Golf course superintendent Joseph Hubbard of the Broken Sound Club in Boca Raton, Fla., attributes much of his career development to industry trade shows and conferences.
“For me, the education and networking with old friends is the key desire to be there,” Hubbard says. “The education and sticking with it all these years has gotten me to where I am today.”
Particularly, Hubbard finds the national industry show, now known as the Golf Industry Show, to be valuable. He plans to attend the show in Orlando Jan. 28 through Feb. 2. The Golf Course Superintendents Association of America, the Golf Course Builders Association of America and the National Golf Course Owners Association of America partner to present the combination of education and new product information - everything from fungicides to food service.
The GCSAA and the NGCOA will hold their respective education conferences Jan. 28 through Feb. 2 in conjunction with the trade show.
“We learned a lot and will be implementing a lot of changes from what we learned in Anaheim last year,” says Steve Mona, c.e.o. of the GCSAA.
Mona describes the changes as more evolutionary than revolutionary. The education sessions will continue to focus on providing superintendents with a tangible, take-home idea that can be immediately applied at an attendee’s facility, he adds.
This will be the last show for Mona in this capacity. It was announced in September Mona will step into the newly created role of c.e.o. for the World Golf Organization. He is staying on with the GCSAA until it finds a replacement. (See the related story.)
For the second year, the Club Managers Association of America’s World Conference on Club Management (Jan. 31 through Feb. 5) will be part of the show, bringing the three golf course management entities – the owner, manager and superintendent – together. A team solution center will provide team-building activities and prizes again. New this year is the Pit Crew Challenge, where teams from various facilities compete against each other with actual stock cars.
Friday at the show is considered Team Day, and a general session will have a leadership and teamwork message.
The NGCOA education conference will focus on energizing each facility’s team for success at the course, says Joe Rice, director of strategic marketing and communications for the association.
The facility team approach can be a benefit, says Bruce Williams, director of courses and grounds at the Los Angeles Country Club, who plans to attend.
“I've spoken to several individuals who've found it valuable to have the manager and owner of their course there,” he says.
The time together can provide opportunities for each member of a management team to share their ideas for the facility with the other members with the backdrop of the trade show to illustrate what they’re talking about.
There will be plenty for management teams to check out, including more than 1,000 exhibitors covering more than 300,000 square feet of the trade show floor. The show layout is segmented into the different aspects of golf facilities, making it easier to find suppliers and cutting down on the distance from one supplier of interest to another, says Paul Foley, executive director of the GCBAA.
“If you’re just interested in the construction side or you’re just interested in the clubhouse or owners side, you don’t have to walk through every part of the show; you can see booths you’re interested in seeing,” Foley says.
Each segment of the trade show floor will include a solution center that allows each member of a facility’s management team to learn about the other facilities. The GCBAA will host a solution center where it will host 12 education sessions throughout the show as professionals walk attendees through the process of building a tee box, constructing one on-site.
About 125 of the GCBAA’s members are exhibiting at show, and a majority of them within the area of the golf solution center, Foley adds.
Sand Dam is one of those members. Craig Porovne, vice president of the supplier, values the opportunity to interact with distributors and their customers.
“As a company that serves nationally, we don’t get to meet with our customers face to face for every job, but we usually get to see them at the Golf Industry Show,” Porovne says.
Jose Milan, marketing director, and Margaret Bell, marketing and communications manager for Syngenta Professional Products, agree the show provides a unique opportunity for networking.
“It’s a critical, major event for the industry,” Milan says. “The quality of attendees is high.”
Not only does the Syngenta marketing team value meeting with attendees, but attendees can share ideas among themselves.
“It’s a great group of guys and women who love what they do and love nothing better than being with other people who love what they do,” Bell says.
The GCSAA realizes networking is a big reason why people attend, and it works formal networking sessions into its conference, Mona says. The best part, Hubbard says, is watching younger superintendents come up through the ranks.
“They tell me where they are, about their families, their successes and hopefully few failures or bad times,” he says. “We are like family at that point.”
All organizations are expecting the show to be well attended. It's on pace to be the highest attended show so far, Rice says.
Orlando has been a popular venue for the industry show in the past, which is a big reason organizers expect a large turnout. This is partly because Orlando is easy to travel to, especially with a large number of golf courses within driving distance, Williams says.
This year particularly, Foley attributes the expected high attendance and vendor participation to the success builders are having with renovation projects.
“The golf construction business is not as good as it was five or six years ago, but renovation is huge,” he says. “Tee boxes, bunkers and greens are all being renovated or constructed. There’s lots of work out there.”