.

But I think what we always try and do is a very solid job in terms of the marketing approach and the build up to the show and then looking at the results that we get and working back with the exhibitors and the visitors on their feedback really.

So there's always things that you can improve on and you can never please everybody with what you try and deliver.

But I think what you do get is consistency.

And being the premier show we have got a very strong database and I think it's in the calendars of senior buyers in a lot of instances we know, for example, we get representation from the government, we get defence industry, we get the royal family being represented.

There's a range of contracts to be won, I would say that are serious big hitters that come through the database that you get with soltex.

So I think there's value in that and at the end of the day it's results that matter certainly for exhibitors investing and we recognize that.

But like I say, if we have to adapt and change over the next ten years then we will look at that and we will do that, but we do it on a sensible basis.

And I think it's fair to say that we've been open to discussions about the future of trade shows for a long time.

We're not a body that's close to public opinion, but if you want to come and have a discussion with us, let's have it on a constructive basis.

And we really do want to make sure that we protect the asset of sortex.

But also we want to protect the asset of all the membership opportunities I've outlined and what we give back to the sector on a year round basis.

And has the visitor profile changed over the last few years?

Historically, if we go back many years there were coach trips from local authorities and so on that came in.

Has it become more professional, more high profile?

We think that the move to the NEC has attracted external investors that we didn't used to get.

So we get the governing bodies, for example, who probably ingested a large instance of taking the place of what would have been a local authority investor 10, 15, 20 years ago.

So we now know that we've got the sports bodies who invest back out to the industry coming to our show and we've made that connection through the pitch advisory service program that we run and we've just won the contract for that for the next four years.

And we've built up really positive relations with all the major sports.

So whether it's cricket, football, both codes of rugby, Wimbledon, for example, we have very good links and we've got chief execs coming to Saltex now who never used to come, and we sold it to them.

And we also bring in government officials, so it could be DCMs, for example.

We're all the time banging the drum behind the scenes to ensure that we open up opportunities for all the suppliers into the sector and the industry.

And we do feel that Soltex is a very professional showcase that provides that backdrop and a really good professional impression of what this industry has to offer.

And the innovation and the products that you see over the years have been our most vital asset.

Companies that appear at Zoltecs are innovative, they're market leaders, they have great brands, and we want to support that and we want to wave their flag with them.

And is there increased international participation in the show?

Yeah.

In fact, this year is our biggest representation of international exhibitors itself.

And last year we had a record number of international trade coming in as visitors as well.

So we had over 55 countries represented.

And what is interesting, and I think it's a success story for the UK sports turf sector, or the turf sector more widely, in that we're held in such high regard globally for what we've achieved, really.

And people are coming to have a look to see how have you done that and how can I apply that back in my own country?

Even to the extent that we launched in the last year, our first education course, for example, in Serbo Croat, the rest of Europe is playing catch up when it comes to sports turf management, were seen as the pinnacle.

I've been lucky enough to travel the globe and talk about this and see firsthand what other countries are doing.

And even in advanced countries, I think the fact that a body like the GMA and through its previous incarnations as Institute of Groundsmanship and before that, National association of Groundsmen, that founding in 1934 from the playing fields of Eton, because thats where it all started from, is the market leader globally in terms of how to represent a sports turf sector within any country.

And to lose that, I think, would be a real shame.

So I do hope people realize that and stick with what were trying to achieve now as the GMA.

And lastly, as far as shows are concerned, Jeff, what do you think makes a good show?

Happy exhibitor, happy visitor?

As simple as that?

Simple as that.

Look, I think we've really had an excellent trawl through the work of the GMA.

Obviously, it's a lot of work, Soltex, that you and your team put in.

How do you relax after a Saltech show?

I don't know whether I do, because we're just already planning the next one.

In all seriousness, I relax because we've been building behind the scenes a really good team of people.

And I'm a great believer in succession planning.

We're doing that at board level and we're doing that at staff level as well.

And I'm not getting any younger.

And I basically want to make sure that we've got a really good team of people to progress on behalf of its members, the GMA.

So I actually do relax by looking at the what we've built.

We recently just had a staff event where we were at Kempton park to bring the team together because we do work remotely.

And I reflected on my first year, which was 2005.

I walked in with, I think, six or seven people.

And to see the team that we've built over time with, I can guarantee you the dedication and commitment that I think is learned from people like Derek Walder, that passion and commitment is surviving generations.

And that's what makes me happy.

And, yeah, that's really it.

Look, Jeff, that's excellent.

And could I wish you well in your.

Your build up to the show and the success of the show, and may it go from strength to strength.

And although, of course, it may well evolve, but then that's the nature of the beast.

Geoff, thank you very much for your time today.

Thanks, Chris.

So that was excellent and so very comprehensive from Geoff.

And I've got three takeaways from our conversation.

One that sortex is more, much more than an exhibition hall stuffed full of machinery and exhibits.

It's a professional showcase for a professional organization representing a professional and highly skilled community.

There's little doubt that the recent new show, grounds fest, ticked many boxes for visitors and exhibitors, and the organizers are to be congratulated on that.

However, Soltex is the industry in the round, providing connections that stretch from government and official sporting bodies through suppliers of machinery and services, accredited training right through to the individual grounds team members, whether they are looking after the playing surfaces of Wembley or Lords or Netherwallop FC or the Wednesday Wanderers Cricket Club.

My second takeaway is that Geoff repeated that he is and always has been willing to engage in conversations about the timing and structure of shows for the turf management industry industry.

And finally, the fascinating point about the workload of grounds teams as the demands of sporting bodies and television becomes ever more demanding.

Professional footballers, rugby players and cricketers are all complaining about the ever increasing schedule of matches.

They say they need time to recover properly, or so do playing surfaces and those who look after them.

People say that we should be a union to safeguard our workforce, said Geoff.

We're not.

But we are talking to the unions, which is yet another example of how the current climate, both meteorological and the business of sport, is changing and will influence new thinking and new strategies.

So I'm Chris Biddle.

Thank you for joining me.

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