More than 4,000 participants and 315 exhibitors came to this year’s 2013 Irrigation Show and Education Conference in Austin, Texas.
The conference saw the highest number of class registrants since 2007.
The inaugural International Agricultural Irrigation Summit featured speakers from Brazil, Chile, the United States and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture.
All of the event’s 83 educational offerings provided attendees with opportunities to earn IA continuing education units, with 17 landscape irrigation education classes approved by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to earn licensed Texas irrigators TCEQ credits.
The show also featured IA’s opening night networking event, Celebrate Texas!, which attracted its largest crowd to date — approximately 600 participants.
In addition to agricultural and landscape irrigation presentations, show floor sessions included the presentation of awards to the 2013 Smart Marketing Contest winners and an update from Smart Water Application Technologies.
Keynote speakers Nolan Ryan and Chuck Morgan headlined the event’s general session, addressing an audience of 800 attendees. Their question-and-answer format featured topics ranging from Ryan’s favorite baseball memories to the importance of protecting Texas’ water supply.
As for next year, the 2014 Irrigation Show will feature keynote speaker Lowell Catlett, PhD, regents professor in agricultural economics and agricultural business and extension economics and the dean of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at New Mexico State University.
IA will once again partner with International Professional Pond Companies Association and the American Rainwater Catchment Systems Association as co-locating partners.
After Phoenix, Arizona Nov. 17 – 21, 2014, the Irrigation Show and Education Conference will travel to Long Beach, California (Nov. 9 – 13, 2015) and then to Las Vegas, Nevada (Dec. 5 – 9, 2016).