Smart Connection Consultancy to stage Sports Surfaces Seminars in Melbourne and Sydney

Leading sport facility management consultancy Smart Connection Consultancy is set to stage a pair of Synthetic Sports Surfaces Seminars in Sydney and Melbourne in the coming weeks.

The day-long seminars will cover the latest issues and trends in synthetic sports surfaces as well as how to embrace changes outlined in the NSW Chief Scientist and Engineers Review Report ' Independent review into the design, use and impacts of synthetic turf in public open spaces'. It will feature site tours showcasing the cutting edge of sports surfaces in Australia.

With the European Commission having introduced regulations that will impact the use of rubber infill on playground surfaces and artificial sports fields worldwide and the NSW Chief Scientist's report each empowering groups objecting to artificial turf fields, Smart Connection Consultancy’s Martin Sheppard recently told The Guardian "there are a lot of environmental groups who are very keen to stay away from synthetic technology and have all natural fields, and in an ideal world most football codes would like that.”

Pointing to increasing community demand and more extreme weather, Sheppard highlighted the benefits of synthetic fields, noting “from all the research we’ve done on the number of fields that are out there and fields that are planned, I wouldn’t expect in the next 10 years to have more than 2% of sports fields around Australia to be synthetic.”

An advantage of synthetic fields, according to Sheppard, is “a consistency of play across the whole year. It doesn’t get worn out during the year as it does with heavy usage, with poor weather.”

With local councils facing the difficult need to balance environmental considerations with an obligation to provide spaces for public recreation, Sheppard states “(if) they haven’t got the land, we know that synthetics can cope with far more than what natural turf can, meaning that passive parks would then be saved from conversion to active and sports playing fields.”

Looking forward to the seminars, Sheppard, the founder of the National Sports Convention, adds "these seminars are a must for any organisation who wants to understand the reality of synthetic sports surfaces.”

Seminar details

16th November 2023
La Trobe University, Victoria

23rd November 2023
Blacktown International Sports Park, NSW

Click here for more information.