At the Golf Show’s debut in 2010, an estimated 1,245 industry professionals attended the show, whereas this year SGB Golf can reveal that the number shrunk slightly to 1,181. In terms of exhibitors, 60 last year became 57 in 2011. On the other side of the weighing scales, the Golf Show reports that over 90% of the 2011 event’s education seminars were sold out.
Post match analysis
“The evolution of the show has continued and this year’s show has been cleaner and slicker with less confusion,” argues Paul Hedges, chief executive of Foremost Golf.
“We learnt a lot from last year’s show and this year we made a number of little adjustments to enhance the experience for both exhibitors and delegates,” adds Golf Show manager John Davis. In defending the number of exhibitors, Golf Show organisers have told SGB Golf that the event’s ethos is for quality over quantity. This is a fair point, although there are certainly a great deal more than 57 quality companies operating in the UK golf retail market.
“In general, the show was good,” says PGA pro Nick Duc, who travelled up from the Nevill GC in Kent. “It was well organised and the seminars were very useful, but personally, I was disappointed in the lack of suppliers. It would be nice to see a lot more smaller brands. I’m sure there were plenty of TGI or Foremost [preferred] suppliers that did not exhibit, let alone any others.”
“Overall the Golf Show was a success for Sunice and Tommy Hilfiger,” Jonathan Camp, European managing director of exhibiting brands Sunice and Tommy Hilfiger, told SGB Golf. “Our collections received a lot of interest and we took some orders, which was positive. When pros see our product they love it – for both brands – but we wanted to see more pros at the show, particularly on the final day. Perhaps more seminars should be scheduled towards the end of the show to give pros greater incentive.”
Doug Poole, managing director of Golfsmith Europe, expressed greater contentment: “The Golf Show was the best show held in Harrogate to date,” the BGIA chairman told SGB Golf. “I felt this year’s layout enabled a really easy flow between the stands, allowing lots of space for customers to view products. The quality and footfall of the visitors was certainly in keeping with Golfsmith’s expectations, which resulted in some very good order writing.”
The 2012 Golf Show will return to the Harrogate International Centre, but the dates have been brought forward to October 9-11. The earlier dates mean pros might have more order-writing to complete when they reach Harrogate, and they will also avoid this year’s clash with the half-term break, which will be more attractive to the industry in terms of leaving both pro shops and families. Indeed, the new dates alone might enable the Golf Show to reach a new attendance best in 2012.
