Past Webinars
Did you miss it? Order past webinars below (Member $35 | Nonmember $50).
Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2020
Advancing Landscape Irrigation Management | 1 CEU
Presenter: Amir Haghverdi, Assistant Professor, University of California–Riverside
Multiple ongoing landscape irrigation projects have been conducted that explore multiple turfgrass and ground cover trials, all being irrigated autonomously using evapotranspiration-based and soil moisture sensor-based smart irrigation controllers. Tune in for the results of these projects being performed at the University of California Riverside Ag Experiment Station and the University of California ANR South Coast Research and Extension Center by Haghverdi research group.
Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2020
Wi-Fi: What You Need to Know to Look Like a Pro | 1 CEU
Presenter: Kevin Battistoni, Midwest Sales Manager, Hunter Industries
During this webinar, you will learn the key fundamentals of the world of Wi-Fi and connected devices as they apply to green industry professionals. Learn what you need to know to look like a pro in the field and exude confidence with connecting and managing connections. We will break down the language of the Internet of Things and go over how to identify network signal strengths, Wi-Fi bandwidth and channels so you can offer the best technology to your customers and crew without the headaches.
Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2020
COVID-19: A Response From Landscape State Associations | 0.25 CEU
Presenter: Jeff Stone, Executive Director, Oregon Association of Nurseries
State and national nursery and landscape industry associations led national efforts to keep markets open in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. This panel will discuss how states, provinces and national associations all worked together to ensure success throughout the supply chain.
Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2020
Advanced Lighting Controls | No IA CEUs
Presenters: William Knowles, Owner, Northern Outdoor Lighting LLC; Greg Matthews, Owner, Luxury Illumination; Joel Mayor, Owner, Texas Outdoor Lighting; and Andy Thomas, Owner, Viewpoint Lighting
Learn how to take control of your lighting systems to offer your clients more options, more control and more adaptability, all while making more money. This webinar will cover the basics from simple to advanced, with special attention to basic mechanical timers and photocells, astronomical timers, integrated control systems, proprietary transformer controls, irrigation timer and relay linked control options, and home automation controls and smart home devices and components. You will also gain knowledge in the basics of lighting control. The panelists will cover where to go for training and education as well as valuable resources for designing and implementing home automation integrating all the client’s outdoor lighting fixtures.
Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2020
Don’t Lose Your Shirt by Growing in Dirt | 1 CEU
Presenter: Mike Dorion, Speaker and Facilitator, Living Soil Solutions
Dirt and soil — what’s the difference? When we understand how soil and the microbes within it work, we can have soil work for us instead of against us. Healthy soil has better water retention and nutrient availability, and it grows more reliance in your plants. Save time and money in the long run by making healthy soil. Find out how the physical, chemical and biological functions of the soil work together and learn long-term solutions to soil health.
Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020
Multiple Methods of Irrigation Installation | 1 CEU
Presenters: Chapman Hancock, Senior Product Manager, Vacuum Excavation, and Brant Kukuk, Product Manager, Compact Equipment, Ditch Witch
Irrigation installation job sites are becoming more and more complex. Underground rights-of-way are congested with underground utilities, and yards are increasingly populated with potential landscape, hardscape or environmental hazards. One installation method that contractors are turning to is vacuum excavation. As a low impact and flexible option, vacuum excavators are becoming increasingly popular in urban job sites. When pairing vacuum excavation with traditional installation methods like trenching and excavating, contractors can take on more jobs and increase profitability. Vacuum excavation and traditional installation methods complement each other and should be mutually beneficial. Vacuum excavators are not there to replace trenchers and excavators but to supplement where traditional methods can’t go.
Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2020
CAD Basics: Learning How to Draft in AutoCAD – Beginner | 1 CEU
Presenter: Jake Lott, Irrigation Specialist, Land F/X
Watch this webinar recording to get an in-depth lesson on CAD basics, including an understanding of what blocks are and how to work with them inside of CAD. The webinar will also show you how to bring in imagery or additional external referenced files, known as Xrefs, and set up your plan to start your irrigation designs.
Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2020
Landscape Irrigation Design Within AutoCAD – Advanced | 1 CEU
Presenter: Jake Lott, Irrigation Specialist, Land F/X
This course is aimed at attendees of the earlier training class (CAD Basics – Learning How to Draft in AutoCAD) or for those who are familiar with the use of AutoCAD. Learn the ins and outs of the tools available for designing irrigation within AutoCAD. Sample files will be provided to those who wish to follow along on their own computer.
Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2020
How to Build Scale Within Your Business | 0.25 CEU
Presenter: Jacob Mathre, CIT, CLIA, Director of Franchise Operations, Conserva Irrigation
It is important for business owners to understand how they can remove themselves from the day-to-day operations. This webinar will review the importance of budgeting, understanding your numbers, and hiring and training the right staff. Most business owners are running blind and do not have an exact plan for how they will grow the business.
Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2020
Top Lighting Mistakes & How to Avoid ThemNo IA CEUs
Presenter: Matt Carli, Moonlighting Landscape Lighting Systems; Brandon Kuehler, Light It Right; and Michael Sestak, Sestak Lighting Design
There are many right ways to design and install landscape lighting, but there are a lot more ways to get it wrong. Take home a few tips and tricks for installing lighting that will save you hours of headaches and potentially thousands of dollars in damaged property and product. When it comes to wiring systems together, there are a few tools and products you may want to know about, as well as a few you should probably avoid. Our lighting experts have learned the hard way which ones are which and will share the goods. Bad lighting is real, and if you don’t know it when you see it, you may be part of the problem. You’ll learn what to look for and how to avoid the most “glaring” mistakes.
Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2020
It Works on Paper: Reconciling Site Hydraulics | 1 CEU
Presenter: Jim Borneman, Education Consultant, Ewing Irrigation & Landscape Supply
The primary focus of an irrigation designer is to design a system able to match the water requirement of the plant material through maturity. Ultimately, the hydraulic requirements of this system must match the hydraulic profile of the site, and it is the designer’s and installer’s task to ensure that this occurs. Learn how to ascertain the hydraulic requirements of the system from the irrigation design and gain an understanding of how to calculate this for design-build situations. Take away a game-changing technique used to accurately measure landscapes of any shape so they may be verified against the design.
Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2020
Preparing for & Responding to a Down Economy | 0.25 CEU
Presenter: James R. Huston, Owner, JR Huston Consulting
This webinar will dissect and analyze the four major functional areas of a landscape irrigation company, while offering unique and industry-specific approaches to the philosophies, methodologies, systems and strategies that every company needs to survive.
Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2021
Greywater Options for All Jobs | 1 CEU
Presenter: Joseph Gallegos, President, Grey4Green
Greywater is an option for all projects. It does not have to be 100% of the irrigation source, but each gallon used is one less to account for with potable water. This webinar will highlight different greywater irrigation strategies you can adopt for your business and conserve water in the process. We will go over the key elements, the plumbing source of the greywater and the diversion options. Then, we will discuss how to use the greywater in the landscape, from simple laundry to tree options to full shower to turf grass. Ask a few clients if they would like to use greywater within the landscape; 94% of all clients are saying yes.
Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2021
An Innovative & Efficient Way to Collect PSI for Drip Audits | 1 CEU
Presenter: Kris Loomis, CID, CLIA, Programs Specialist, Sonoma County Water Agency
Learn a fast, easy and efficient way to collect pounds per square inch while performing drip audits or assessments. The IA recommends collecting psi from three points within the drip system during a drip irrigation audit. The traditional way of using a sharpened pitot tube creates waste, is time-consuming and is not the most efficient method. With this DIY, easy-to-build drip psi testing tool, you can check your three psi areas within minutes and move on to the next zone without losing a drop of water. Perhaps you are not performing a drip audit, but the system has issues that you need to figure out. With this tool, you place the rubber tip up against the orifice of the drip emitter or emitter tubing outlet, and you can move from emitter to emitter with great ease without wasting any water or poking a single hole. A psi reading is immediate and can help you quickly assess where issues are, without making a mess or wasting time.
Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2021
Retaining the Right People at the Right Time | 0.25 CEU
Presenter: Karen Weeks, Senior Vice President of People, Ordergroove, and Independent Consultant
Employee retention is not a one-size-fits-all program. You need to know what motivates each person to stay, their career goals and other key drivers in their career. Additionally, companies need to consider if they want to retain an individual. It might be time to let them go, even if they have been a great performer for years. Over her almost 20 years in human resources, Karen Weeks has worked with managers and leaders to help retain the right people at the right time. In this webinar, she will share her learnings and stories and provide actionable tips for the audience that they can use back at work the next day.
Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2021
Green Industry Benchmarks & Critical Numbers | 0.25 CEU
Presenter: James R. Huston, Owner, J.R. Huston Consulting
The webinar will thoroughly explain benchmarks and critical numbers for marketing, estimating, job costing, accounting and human resources. Learn how to identify these benchmarks and critical numbers as they relate to risk management, bonuses and incentives, improving production, improving profitability, and training your staff to self-manage.
Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2021
Enhanced Water Conservation Through Pump Station Design | 1 CEU
Presenters: Guy Collins, Director of Sales, Munro Companies; Steve Fornier, Engineering Consultant, Orival Inc.; Justin McDaniel, Senior Project Manager, Munro Companies; Gail Mueller, Product & Quality Management Director, Munro Companies; Danny Peters, Applications Engineer, Yaskawa America Inc.; Jim Wilson, Sales Engineer/Regional Drive Specialist, Yaskawa America Inc.; Chris Wright, Senior Marketing Manager, HydroPoint
Gain a deeper understanding of how an irrigation pump station and its components are critical to water conservation, monetary savings and energy efficiency within an irrigation system. This webinar will review water conservation through the design and manufacturing process of a packaged VFD pump station, as well as energy efficiency and monetary savings by using VFD and other smart irrigation components. We will also discuss the pros and cons of using various products within an irrigation system regarding water conservation and long-term monetary savings and the importance of the preconstruction design and planning stage to have effects on water conservation.
Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2021
Using the Indicator Plant Method to Calculate Drip Emitter Requirements | 1 CEU
Presenter: Kurt Thompson, CGIA, CIC, CID, CIT, CLIA, CLWM, Director of Education, Irritech Training Inc.
The typical landscape bed is designed with plants having different irrigation water requirements, yet they are all on one irrigation zone. This webinar will use the indicator plant method of selecting the flow and quantity of emitters per plant-water-use type to apply the required amount of water for each plant. This method can also be used for line source drip and even mixing different types of overhead irrigation. (Don’t tell the irrigation police!)
Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2021
A Green Industry Partnership in Southern Nevada | 0.25 CEU
Presenter: Dennis Gegen, CLIA, Conservation Programs Coordinator, Southern Nevada Water Authority
Help build a growing conservation ethic in your community and learn what it takes to administer a successful partnership between a water organization/utility and their local green industry partners. Hear from the Southern Nevada Water Authority on how they created a Water Smart Contractor program to build strong relationships with local landscape contractors. This program has helped the Las Vegas Valley upgrade more than 193 million square feet of lawn to water-efficient landscaping and saved billions of gallons of water, while granting them the ability to maintain consistent water conservation messaging.
Tuesday, March 9, 2021
Rainwater Harvesting: Your Only Water Source | 1 CEU
Presenter: Darrel McMaster, Owner, Sustainable Homes Inc.
Learn how to design and live on rainwater harvesting as your sole source of water. Sustainable Homes Inc. has built over 100 homes that use rainwater harvesting for all domestic, landscape and swimming pool needs. Learn the benefits of rainwater and how it relates to water management, native plant design and drought-tolerant turf.
Tuesday, March 16, 2021
From Irrigation to Water Management | 1 CEU
Presenter: D.J. Seeger, Seeger Sprinklers / Seeger Water Corporation
The irrigation industry is changing every day. With rising water costs and the importance of conservation, irrigators are becoming water managers. Learn from a company that has already transitioned its policies and practices to focus on the effective and conservative use of water in residential and commercial applications. Through irrigation water use audits, regular maintenance by licensed irrigators and proper training, gain knowledge to become a leading expert in water management and conservation.
Tuesday, March 23, 2021
Organizational Development: Bucking the Trend | 0.25 CEU
Presenter: Ken Thomas, Co-Founder, Envisor Consulting
Why is it that some companies grow to market leadership while others get stuck along the way? Only a small portion of landscape and irrigation companies grow beyond a million dollars, and of the ones that do, most get stuck never realizing their business dreams. It’s not enough to be able to install or service an irrigation system. Being a great irrigation technician will only get you so far. The key to business and financial success is in becoming a great irrigation businessperson. Great businesspeople understand how to build an organization that provides structure and a process that will empower their teams.
Tuesday, April 6, 2021
Water Conservation Approaches in Turfgrass Systems | 1 CEU
Presenters: Alex Bach and Wes Dyer, Dept. of Horticulture and Natural Resources, Kansas State University
Two different approaches of water conservation will be discussed during this webinar, based on information obtained from two separate research projects at Kansas State University. Project 1: Subsurface drip irrigation is increasingly popular because of its potential for conserving and uniformly distributing water. We investigated the effects of straw and poly-mesh germination blankets in combination with SSDI on germination and establishment of tall fescue turfgrass. Under ground covers, soil temperatures were 5-7 degrees higher and erosion during rainfall was reduced, resulting in uniform and faster germination of tall fescue compared with no ground covers. Project 2: Irrigation strategies typically rely on calendar or evapotranspiration schedules that completely ignore soil moisture. Our research approach is to integrate the components of the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum by utilizing sensor-based technology to determine turf canopy responses to soil water deficits and to improve irrigation decisions. Water savings of 70% have been achieved using this approach.