The Irrigation Association’s Irrigation Show and Education Week returned to Las Vegas from Dec. 5-8, hosting irrigation contractors, manufacturers and distributors.

Those who packed the Las Vegas Convention Center called the event a return to form.

“Much better than last year,” said Mary Martinez, director of marketing for Horizon Distributors. “We’ve seen people from all over; from New York, Washington, we’ve seen local people. It just seems like people really made an effort to get here this week.”

For some, the show offered networking opportunities. For others, like Brad Bos, irrigation manager for Passwater Landscaping in Bridgeville, Del., it provided an up-close look at new technologies and the opportunity for face-to-face meetings with manufacturers.

“The major vendors are here, but there are a lot of smaller companies that I wasn’t aware of that offer some new opportunities,” said Bos. “I came with some specific questions for the software vendors about their products as we’re looking at upgrading ours. So (the show) was a good experience.”

Industry Insights

Attendees said a highlight of the show was Industry Insights sessions, small group presentations focused on specific industry topics. Discussions ranged from how to market your business using social media to the state of the industry headed into 2023.

The Hunter Industries-led “State of the Green Industry” session drew responses from members of the crowd to gather live data about topics like strategies used to fight the labor shortage and what percentage of clients use smart controllers.

“I think we’ve only just hit the tip of the iceberg on where we can go with technology,” said Gregg Roesink, training supervisor for Hunter Industries. “I think the way that technology is going, you’re going to see more sensors that make irrigation decisions. Those data points will help irrigators make educated decisions.”

DJ Seeger, owner and president of Seeger Water in San Antonio, hosted a discussion on how irrigation professionals can become successful water managers.

“You can’t manage what you can’t measure,” he said. “We have amazing tools like flow sensors and master valves. We rely on controllers with those tools to help us make the correct decisions.”

Seeger, who was an active participant in the “State of the Green Industry” session, educated attendees on his business’s best practices for water management. Seeger shared his company’s water management report, which he uses to track a property’s water usage.

New products

The show also featured a new product contest with entries in both landscape irrigation and lighting categories.

Rain Bird’s Ultrasonic Flow Sensor took gold in the new product contest’s landscape irrigation category. According to the company, the sensor reads flow rates using ultrasonic waves allowing professionals to install it immediately following a pipe bend or in the same box as a master valve.

Calsense’s new irrigation management as a service took second place, while Rain Bird’s LXME2 and LXME2 Pro received the bronze medal.

In the landscape lighting category, Brilliance LED’s Sector Selector won first place. The product creates specific zones that professionals can control independently from a single transformer.

The  Renewable Universal Power Supply (RUPS) by Lite the Nite won second place and Inspira from Unique Lighting Systems finished in third place.