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Silver lining in New Orleans
Participation down, hopes up at greatest show on turf.
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GCSAA Opening Session speaker and 2008 Ryder Cup team captain Paul Azinger. Photos by Bruce Mathews, Roger Billings and Seth Jones |
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Trade show attendees hunt for the bargains. |
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Volunteers for Habitat for Humanity help build a home. |
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Education session attendees listen intently. |
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The Water Use and Maintenance Project on the trade show floor. |
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A jazz band provided the cool sounds for the President’s Reception |
The 2009 GCSAA Education Conference and Golf Industry Show in New Orleans was expected to take a hit in the midst of the country’s economic crisis, and it did, but the quality of the event by nearly all accounts came away
untarnished.
In fact, if there was an overriding theme to this conference and show, it was an emphasis on quality over quantity. Certainly that was the case put forward by the leading organizations of the GIS when they held their annual post-mortem shortly before the curtain came down on the show.
Sobering statistics
Participation figures for the event showed across-the-board declines in the major categories, which was not entirely unexpected at a time when America is reeling from bankruptcies and bailouts.
GIS attendance hit 17,250 — more than 4,000 below pre-crisis projections for the New Orleans show and paling in comparison to 2008, when in more robust times in popular Orlando, a record 25,500 showed up. Of this year’s attendance, more than 14,700 were GCSAA registrants.
On the trade show floor, the total number of exhibitors was 765, about 10 percent below projections, covering 257,900 square feet in New Orleans Morial Convention Center. But there was a lot of talk about productive one-on-one meetings between exhibitors and visitors amid an upbeat atmosphere that featured many new products on display.
As one attendee remarked as he scurried from one booth to another, “Those who aren’t here don’t know what they’ve missed.”
GCSAA’s Education Conference drew 5,258. When the conference and show was last in New Orleans, 7,900 seminar seats were filled — the all-time high until Orlando recorded 8,000 last year. But many instructors remarked that the feedback and interaction among participants was never better.
No discouraging words
The GIS wrap-up session featured the CEOs of the three presenting partners — GCSAA’s Mark J. Woodward, CGCS; the Club Managers Association of America’s Jim Singerling and the National Golf Course Owners Association’s Mike Hughes. They all put a positive spin on the low numbers.
Noting that the qualified buyers — GCSAA’s key indicator — numbered 7,000, Woodward was pleased with what he witnessed in his first GIS as his association’s CEO.
“I’ve heard a lot of positive comments. The qualified buyers were here and a lot of people were doing business out there,” he said.
Hughes noted that 14 out of NGCOA’s 20 largest operators were at the New Orleans show, and Singerling added that CMAA members continue to embrace the GIS more every year after initial concerns that the presenting organizations would lose their identities within the industry.
“We feel now that it’s actually defined the professions more than ever,” Singerling said, adding that while overall CMAA attendance was down this year, the same number of facilities was represented as in 2008.
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“The qualified buyers were here and a lot of people were doing business out there,” said Mark Woodward, CGCS, CEO of GCSAA. Photo by Roger Billings |
Attitude adjustments
There were other positive signs throughout the conference and show week, beginning right off the bat when more than 200 GIS attendees volunteered their time to help Habitat for Humanity construct several homes in New Orleans, which is still struggling to bring back many of its neighborhoods ravaged by hurricanes in recent years.
One of the volunteers, Todd Cromie, general manager of the Country Club of Salisbury (N.C.), said working on the Habitat homes made the 2009 GIS a memorable one for him.
“I feel like giving back is the way to go,” he commented. “They say one way to get out of these economic doldrums is to give back. It makes you feel better about yourself and lifts the spirits.”
Lifting spirits was also in evidence during the show’s Opening and General Sessions, thanks to their respective keynote speakers, Paul Azinger and Stephen M.R. Covey. And GCSAA didn’t miss the opportunity to make a couple of good-news announcements — the unveiling of a promising member service, GCSAA TV (see Page 30) and that all 27 of those industry partners participating in the association’s Partner Recognition Program have signed up for another year.
Another significant announcement that GIS leaders say should strengthen the solidarity of the involved organizations came mid-show — that the USGA, long a major presence at the GCSAA national, would become a GIS participating partner in 2010 at the San Diego show, joining the Golf Course Builders Association of America, the American Society of Golf Course Architects and the National Golf Foundation.
“The United States Golf Association is pleased to formalize our long-standing involvement with the Golf Industry Show,” said David B. Fay, executive director of the USGA. “The USGA has actively participated in the GCSAA conference and show and the current Golf Industry Show since the conference’s inception in the late 1920s. With our annual education conference, trade show booth and staff volunteering as seminar instructors, the USGA Green Section continues to work with golf’s allied associations to support and safeguard the game.”
A significant tweak
In the months ahead, the GIS organizations will direct most of their collective attention to the show’s new format slated for San Diego in which the presenting partners’ education conferences will be scheduled around a two-day trade show that will be unencumbered by conflicting activities.
Both Singerling and Hughes remarked that the new GIS format has drawn a positive reaction from their members, and both CEOs view it as a sign of the event’s good health.
“We’ll be together at the same time,” Hughes said. “That should add some flavor.”
Inside-out is OK
Reflecting on his first conference and show as GCSAA CEO, Woodward said it was a strange feeling to be on the inside looking out.
“It’s been very interesting after coming to the show for more than 30 years as a superintendent and as a member of the GCSAA Board of Directors. It was enlightening getting out there and talking to people,” he said, adding that he believes GCSAA’s relationships with the allied associations have never been stronger.