Life at the OCCC

My life may not be as exciting as Seth’s or Scott’s, but I am in Orlando at the Orange County Convention Center at the first day of the GCSAA’s education conference. It always seems quiet at the beginning of the week because everyone attending the conference is holed up in a classroom for eight hours -- not much traffic, but that doesn’t mean there’s no excitement.

I’m going to write today’s blog in reverse chronological order because one of the coolest things that happened all day was on my bus ride back to the hotel -- and it wasn’t the singing bus driver.

The cool part was that Ted Horton, this year’s USGA Green Section Award winner sat across the aisle from me. He was very enthusiastic about a seminar he had attended about Web sites for golf courses. We talked a little bit about how complex Web sites are and how difficult it can be to develop an effective Web site. He said that he likes having the different associations grouped together in one show, but that he now feels like he’s stretched a little thin because he is interested in so many different facets of the industry. He also believes that the regional shows are very important, and he hopes that California will have one soon. He pointed out the success of the New England show, which our own Scott Hollister is planning to attend -- right, Scott? Horton is a delight to talk to -- so many ideas, so much enthusiasm for the golf industry.

The rest of the day was nice, but that had to be the high point. However, I must say that seeing GCM’s booth on the trade show floor was a bit of a thrill. At lunch, I grabbed the camera and went downstairs to check out the GCM booth and the trade show. Awesome! Our booth is up -- well, the shell is up -- and we have a great location. Most of the booths in our area were still under construction  -- after all , they just got started. It’s always exciting to see all the activity.  You have to be careful on the floor because those folks who drive the forklifts have no mercy. You’d better get out of their way!

For the first couple of days of the education conference, I usually pop in and out of classrooms to see what the instructors and the students are talking about. Sometimes the students’ questions, or just an offhand remark, can give me an insight into what they’d like to see in the research section.

I spent about half the day in just two sessions today -- Keith Karnok’s morning seminar about managing turfgrass root systems in the South was the morning offering that caught my eye. I learned that Southern fertility programs should always include some nitrate, especially in summer, and that some superintendents are having problems getting large quantities of ammonium nitrate because it can be used to make explosives. I was shocked when Karnok displayed a slide of the first page of an article published by a magazine that is a competitor of GCM. However, he used that slide to point out what he considered bad advice, so he’s forgiven. By the way, Karnok says he’s sticking to his admonition to water deeply and frequently if you want a good root system.

One more thing about Karnok’s class. He has a unique and very effective way of keeping his students awake. He sums up each section with a one-sentence “take-home point” that is displayed on the screen. Just as the sentence appears on the screen, a very loud trumpet sounds, all the students sit bolt upright, lean forward in their chairs and write the take-home point in their notebooks. It’s, at the least, mildly amusing to see everyone in the room move as one person when the trumpet blasts.

I also managed to spend a good part of the afternoon in Rick Brandenburg’s entomology class, “Advanced management of warm-season turfgrass insect pests.” There aren’t many turfgrass entomologists, and Dr. Brandenburg, who teaches at NC State, is one of the best. Besides providing his students with solid information about controlling turf insect pests, he also features some movie highlights. The first time I ever walked in on one of his classes, he was showing a scene with an alien insect from “Men in Black.” Today’s feature was from “Starship Troopers,” a movie I am not familiar with that appears to be some kind of cult classic. As far as I can tell, alien insects are trying to take over earth. Planes are strafing the insects; soldiers are shooting them with machine guns and grenade launchers. Just when it looks like the arachnid warriors (they look sort of like giant grasshoppers) are down, a giant beetle erupts from the earth behind the humans. Brandenburg said this scene shows what it’s like for superintendents --they face down a huge bug problem and finally tackle it. And then what happens? An even bigger insect problem sneaks up behind them! One of Brandenburg’s favorite lines in the movie is, “Shoot a nuke down a bug hole, you got a lot of dead bugs.” But I think another line sums up Brandenburg’s philosophy, “To fight the bug, we must understand the bug.”

Time for me to say goodnight. Tomorrow more of the Publications team is coming to Orlando, so you’ll have an even better idea of what’s happening at the OCCC.

Comments

[Seth Jones]

You've gotta see Starship Troopers... it's a classic! "Kill everything with more than two legs!"