Golf Industry Central Autumn 2013 Part Deux | Page 16

GMA Conference

GMA Helping Bridge the Gap
By David Newbery
Consider for a moment what it will
mean to a golf club if its manager
fails to attend Golf Management
Australia’s biennial conference
at the Four Seasons Hotel in the
historic Rocks area of Sydney from
September 1-5.
They just might be widening the
gap between themselves and
those club managers who attend
the Bridging the Gap-themed
conference.
“A range of local and international
speakers will be included in this
year’s educational platform with a
blend of industry and non-golfing
industry speakers,” GMA president
David Burton said.

“We put together about 20 to 30
subjects and provided space at the
bottom for people to include their
own (subject issues).
“By far the overwhelming response
was membership retention and
membership recruitment.
“That’s not a surprise, but it
enables us to gear the flavour of
the conference and themes from
members’ feedback on issues that
concern them.”
The scene for the conference will be
set on Tuesday, September 3.
There will be an informative range
of speakers talking specifically on
the golfing industry, trends and the
current state of the game.

“The conference will take a similar
format to that of 2011 with three
main days of education through the
middle of the week.

These sessions will cover industry
issues, membership trends and
a panel session with some of the
game’s greats.

“The week will be ‘book-ended’ with
two keynote speakers, two major
networking events and a game of
golf on Monday at New South Wales
and The Lakes golf clubs.”

Later in the day, the conference will
move to more targeted sessions
covering litigation and then move
into staff motivation and training.

GMA executive officer David Allen
said GMA members’ feedback from
the 2011 conference helped theme
this year’s talkfest.
“We asked the members who
they enjoyed hearing at the 2011
conference and who they