Last month, the Irrigation Mastermind had its first three-day conference in Boston, Massachusetts. Thirty landscape irrigation contractors attended from all over North America representing a varied cross-section of our industry. Companies with less than $500,000 to almost $10 million in irrigation revenues participated in roundtable discussions facilitated by representatives of several industry organizations and the Irrigation Association, networking events, and a comprehensive tour and review of a local irrigation contractor’s business and operations. This event was a powerful reminder of the passion and commitment of our industry to professionalism, best practices and constant improvement. The engagement and energy created by this group was at times overwhelming.
Peer groups are generally formed to allow business leaders to join other likeminded leaders in a forum to share goals, challenges, ideas, best practices and solutions. Today there are many formats for these peer groups from casual with virtually no structure to highly facilitated with regularly scheduled meetings and high accountability for established goals. Either can work if it meets the needs of its members. The Irrigation Mastermind was created to allow contractors in our industry to find ways to engage with each other through in-person and remote meetings.
The Irrigation Mastermind was created to allow contractors in our industry to find ways to engage with each other through in-person and remote meetings.
In addition to finding commonalities with their businesses and engaging facilitation, it is important for members to commit to giving as much as receiving. If members are there to simply learn and listen, peer groups are probably not a good fit. Not everyone feels comfortable in this type of environment, as it is expected and beneficial to share the more intimate details of your business.
Here are a few notable takeaways:
From the time that attendees started checking in, the discussions and engagement were nonstop. While our expectations were that this would settle down after a day or so, the energy and the enthusiasm carried throughout the three days. At times during the roundtable discussions in the room and evening events, the volume of the groups’ discussions could easily be heard outside of the rooms and space.
While businesses were carefully separated by gross sales and geography to encourage interaction, it became apparent that in most of the discussions, business size wasn’t that relevant. Many times, the large group discussions were preferred over the smaller groups at individual tables. Also, while it was expected that some would share much more than others, it seemed that almost all shared equally.
The landscape irrigation industry has typically been more resistant to change in accepting business and product application technologies. This group, which could clearly be characterized as early-adopters and forward-thinking, embraced and felt comfortable using the most current technology and were focused on maximizing the benefits and finding the best practices available to implement those technologies.
Business owners tend to be more optimistic as a demographic, but surprisingly, the overall level of optimism for sales growth, profit growth and success for this group easily exceeds the industry averages. Their expectations based on what they were doing in their businesses looking forward were very much in line with their above-average historical growth, too.
The preparation of participants was impressive. Many had familiarized themselves with the other attendees and had done an appropriate amount of research. Most were prepared with questions they wanted to have answered and looking for feedback on specific ideas they had in mind.
The feedback from the group was rewarding and the last hour of the event was spent reviewing the past three days with what worked well and ideas for improvement. In addition to ongoing tools and opportunities to connect with other members of the Irrigation Mastermind, the second conference is already being planned for Jan. 13-15, 2026. The group was almost unanimous in deciding to move to a warmer location, with a larger venue and space for additional participants being planned.
This type of event is not for every business owner. Those that participate clearly have characteristics that support the growth of their organization and their industry by discussing and learning from the ideas and experiences of others. If you can see how this network would be a fit for you and your professional growth, stay tuned for more details in the months ahead.
Christopher Pine, CLWM, CID, CIC, CLIA, CIT, MCLP, is a principal of IrriTech Training and the president of BluGreen Solutions in Pocasset, Massachusetts. He can be reached via email.
