Looking ahead to 2018

GLAS is a key date on the horticulture calendar for 2018; promising to be even bigger and better than ever. ©Joseph Keogh

From covering some of the biggest horticultural issues of the year to the wildly successful GLAS. Growtrade is looking to make an even bigger impact in 2018.

Horticulture

3 January 2018

As the New Year begins – bringing with it new opportunities, experiences, and many horticultural events – Growtrade is preparing to make an even bigger impact upon the market in 2018.

Since March 2017, Growtrade’s has continued to grow a strong, connected, and professional readership which we believe is through the production of focused, dedicated, and relevant trade news and features that the community wants to hear about.

We have covered some of the biggest stories of the year, from the impact storm Ophelia has had on one of Ireland’s largest nurseries to informing our readers about the serious threat Xylella Fastidiosa poses to the horticultural sector.

It is this dedication to providing interesting, unique Irish stories that we have managed to capture and grow our audience. In November 2017, the number of people visiting Growtrade increased by 175% year-on-year.

We weren’t afraid to try new things as well; covering the latest government tenders that would be of interest to landscape and sportsturf professionals was something different, and with the response we’ve seen it proved to us that we are doing something right.

We have made core, technological improvements to our website, ensuring that our readership has a fast and responsive experience.

We have become more media rich; understanding that the visual component of a story can truly capture the gravity of a situation. In our coverage in particular of Storm Ophelia the visual aspect tragically captured the devastation that had occured at John Murphy’s Annaveigh plants.

In 2018 we need to continue our focus on covering the Irish horticultural landscape, as well as focusing on key horticultural news stories and features from around the world that will have an impact on Ireland.

Growtrade has grown into something that is quite unique in production. We’d like to continue to develop content partnerships at home and abroad with key horticultural stakeholders; broadening our reach but also ensuring we stay focused on what matters.

2018 will hold many horticultural events in Ireland and abroad, but few bigger than our very own Garden Landscape Amenity Showcase (GLAS). In 2017 GLAS, which was a sold-out show of 145 exhibitors, focused on its core value of bringing together market and industry leading professionals.

Under one roof from 9am to 7pm just under 1,000 people attended the show from all areas of the business-to-business horticulture trade industry.

According to the exit polls from GLAS 2017: 94% of exhibitors surveyed described their participation as “worthwhile” or “very worthwhile”, while 99% of visitors confirmed their attendance as “worthwhile” or “very worthwhile”.

A key feature of the GLAS trade show was The Learning Theatre. Proudly supported by Bord Bia, The Learning Theatre saw five industry leading professionals present lectures on a wide range of horticulture, trade specific topics.

The Learning Theatre was a particular success bringing key experts in the trade together to present the latest updates and findings on key horticultural issues. We plan on making Glas 2018 an even bigger success than last year.

Growtrade has grown massively over 2017 and it is our full intention to continue providing quality, relevant, and interesting content for our readers that brought us many successes in 2017.

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and wish you all a very happy New Year. Please enjoy the rest of the newsletter where we selected our seven most popular stories for 2017.