Photo: World Poker Tour/FlickrThe National Association of Landscape Professionals (NALP) is combining business with pleasure at its Leaders Forum, which will be held at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.
The executive-level education and networking event will be held Jan. 25-28 and brings together the industry leaders from the top landscape and lawn care companies across the country.
Partnering with Cornell’s Johnson School of Business, NALP will focus on education that will help companies create more skilled leaders, communicate with staff better and enhance company culture.
The education will be led by Erica Dawson, director of engineering leadership programs at Cornell University and Sean Martin, assistant professor of management at the Carroll School of Management at Boston College.
“Attendees love this event,” said Sabeena Hickman, NALP CEO. “They talk about the intensive peer learning and relationship building as some of the biggest benefits. We are also thrilled to partner again with Cornell University, to provide cutting edge strategies for your company.”
As the event will be held at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, you can rest assured that there will be plenty of parties, receptions and exciting excursions to be had as well. Some of the optional activities include a canopy adventure and dolphin exploring. Participants are encouraged to bring their families and key members of their staff for team building.
The Leaders Forum is approved for Landscape Industry Certified recertification at 1 CEU per hour of instruction. The event is sponsored by Caterpillar at the Platinum level, Bayer at the Gold level and John Deere at the Silver level.
The early bird price for full registration for members is $799 and goes up to $899 after Dec. 15. The nonmember full registration price is $1,599 and goes up to $1,699 after the early bird cutoff date.
Additional guests from the same company cost $599 for NALP members and the prices goes up to $699 after Dec. 15. Fees for guests of nonmembers are $1,099 and $1,199 before and after the early bird date, respectively.
Spouses and children registration are free. Click here to register.
Yokohama employees plant 2,000 new trees during ‘Forever Forest’ event
The Yokohama Tire Manufacturing Mississippi (YTMM) factory in West Point, Mississippi, had a tree planting ceremony as part of the “Yokohama Forever Forest” project.
The event was held on Oct. 7 and more than 300 participants including Yokohama employees and the city’s mayor Robbie Robinson came together to plant more than 2,000 tree seedlings.
Photo: YTMM“The Forever Forest environmental initiative is another way Yokohama Tire is putting back into our community,” said Robinson.
The Forever Forest program was started by YTMM’s parent company the Yokohama Rubber Co. in 2007 and has been a long-term, global environmental initiative.
“This is our first Forever Forest planting at YTMM,” said Tetsuya Kuze, president of YTMM. “and I’m very pleased to see so many people help us in this important and beneficial effort. Forever Forest embodies our commitment to protecting the local area as well as the planet.”
Yokohama reached its Forever Forest goal of planting 500,000 trees worldwide to correspond with the company’s 100th anniversary this year. There were 16 types of trees planted at the West Point site and all were indigenous including cherry bark oak, red mulberry, water oak and black cherry.
The tree planting was led by Dr. Kazue Fujiwara, a vegetation scientist and professor emeritus of Yokohama National University.
Toro names new director of Center for Advanced Turf Technology
Edric Funk has been named the director of Toro’s Center for Advanced Turf Technology (CATT), after 48-year employee Dana Lonn retired back in June.
Funk will take on the role of leading a team of agronomists, engineers and product development professionals to identify upcoming industry trends and develop solutions for customers. The CATT team works with consumers and academic institutions to create future technologies that are sustainable and increase productivity and efficiency.
Edric FunkIt focuses on a number of areas including turf management, irrigation efficiency, soil moisture sensing, alternative fuels and labor productivity.
“We are excited to have Edric’s leadership in furthering the work of our CATT team,” said Richard M. Olson, president and CEO of The Toro Company. “He will be able to apply his diverse background in strategy development, product management and engineering technologies to define CATT’s future focus. His leadership style, strength in building relationships and constant desire for learning will serve Toro well as we help fulfill our mission to be innovation leaders.”
Funk joined Toro back in 1996 and has held a number of positions including design engineer and director of worldwide product marketing in Toro’s commercial business. Before Toro, Funk was a research scientist for the University of Minnesota, where he graduated from with a Bachelor of Science degree in agricultural engineering. He also has an MBA with a focus on marketing and strategic management from the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management.
