For the last six years, the fall season has always been a crazy traveling time for me. Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and the Inland Empire all having their annual meetings and fall conferences in October. It had been discussed several times over the years but three years ago, while sitting in the Peaks & Prairies board meeting in Billings, Dan Tolson, CGCS, and Jason Busch suggested it was time to combine Idaho, Inland Empire and Peaks & Prairies all in one meeting. Of course, in the back of my mind, I was thinking I could hit all meetings in one place and finally find time to make that elusive hunting trip. (Of course, that didn’t work out.) The idea seemed rather daunting, but Executive Director Lori Russell pressed on. As the idea was proposed to each board, the response was a resounding yes, so Lori started the wheels in motion.
The easy part was organizing the education. It wouldn’t be hard to seek out some of the country’s top presenters and invite them to beautiful Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, and to get members from all three chapter to attend. Headlining the event was GCSAA CEO Rhett Evans, Brian Horgan, Ph.D., from the University of Minnesota, Golf Course Architect, David McLay Kidd, Thomas Nikolai, PhD., from Michigan State, and Micah Woods, Ph.D., from the Asian Turfgrass Center in Thailand. The associations knew that if they could draw some of the top presenters, it would draw more to the event. They were right, the total attendance was just shy of 300!
The difficulty would be to find a legitimate way to monetize the event so each chapter would come out in the black. Since some vendors supported all three chapters and some only one, a step program had to be developed. If you were a member of all three chapters you paid more than those that were a member of only two and so on. Although the booth cost was more expensive at this trade show, it made total sense, the vendors realized that it was still cheaper than doing three separate shows.
As a side note, in talking with Lori after this event and learning all that went into the negotiation of the facility, the costs of every little item is sometimes a little mind-blowing. For instance, some may have complained about the chicken lunch, but what they don’t understand is that was one of the more affordable items on the menu at $45 per plate. Coffee doesn’t come cheap at these events either. How does $2400 a day sound? How about that beer at the trade show? It was only $1000 for two kegs! Everything adds up and Lori pulled this thing off single-handedly and did a remarkable job working with the resort to control the costs.
Lori won’t know how the event penciled out for each of the chapters until all the bills have come in. She honestly felt that some of the chapters may take a little hit financially over each hosting their own fall event, but that was communicated up front and each chapter was willing to take that risk. Overall, this was an incredibly successful event, especially in terms of member satisfaction. During the golf outing, members were paired with other members from other chapters which was uncomfortable for some, but by the end of the round they all had an incredible time. Many of the vendors were excited as well. The trade show was packed for three full hours and they were asking if this could become a regular event.
Chances are, this won’t happen every year or even every other year. But with that said, there is a darn good chance this may happen every four or five years. It will all boil down to the venue and whether the costs can be kept affordable. I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed, for sure!
The easy part was organizing the education. It wouldn’t be hard to seek out some of the country’s top presenters and invite them to beautiful Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, and to get members from all three chapter to attend. Headlining the event was GCSAA CEO Rhett Evans, Brian Horgan, Ph.D., from the University of Minnesota, Golf Course Architect, David McLay Kidd, Thomas Nikolai, PhD., from Michigan State, and Micah Woods, Ph.D., from the Asian Turfgrass Center in Thailand. The associations knew that if they could draw some of the top presenters, it would draw more to the event. They were right, the total attendance was just shy of 300!
The difficulty would be to find a legitimate way to monetize the event so each chapter would come out in the black. Since some vendors supported all three chapters and some only one, a step program had to be developed. If you were a member of all three chapters you paid more than those that were a member of only two and so on. Although the booth cost was more expensive at this trade show, it made total sense, the vendors realized that it was still cheaper than doing three separate shows.As a side note, in talking with Lori after this event and learning all that went into the negotiation of the facility, the costs of every little item is sometimes a little mind-blowing. For instance, some may have complained about the chicken lunch, but what they don’t understand is that was one of the more affordable items on the menu at $45 per plate. Coffee doesn’t come cheap at these events either. How does $2400 a day sound? How about that beer at the trade show? It was only $1000 for two kegs! Everything adds up and Lori pulled this thing off single-handedly and did a remarkable job working with the resort to control the costs.
Chances are, this won’t happen every year or even every other year. But with that said, there is a darn good chance this may happen every four or five years. It will all boil down to the venue and whether the costs can be kept affordable. I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed, for sure!
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