Annual Meeting Sees Crowded, But Stylish, EXPO Floor
Sustainability with Style demonstration project allowed vendors to show their projects in a real-world setting.

The Sustainability with Style demonstration project proved to be very popular with attendees for both viewing products and taking a rest from the hectic EXPO floor.

The EXPO Hall at the ASLA Annual Meeting and 43rd IFLA World Congress saw heavy traffic this year from meeting attendees checking out what was a fairly green EXPO floor, reflecting the theme of this year's meeting. To highlight sustainable products, Dean Hill, ASLA, host of the Do It Yourself Network's Grounds for Improvement, designed a residential landscape in the convention hall using green products from vendors. In an interview with LAND Online on the display, Hill noted that the idea was to create a residential landscape that incorporated green products using materials that might be meant for commercial applications but are still available to consumers. For instance, Hill incorporated safety tiles made of recycled rubber from No Fault Sport Group in the landscape and even planted green roof sedum from Xero Flor America in a raised bed—a modernist take on sustainability. "Just because you can't buy these things in a big-box store doesn't mean consumers don't have access to them," Hill noted. Boral Bricks, whose permeable pavers were used in the project, was a sponsor of the display, as was Google SketchUp, which has had a major presence as a show sponsor and on the EXPO floor demonstrating its new Pro 3D software.

Click here for the full audio of the LAND Online Interview with Dean Hill on the Sustainability with Style project.

Here’s how some of the exhibiting companies spent their time during the meeting:

Landscape Structures unveiled a new branding initiative complete with a new logo at the annual meeting. As a Minnesota-based company, Landscape Structures had a massive presence at the show, including a sponsorship of the opening general session, the Council of Fellows Reception, and the Sunday Night Gala. Here, Steve King, FASLA, and Barbara King, Honorary ASLA, introduce John Michel Cousteau during the opening general session.

Scofield Systems kept it simple at its booth, relying on information to sell its ubiquitous concrete products. The company has been a stalwart at ASLA annual meetings, and this year it served as a sponsor for the Council of Fellows Dinner.

ValleyCrest has been making headlines with its acquisition of design firms lately, but its presence at the meeting was meant to highlight its contracting services and let landscape architects know the company is still very much in the business of working with them. ValleyCrest sponsored the badge lanyards for the meeting.

Google SketchUp was a popular booth on the floor—providing software demonstrations and handing out demo disks of SketchUp Pro 5. SketchUp also had great meeting swag—branded ankle socks that said, “We don’t stink!” The company sponsored the Saturday luncheon voucher as well as the Sustainability with Style display on the EXPO Floor.

Boral Bricks parlayed its sponsorship of the Sustainability with Style display into some nice booth traffic. The company was touting its pavers and bricks. Boral also sponsored the Saturday coffee break at the meeting.

Other sponsors of the Annual Meeting included Landscape Forms, which sponsored the 2006 Professional and Student Awards Video and Luncheon; Firestone Building Products, which sponsored the official meeting bag; Vectorworks, which sponsored the delivery of the October issue of Landscape Architecture magazine to the meeting; Playworld Systems, which sponsored the badge holders and swipe cards; and RLK Incorporated, which sponsored the official meeting map.