If you were there, the truth was evident from the empty trade show aisles and partially filled seminars. The GIS show – and all of its related parts and pieces – was a shadow of its former self. Like Hurricane Katrina, several factors combined to create a perfect storm that walloped the event and set the GCSAA and its partners back years.
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I’ll have much more to say about the show in my column in the March issue of Golf Course Industry, but here are a few observations:
- Despite organizers’ good intentions in returning to New Orleans to support a ravaged city that was scheduled as the site prehurricane, the location was a mistake. People stayed away in droves because of budget concerns, lack of interest in the location and – perhaps most significantly – fears that they’d be perceived as partying on Bourbon Street while their facilities struggled with serious issues back home.
- A year ago, in Orlando, the associations immediately publicized the fabulous attendance (just fewer than 26,000) and touted the benefits of the combined show. Up until weeks before the 2009 show, attendance of 22,000 was projected optimistically. To date, no official attendance figures for New Orleans have been released. But between the numbers informally suggested by organizers (down 30 percent) and speculative guesses by some attendees and exhibitors (down 50 percent), the total number of folks was probably around 15,000. Remember, more than half of those are suppliers and other exhibitors. From what I saw and heard, the number of purchasers declined dramatically (show organizers estimated there were 7,000 “qualified buyers” in attendance, which reflects a 35 percent decline from last year and a 20 percent decrease from two years ago).
- Representatives of two major exhibitors confirmed that all of the big three iron companies that anchor the show are downsizing their booth space for 2010. The red, green and orange booths will be smaller next year, and you can be sure many other suppliers are planning the same thing.
This is bad, kids. GCSAA’s and the other hosts’ revenues were sagging already, but this will mean millions less in funding that underwrites the cost of education, career development, membership and other programs supported by show dollars. It’s likely that, for the first time in decades, you’ll be seeing cuts in staffing and services in Lawrence and other allied headquarters that live and die with the success of the GIS. That’s a shame.
Will the industry bounce back? Of course. We’re closely tied to real estate, and real estate always comes back. But, this may have been a watershed moment for the GIS as we knew it. What took generations to build was almost leveled by a perfect storm of economic disaster. Like New Orleans, it will take years to rebuild … and it may never be the same.
Pat Jones is president of Flagstick LLC.