As TPI’s public relations manager, I can confirm that hearing members comment in their own words why they enjoy being a TPI member and participating in TPI events is much more persuasive than a scripted narrative with bells and whistles. It’s evident throughout the video that members not only care about their business, they also care about the industry and their fellow turfgrass producers.

TPI’s president, Bobby Winstead of Winstead Turf Farms in Arlington, Tenn., remarked, “The reason I keep coming back to TPI is, it virtually puts you in the same room with all your peers from around the world; all the turfgrass producers that are the movers and shakers. They’re the ones that are in this organization, and they’re the ones you can learn the most from over time.”Andy Hutchison of Somerset Seed & Sod in Somerset, Va., and his wife, Audrey, were attending their first TPI Convention & Field Days. “Well, I like all the information and ideas that we’ve gained from other sod growers that we wouldn’t have had an opportunity to have gotten if we stayed at home like we have been for the last several years. This is the first year that we’ve been able to come, because we have such a small business and so few employees that I felt my business might suffer by the fact that I would come to one of these conferences; but in reality, I think we gained more out of it than we potentially would have lost by not coming,” said Hutchison.

Dave Dymond of H&H Sod Co. in Kenansville, Fla., states, “If you want to learn more about the industry than your little area, and you want to know what’s going on in the nation and internationally, you name it, you have an opportunity to talk to people that are growing turf just like you on a one-on-one basis. TPI is a great value to me because I learn something every time I come, and I’ve been coming for 12 or 13 years to all the conventions.”

Bob Weerts of Blue Valley Sod Farm in Winnebago, Minn., offered this comment about TPI’s Field Day: “TPI Field Day is an event! All the equipment dealers are here. They show all the new equipment, everything that’s going on, new stuff, they bring all their stuff here and they show it. You’ve got farmers walking around, you can ask questions of everybody that’s here. TPI Field Day is excellent.”

Lisa Huebolt of Trigon Turf Sciences, a first-time exhibitor and new member of TPI, offered this thought: “I have to say I’m very impressed with the set-up, I’m impressed with the organization, I’m really happy to be a new member. It’s a high quality group of people and vendors here, and we really like being a part of it.”

Warren Bell of Biograss Turf Farm in Sandy, Utah, remarked, “Our experience has been that we’ve made some really, really close friends, and when we’re able to sit down during the meetings, we share information with one another that you can’t do with anybody’s that close to you, geographically close to you. If I’m sharing information with someone that’s in New York that’s 2,500 miles away from my market area, we can really open up to one another and help one another. And those networking opportunities and those friendships, they’ve allowed me to pick up the phone and call someone that I trust, someone whose operation I’ve seen and ask them some complicated questions and get some real good straight forward answers on ways that we can resolve problems and create market opportunities and perhaps duplicate some of the things that we’re doing in our market areas.”

Perhaps Fred Pittillo of Turf Mountain Sod in Hendersonville, N.C., said it best as he reflected on his long relationship with TPI: “Consider TPI. It’s been good to me for 25 years because my intention from the very first, was to go and learn and make it pay for all it cost me plus more… and it has!”

The video can be viewed on TPI’s website  and Facebook page.