This year’s Golf Industry Show marks the third year the GCSAA, NGCOA and CMAA all will hold their trade shows together. The GCSAA and NGCOA merged their shows in 2005, and the CMAA joined them two years later.
Since the three trade shows and their respective education conferences have combined, professionals in each area of the golf business – maintenance, management and ownership – have had an opportunity to attend the event as a team to build rapport, solidify relationships and improve communication.
Has it worked?
Troy Flanagan, golf course superintendent at Anthem Country Club in Henderson, Nev., says there are benefits to having a merged industry event like the Golf Industry Show.
“The biggest thing is trade shows cost a lot of money, so why have two separate ones when we can share?” he says.
However, Flanagan says the synergies in education and networking aren’t what they could be because the GCSAA conference and the CMAA education don’t take place concurrently.
“We don’t really go together,” Flanagan says. “I’m leaving on Monday, I have classes on Wednesday, I’m doing the trade show Thursday and Friday and leaving on Saturday.”
Typically, Anthem’s general manager Paul Anderson would arrive on Thursday and then attend the CMAA conference over the weekend.
Promoting the show as a team event hasn’t worked yet, says John Shaw, CGCS at Valley Brook Country Club in McMurray, Pa.
“We’ll cross paths at the airport,” he says. “Our general manager is going, but he’s flying in the same time I’m flying out.”
Shaw and Flanagan are not the only ones who’ve noticed. The show’s organizers will introduce a new format next year in San Diego. The new schedule, which avoids overlapping education and trade show hours, includes combined general sessions that precede trade show hours on Wednesday and Thursday, Feb. 10 and 11.
The GCSAA Education Conference, NGCOA Annual Conference and CMAA World Conference on Club Management will take place Monday, Feb. 8; Tuesday, Feb. 9; and Friday, Feb. 12. The CMAA also will sponsor education Saturday, Feb. 13.
Though the new format likely won’t mean that Shaw and his general manager will attend sessions together, it probably will encourage them to walk the trade show floor together.
“Anybody that gets along with their general manager, I guess, would like to walk the show floor together,” he says. “That’s one of the most important parts of our jobs – to gain a good relationship between yourself and fellow employees.”
Flanagan expects to spend some time at the trade show with his general manager, as they did last year.
“Last year we took one day looking at the things we wanted to and the next day we met up and showed each other the things we saw the day before,” Flanagan says. “I looked at some stuff with him, but he mostly looked at stuff for us.”
That’s important, Flanagan says, because his department’s primary lease, which accounts for 95 percent of all its equipment, is up this year. He’s in the process of deciding what to keep, what to give back and what new equipment – mostly mowers and utility vehicles – not to lease. Because his general manager has final approval on the new package and essentially serves as Flanagan’s “voice” at the finance committee meeting, it’s important that he understand the need for it, the importance of it and the due diligence that went into the purchasing decision.
“He’s really my springboard for getting the equipment,” Flanagan says. “The more he can see why we might want a special piece of equipment like an aerifier, the more we might get it.”
As for a team-building trip?
“Let’s put it this way: We had lunch together last year,” Flanagan says. “He’s seeing people he hasn’t seen. I’m doing likewise. It’s our chance to network with our peers.” GCI
