Ever wonder about that large, sturdy, fully grown tree standing as a centerpiece amid the show booths, equipment and convention goers at TCI EXPO? It’s there every year and is used for demonstrating myriad things related to what many attendees do for a living – climbing and rigging. Demos range from rope use and climbing techniques to cutting and felling, balancing slings and the proper and safe use of much of the gear and equipment available on the surrounding trade-show floor.

The tree, shown here in an earlier photo, will be harvested two weeks before the November show. All photos courtesy of Bob Mead.

Four times the tree has been supplied by a Baltimore-area, long-time member and staunch supporter of and contributor to TCIA, Bob Mead, CTSP. Mead, founder and vice president of Mead Tree and Turf Care of Woodbine, Maryland, notes that the last time his company had the honor of installing the TCI EXPO tree was before the COVID pandemic.

Not only does he admit to being proud to be able to provide the tree, but Mead is openly excited about the fact that TCI EXPO will be in his own backyard of Baltimore again this year. “I have attended TCI EXPO as far back as Baltimore in 2006,” he recounts.

“Having one right here in our backyard is great, especially for people who won’t necessarily travel. Everyone likes to see the iron, the nice shiny stuff that puts ideas into their heads,” he says of the displays, “and there’s the camaraderie with people you haven’t seen in years, when you run into and recognize the same people.

The tree

Of the tree for the tree demos, Mead says the spotlight specimen for 2024 is a 35-year-old, 42-foot-plus red oak cut and delivered from Mead’s own nearby nursery some 30 miles from the convention center. Mead’s company has been a member of TCIA since March of 1990 and TCIA accredited since 2005.

Mead Tree and Turf Care is a family-owned organization serving nearby Howard County, central Maryland, Washington, D.C., northern Virginia and surrounding areas since 1979, according to its website. It is touted as Maryland’s first nationally accredited tree-service company, offering expert tree care, including 24-hour emergency services, plus its own brand of “show-stopping” landscaping and landscape maintenance and plant health care.

According to Mead, the TCI EXPO tree, formerly a towering specimen in the company’s nursery, was one of a group sourced from Oregon and one of the first groups in the nursery. It never sold, Mead laments. The same is true, he says, of “a half-dozen or so others that have never sold.” Initially, it was decided to just leave the tree, but over time the TCI EXPO ’24 demo tree was determined to be hindering nursery space. He notes that in the future, there may be a half-dozen of its nursery mates slated for removal. Bottom line? TCI EXPO benefits from the contribution.

Moving it in

The plan is this. According to Mead, “Two weeks before the TCI EXPO move-in date, we will begin by reducing the tree’s crown to a size we can load and transport safely on a trailer and get down the road legally.” Prep work involves “a half day to reduce the crown and, after it’s cut, another half day to prep it on the ground and get it on a trailer and tied down

Then it’s a 45-minute trip to the convention center in Baltimore. Mead iterates, “We haul it to the convention center on a flat-deck trailer and put it on a stand.” TCIA’s show-management company stores and sets up the stand. Mead Tree staff and others will help secure the tree so it is stable enough to be climbed safely.

“The demo tree goes up on the Monday prior to the show, which runs four days, beginning Wednesday with pre-conference events, and then three days of trade show and conference,” Mead explains. “Once the tree is up, TCIA erects a stage around it, then the show exhibits go up around that.”

For those who never have experienced the demo tree, Mead says that, because the tree is dead and has no leaves, only a trunk and branches, it requires no care.

“After the show is over and the exhibitors have left, the tree will be dismantled and hauled away, probably for mulch or firewood,” Mead says. This year, the wood will be donated to the Baltimore City Recreation and Parks to be utilized as wood chips for local parks as well as firewood for summer camps!

Bob Mead with the tree to be used in the TCI EXPO ’24 Tree Demo area, shown above in leaf in early September.

Safety session

Earlier, Mead’s lengthy involvement in and commitment to TCIA was noted. If contribution of the TCI EXPO ’24 tree was not enough, Mead also will be leading one of the key sessions on safety at the show, titled “What Have You Forgotten?” Though Mead has done this session previously, he says it has been updated this year.
“It’s really about back to basics,” he explains, “what you’ve forgotten or what’s taken for granted. What’s interesting is that when I first made the presentation, I did not expect the reaction I got from the audience. One attendee said, ‘Man, did you jog my mind.’ It’s usually the simple stuff that needs to be reinforced, perhaps in a tailgate session. Maybe someone is new or someone else has put safety on the back burner.”

Getting involved

TCIA is fortunate to have members like Bob Mead who believe in the mission of the Association and support it in tangible ways. “I got involved,” he says, “because when I was starting out in tree care, I realized how much I got out of it (TCIA), and thought that if I could give back to the industry, that would be great.”

Community involvement is not new to Mead; it extends to two decades serving with the local volunteer fire department and his time as a paramedic. Combining his tree care background with his firefighting and medical experience, it’s no wonder Mead sees his mission of keeping people safe and reducing the impact of injuries as, in his words, “self-explanatory.”

“Even in my own company, I had an employee come up and thank me for the training. His wife was choking, and he employed the Heimlich maneuver and saved her,” Mead recounts. If you get to meet him at EXPO, ask him about a lady in the church choir who fell and was significantly injured. Taking a trauma-aid kit from his tree care truck, Mead was able to patch her up to the point that a hospital ER team commented that they could not have done a better job.

Bob Mead piloting his boat on the Patuxent River near Solomons Island, Maryland.

Conclusion

As for the TCI EXPO tree graciously donated this year by Mead’s company, now you know the rest of the story. If you are attending TCI EXPO ’24 in Baltimore, visit the tree and perhaps “hang out” with some of the climbers.

Rick Howland is a veteran newspaper reporter and editor, former national magazine owner and editor and retired international consultant in public relations, advertising, merchandising and training. He lives in the upper Hudson River Valley of New York.