One of the things we have been working on these past weeks is the program for next year’s Climbers Forum at the German Tree Care Days in Augsburg, Germany, which takes place from 24 to 26 April 2018.
The program is now on-line. I am very happy with the line-up of speakers, discussing a wide range of topics, divided into half a day per topic: harness design in tree care, one-handed use of chainsaws, women in tree care, habitat creation, as well as general climbing related topics.
After two years of pretty grim weather we have decided to move the whole proceedings indoors, with the demo tree, the treemagineers tower and a super-sized LED screen offering very interesting options for formal presentations and practical demos – and a combination of the two. After having used the same tower for the past five years, we have decided to use the experience we gained from the original one to work on a new design better suited to the new location.
Puk will be working on the Wednesday evening Climbers Forum party, which is sure to be a blast again… we have also been discussing some changes to that format, so it will be interesting to see where that goes.
A first for 2018 is that all talks, the academic presentations in the large hall, as well as Climbers Forum in hall 3 will be simultaneously translated between English and German. In combination with the large trade show with manufacturers and vendors presenting the newest developments in equipment used in all aspects of tree care, this all adds up to a pretty compelling package.
There is not really an excuse not to come to this event, plenty of time to plan ahead. Consider yourself warmly invited. The more people and the greater the diversity, the richer and more dynamic it becomes. In my opinion this events is one of the most accurate reflections of climbers’ culture in tree care in its full width, depth and breadth.
Climbers Forum constitutes a key event in my year – and remains one, even after all these years, which I still look forwards to and get excited about.
