The fourth Toro Sports Fields & Grounds Forum was held in Brisbane, from 3 to 5 April 2017. 38 Turf managers from sports stadiums, councils, schools, racecourses and contractors attended a series of training and information sessions, and experienced and test drove Toro equipment. The event was held at Queensland Cricket’s Allan Border Field and The Gabba Stadium and had a bit of an international flavour with two Indian zonal curators from Central Zone and East Zone attending.

On day one of the forum all attendees could see and experience Toro machinery and irrigation equipment at Allan Border Field. The product rotation stations are a key to the success of this forum as customers can try out an entire line up of Toro products consisting of mowers, utility vehicles, tree care, turf renovation, specialty equipment and irrigation products. The afternoon included a session from Syngenta and the Toro Precision Sense. A behind the scenes look at Allan Border Field’s cricket facilities was thoroughly enjoyed by all.

Day two of the forum included a presentation on Leadership Skills by Daryl Sellar from Turfwise consulting, and new product updates from The Toro Company’s Senior Marketing Managers Jamieson Bergen and Kevin Conry.

Bruce McAndrew, Grounds Manager at The Gabba, took the group on a very informative tour of the oval and onto the field, which was very much appreciated by the participants.

Being able to mix and socialise, and share ideas with people from different sized sports grounds, ovals, schools, racecourses and turf maintenance companies received a lot of positive feedback from participants. Input included comments like “Probably one of the best seminars I have been to”, “Well organised and informative and networking was invaluable,” “Great interaction”, “Great event and run very professionally”.

Toro would like to sincerely thank Syngenta and the Sports Turf Association for being partners in this event, as well as Mal Caddies from Suncorp for hosting the opening night, Jarrod Bird from Allan Border Field and Kevin Mitchell and Bruce McAndrew from The Gabba for hosting the Sports Fields and Grounds Forum.