SALTEX 2025: What can visitors expect?

Ahead of SALTEX 2025, we spoke to Chief Operating Officer of the Grounds Management Association (GMA) Jason Booth about what visitors can expect from a revitalised show. 

What changes have been made for SALTEX 2025?

Every year we send out a survey to gain feedback about what went well and what people would like to see in the future. This year, we have expanded our learning live section of the show as well as increasing the number of speakers. We also have the new workshop area where people can get hands on with machinery, looking at how to set up and also how to use. The learning is free of charge and CPD points are available, we want people to go away having learnt something from the show.

Away from the learning element of the show, The Clubhouse has been expanded thanks to the help of our partnering associations. Former England rugby player, James Haskell will be hosting a learning live as well as being an DJ for the day; we are also introducing the arcade, to add a more fun and engaging element to the show.

Shows are about networking, and we want to create as many opportunities for people to do that while attending SALTEX, we want to keep people in the show for as long as possible because that gives them more chance to network with both visitors and exhibitors. Ultimately, we want to deliver a show where exhibitors and visitors can get as much out of it as possible.

Why is SALTEX different to other shows?

With SALTEX being delivered by the GMA, which is a not-for-profit organisation, every penny we make gets put back into the industry. Whether that is through resources, education or products. We want to provide people the opportunity to gain qualifications and do the correct training; I hope that SALTEX offers people that opportunity.

We have a headline at the GMA of ‘Making sport possible’, in a nutshell we want people to know the amount of work that goes into turfcare. This year, we have invited several associations from outside of turfcare to try and show them what this industry is about. I have been at the GMA for 11 years and we have seen great developments in highlighting what we are, but we need more. When I joined, we had no funding from the national governing bodies; we now sit in a position where we have a lot of funds going into the grounds industry due to the arduous work behind the scenes, but more work can be done.

There are rumours about SALTEX becoming a series of regional shows, is there any truth in this?

I would take the word SALTEX out of that, the Grounds Management Association introduced two pilot events for GMA Connect, one in Bristol and one at Durham County Cricket Club. We will be expanding that to six events in 2026. It is not SALTEX orientated, we will be providing talks around education and training; SALTEX will always be SALTEX, and the show is here to stay.

When thinking about the future of SALTEX, what are the aims?

When we are thinking about our aims and objectives, I think you have to go back to 2015, looking at how far we have come. The show has evolved from the days that we hosted it at Windsor Racecourse; it is very difficult to sit here and tell you where we will be in 2029 because we are constantly learning, we will continue to listen to our members, exhibitors and visitors in order to improve.

 It has been encouraging to see the recent partnership between BIGGA and GroundsFest. Do you consider there to be any benefits to your members to do a similar partnership?

We wouldn’t just look at how this could benefit the members; we would also consider how it might improve the industry. Anything that would benefit the industry would be something that we would consider. We will continue to explore these opportunities and remain open to any partnerships which will help to further develop the grounds sector.

We want to join up with partners who are forward thinking about making grounds better, we have great relationships with the Football Foundation, as well as other sporting governing bodies.

In terms of numbers, how many visitors and exhibitors are you expecting for SALTEX 2025?

For visitor registration we are up by 10% from last year, which is great news as we had over 7000 people. When it comes to exhibitors, we want quality over quantity, we want our visitors to gain from attending the show. We have always been a place where we want people to do business.