The big relocation

Five months from today, many of us will be back at home following yet another national conference. But, we won’t be shaking off the Bourbon Street-induced haze of New Orleans. Instead, we’ll be pondering memories of Houston.

Pat Jones

But, in that same five months from now, two groups of people will be (hopefully) collapsing happily after more than 150 days of tremendously hard work. Those folks are the staff of the GCSAA (and other Golf Industry Show partners) and the exhibitors who pay big bucks to fuel the show.

With all due respect to you GCSAA members out there, you have no clue how much work the staff in Lawrence, Kan., will do over the next few months. They are turning an aircraft carrier around on a dime. They are building the Great Wall of China. They are picking up and moving a family home consisting of 200,000 square feet of contents and 20,000 kids to an entirely new city.

In short, this is an enormous challenge that puts the reputation and finances of GCSAA at risk.

And you know what? Against all odds, they will make it look easy. How?

Everybody knows Steve Mona – fantastic guy, great leader. But, few people know Bonnie Stephenson, Julia Ozark or Jana Brown. These three fabulous women (and many, many others) will put in about a million hours over the next few months to reorganize, relocate, replan and redo everything from seminar locations to booth space to hotel assignments to what color the carpet on the show floor will be. It’s an unimaginable task that will be ably accomplished by incredibly dedicated people. When you get to Houston next February, please find them at the show and thank them. They deserve every hug and handshake they get.

Also, more than 700 companies are tearing up Big Easy show plans and starting over. Consider, for a moment, that you are in charge of one of those massive booths for Deere, Toro or Jacobsen. Your booth size and basic configuration might be about the same, but you need to find hotel rooms for a few hundred people, new sites for parties, meetings and events and change shipping instructions for about 50 tons of stuff you’re sending to the show. Think those managers might be in for a few late nights too?

The fact is that the old cliché is true: The Show Will Go On. But, as you think about whatever small inconveniences this may pose for you, remember the enormity of the task facing the GIS hosts and exhibitors ... and don’t forget to say a little prayer for the people of the Gulf and the rebirth of New Orleans.