Intelligent Use of Water Summit XIII
"Play on! Playability in Water Sensitive Environments" Proudly Sponsored Rain Bird Corporation 
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Kellogg Hotel & Conference Center - Michigan State
University
East Lansing, MI


7:30 Networking Breakfast
8:00 Opening Remarks
8:05 Panel One
9:00 Break
9:10 Panel Two
10:00 Break
10:10 Panel Three
11:00 Keynote
11:30 Conclusion

PANEL 1: WATER QUALITY & TURFGRASS SCIENCE
Moderator: Dr. Kevin Frank, MSU

Part 1: Water Quality
• Science side:  What are the main water quality concerns for
turf managers?  What are potential future issues?  How are problems being
addressed?  How should they be addressed?
o Dr. Ali Harivandi  - University of California Cooperative
Extension Area Specialist 
• Application side:  How do turf managers handle water-quality
issues? How is playability affected?  
o Shawn Emerson - Director of Agronomy at Desert Mountain
Club

Part 2: Turfgrass Science 
• Science side:  What new advances are being made in turfgrass
varieties to better tolerate drought and declining water quality?  How is
playability considered while developing new grass varieties?  What are some of
the biggest challenges yet to overcome?
o Dr. Stacy Bonos, Rutgers Turfgrass Institute
• Application side:  How have courses/stadiums dealt with
changing turf varieties?  Has grass been changed or replanted to accommodate
less watering or lower quality water?  How is playability affected?  What about
alternatives, such as deficit watering, reducing turf areas, etc?
o Kenny Mangum - Director of Golf Courses and Grounds,
Atlanta Athletic Club

PANEL 2: IRRIGATION TECHNOLOGY & SPORTS TURF COURSE DESIGN
Moderator: Paul Roche, Rain Bird

Part 1: Irrigation Technology
• Science side: What technologies are available in irrigation
that save water, help deal with declining water quality and provide better
playability?
o Mitchell Langley - Owner MDL Consulting
• Application side: How are golf courses and/or sports turf
managers applying the latest irrigation technologies? What have been some
positive, measurable results? What challenges have there been? What needs to
be done in the future? How has irrigation changes/improvements
affected/improved playability?
o Mike Boekholder - Head Groundskeeper, Philadelphia
Phillies

Part 2: Sports Turf Course Design (Including Golf)
• Science side: What are current trends in course design that
address current water situations (water conservation, control, and quality)?
How is playability considered in designing for water efficiency?
o Carol Colein - Executive Director, ASIC
• Application side: How has course/field design for water
efficiency effected the game/playability/golfer satisfaction? Or, how do
existing courses deal with outdated designs that are not water efficient?
o Murray Cook - President, Brickman Sports Turf

PANEL 3: GOLF AND THE ENVIRONMENT
Leaders in environmental stewardship in the golf industry,
including golf course superintendents, will describe programs and environmental
efforts on their properties.

KEYNOTE ADDRESS
Charles Fishman,
Author - The Big Thirst

The water coming out of your kitchen tap is four billion years
old and might well have been sipped by a Tyrannosaurus rex. Rather than only
three states of water—liquid, ice, and vapor—there is a fourth, "molecular
water," fused into rock 400 miles deep in the Earth, and that’s where most of
the planet’s water is found. Unlike most precious resources, water cannot be
used up; it can always be made clean enough again to drink—indeed, water can be
made so clean that it’s toxic. Water is the most vital substance in our lives
but also more amazing and mysterious than we appreciate. As Charles Fishman
brings vibrantly to life in this surprising and mind-changing narrative, water
runs our world in a host of awe-inspiring ways, yet we take it completely for
granted. But the era of easy water is over.
In 2008, Atlanta came within ninety days of running entirely out
of clean water. California is in a desperate battle to hold off a water
catastrophe. And in the last five years Australia nearly ran out of water—and
had to scramble to reinvent the country’s entire water system. But as dramatic
as the challenges are, the deeper truth Fishman reveals is that there is no good
reason for us to be overtaken by a global water crisis. We have more than enough
water. We just don’t think about it, or use it, smartly. As Charles Fishman
writes, "Many civilizations have been crippled or destroyed by an inability to
understand water or manage it. We have a huge advantage over the generations of
people who have come before us, because we can understand water and we can use
it smartly." The Big Thirst will forever change the way we think about water,
about our essential relationship to it, and about the creativity we can bring to
ensuring that we’ll always have plenty of it.

About Charles Fishman

As a reporter, Charles Fishman has tried to get inside
organizations, both familiar and secret, and explain how they work. In the course of
reporting about water to write The Big Thirst, Fishman has stood at the
bottom of a half-million-gallon sewage tank, sampled water directly from the 
springs in San Pellegrino, Italy, and Poland Spring, Maine, and carried water on
his head for 3 km with a group of Indian villagers.  Fishman is a former metro
and national reporter for the Washington Post, and was a reporter and editor at
the Orlando Sentinel and the News & Observer in Raleigh, NC. Since 1996, he
has worked for the innovative business magazine Fast Company. Fishman has won
numerous awards, including three times receiving UCLA’s Gerald Loeb Award, the
most prestigious award in business journalism.
    Fishman grew up in Miami, Florida, and went to Harvard. He lives
outside Philadelphia with his wife, also a journalist, their two children, their
two Labradors, and their two parakeets. He likes his water from the refrigerator
spigot, with ice, or splashing across the bow of a Sunfish.