Show Time

In a little over a month from now, the Eastern PA Turfgrass Conference will take place in Valley Forge. Now after many meetings, emails & calls, the show will have a much different look. As I have written about before, the trade show has been slowly fading with each year. Last year, it finally hit the bottom. A bunch of vendors have worked together to try and come with another option. The whole time understanding, that while the event is based on education, it is also a fund raiser from the Pennsylvania Turfgrass Council. The challenge was how to eliminate the trade show component and still not change the financial support while bringing the chance for vendors to have the opportunity to interact with customers. The first part of the new look was some different sponsorship opportunities, including selling a 2 minute elevator sales speech prior to each talk. The big change is the "Turf Industry Social". This will take place from 2-4 on the afternoon of the first day. The hope is for vendors to support the event and get a number of passes to the social. While the cost is the same as a table top in the past, there is an added expense to host a social vs a trade show.
So, in an effort to make up the difference, PTC will have a booth at the Philadelphia Golf Expo the next week auctioning off rounds of donated golf. The struggle with the silent auction in the past has been the idea of people in the golf business paying for something that is normally free with one phone call.
This process of changing something, that has been in place for a long time, is never easy. The ability of competitors to work together and the ability of the PTC Board to listen to vendors urging the need for a new format were all key in making this happen.
Check back in mid-January, and hopefully, I can tell you about what a big success the Turf Industry Social was and that the Philadelphia Golf Expo was a home run!
In the mean time, if you would like to donate a foursome to help the PTC or are a vendor who wants to come back to participate in being involved in the event, please let me know!


WJC