In May this year, Messe Munich announced the ‘postponement’ of Golf Europe 2011. While it’s true that we all have seen a decline in exhibitor and visitor numbers year on year since 2002, a good many businesses regretted the lack of an event this year; dwindling numbers aside, the event still represented the best opportunity any golf business in Europe had for concentrating its market in one place for the following season’s sales.
But an internal meeting at the Harrogate Show last week dismissed the Augsburg acquisition as being of little relevance to the European golf trade – or at least to those members of the European golf trade permitted access to the hallowed halls of the Harrogate show! The feeling at that gathering was that Orlando, Beijing and Harrogate were all the industry requires… but that still begs the question about what you do if you’re outside of the TGI / Foremost fold. And it effectively leaves an 8-month gap in the calendar between 18th March and October / November without anything between Beijing and Harrogate either.
Initial response from the industry has been interesting. UK-based Sports Publications (publishers of National Club Golfer, Lady Golfer and nationalclubgolfer.com) as a leading consumer title would rely on Golf Europe to scoop as much news as possible about new products, trends rulings etc. From a revenue-generation point of view, the event also represented possibly the most important opportunity for the publisher to write new ad and promotion business. Head of advertising Richard Holt says the publisher is in a similar position to many in the UK golf business regarding Augsburg: wait and see. Ultimately, believes Richard, it will depend on who of the major brands will exhibit.
Apparel brand Bunker Mentality is a 5-year Munich veteran. Owner Robert Hart is of the opinion that the show was always better organized for the visitors than for the exhibitors. “Basically, it was take it or leave it for everything we asked for over the 5 years,” says Robert. “So they never gave you the impression that as an exhibitor your views were very important. A great example of this is that the date for this year’s show was over a bank holiday weekend in the UK.
“The show was grinding to a halt over the last couple of years and less and less companies were exhibiting. I can understand why large brands wouldn’t support the show as people didn’t really come to write orders and that meant they still had to send sales reps out to customers. The show needed an injection of enthusiasm to be honest, it had gone stale but that seems to happen with all shows.”
And that leads to the next big question – precisely what does Messe Augsburg plan for Golf Europe 2012?
If it’s a question of breathing life into a ‘stale’ show, then the pressure is clearly on Augsburg firstly to get the right brands re-engaged in exhibiting. Without these as the Main Event, the show stands little chance of halting the decline in visitor numbers or of attracting any footfall at all. Perhaps trying to re-engage the organisers of the PGA Teaching and Coaching Conference to coincide their event with the trade show would be a start; it gave a demonstrable lift to the exhibition in 2003 and 2005 when it was held in Munich parallel to the exhibition. But the new owners have given little reason for confidence thus far…
For Klaus Dittrich – chairman of the board of management at Messe München GmbH – to say, “We are pleased that GOLF EUROPE has found a new home and we are certain that it will go from strength to strength at Messe Augsburg”, simply doesn’t cut it. (http://media.nmm.de/09/golfeurope2012eng_25647809.pdf )
In the same statement, for the president of the German PGA Stefan Quirmbach to say, “We are very
pleased to be involved as a partner in GOLF EUROPE and we shall be contributing our expertise at the new venue” and then neglect to explain how is just unedifying. Questions have been asked of both Herr Quirmbach and the new Golf Europe management team in Augsburg, but no clarification has been received as yet.
There exists a massive opportunity to resurrect Golf Europe but the cycle of confidence has to begin somewhere: major brands feed the show that feeds new businesses & technology that feeds the trade. The essence of Golf Europe between the years 2002 and 2007 was the self-confidence of a continental-wide industry at ease with itself in a well-organized business event with its own culture of inevitable success.
If the industry can indeed do without a European trade show, and it is consigned to history, should it not do so as the result of its being proven to be surplus to requirement, rather than due to the failure of the EU golf business community itself to load its own silver bullets?