Fire & Ice Preview

First there was Summer Field Day. Then Summer Snow Days. Now welcome to Fire & Ice, a day-long event covering the hot topics on both sides of the landscape industry.

Scheduled for 8 am to 4 pm, Thursday, August 4, 2022, at Cantigny Park in Wheaton, IL, the Summer Field and Snow Day combo will be packed with educational offerings, tours of Cantigny’s new gardens, equipment demos, food, music and vendors galore. Oh, yes, and garden gnomes.

“I think it makes sense to combine the two,” says David Burton, chair of the Fire side of the Fire & Ice committee. In addition, he believes that combining the two committees allows for new and fresh ideas.

More than that, Fire & Ice allows for one more opportunity for ILCA members and their staffs to meet and greet in person. “This will have a lot more energy,” says Bob Bertog, president of Bertog Landscape Co. and associate chairperson of the Ice side of Fire & Ice.

In the past educational offerings at Summer Field Day were hands on and took place at the booths. Cantigny, however, offers the best of both worlds, an indoor, air-conditioned Visitors Center theater in which much of the educational sessions will take place, as well as space for Walk Abouts, equipment demonstrations and other programs in and around the vendor booths.

Not to mention that Cantigny staff will leader tours of the new garden areas. A 500-acre park in Wheaton, IL, it is on the former estate of Joseph Medill and his grandson, Colonel Robert McCormick, publishers of the Chicago Tribune. It features display gardens, natural areas, green houses and garden tours. And has been the site of Summer Field Day in the past.

Garden Gnomes

As has been the case at previous Summer Field Days, as well as iLandscape, if you find the garden gnomes, you win a prize. They will be hiding throughout the area. (continued on page 36)

(continued from page 35)

Educational offerings for the Snow and Ice portion of the show will include subjects that are on the minds of those who provide these services to their customers. To give attendees plenty of time to get the most out of the event, organizers decided that no seminar will be longer than 45 minutes, says Bertog. Presentations will include:

• Know Your Costs and Succeed in Snow

• Slip and Falls Litigation: Using the Snow Removal Liability Act

• Increase Profitability and

Efficiency with Liquid Pre-apps

• Snow Operations Panel

The panel discussion will be comprised of experienced professionals from three different companies and will cover such topics as finding labor, supply chain challenges, labor saving machines, using subcontractors and proper pricing, writing contracts, fuel surcharges and how to handle them in multi-year contracts and lot and yard security. The audience will be able to ask questions, says Bertog.

Short topics also will be scheduled at certain booths.

“In the past we mostly had walk abouts,” says Jessica Reidell, associate chair of the Fire & Ice Committee’s Fire subcommittee. “There were few sit down classes.” This year that will change. Cantigny’s indoor facility will allow for panel discussions and presentations in air-conditioned comfort.

The Fire’s presentations and panel discussions will cover such topics as fuel and how to apply surcharges, labor saving practices and equipment, company culture, codes and permitting, transitioning to electric and anticipating challenges in the field.

There will be walk abouts. In fact, two are scheduled: new plants and plant introductions and electric and laborsaving equipment.

While attendees will be walked to and from the building, there also are golf carts available for anyone who has trouble walking, says Reidell.

Food, Fun and Entertainment

Beer, food and music will make Fire & Ice a joyful day. The Tree Connection will return as the Beer Garden sponsor. Attendees also will be able to choose from three food options: Brats and Burgers, Mexican and BBQ, which, as happened in 2019, they will be able to take to any of several dining tents (continued on page 38)

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(continued from page 34) located throughout the exhibit area to eat in a relaxing atmosphere.

Hydrations stations will be scattered throughout the vendor exhibit area, although participants will be asked to bring their own reusable thermoses. There also will be bottled water available.

Once again participants will be able to compete with one another in a variety of games. (See Exhibitor list on page 40)

A Block Marketing Advanced Turf Solutions Alert Distributing Inc. Alexander Equipment Co., Inc. Allta Equipment Atlas Bobcat Bartlett Tree Experts Blu Petroleum Burris Equipment Cantigny Park Carlin Horticultural Supplies/ ProGreen Plus Cedar Path Nurseries Chapin Manufacturing Clesen Wholesale College of DuPage Hort Dept. ConservFS Cub Cadet Dayton Bag and Burlap Goodmark Nurseries Grasshopper Company Green Glen Nursery, Inc Harrell's LLC Hinsdale Nurseries Inc Intrinsic Perennial Gardens, Inc. J. Frank Schmidt & Son Co. Kankakee Nursery KO Supply Company, Inc. Kramer Tree Specialists, Inc. Lafarge Fox River Stone Mariani Plants McCann Industries McGinty Bros., Inc. Michigan Chloride Midwest Groundcovers Midwest Salt Midwest Stihl Midwest Trading Monroe Truck Equipment, Inc. Pizzo Native Plant Nursery Rainbow Ecoscience Reinders RentalMax Rochester Concrete Products/Rockwood Retaining Walls Russo Power Equipment SavATree SIMA (Snow & Ice Mgmt. Assoc.) SiteOne Landscape Supply The Tree Connection Twixwood Nursery Vermeer Midwest Weather Command Wilson Nurseries & Landscape Supply Xylem, Ltd.

Exhibitors at press time

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