After conducting a virtual show last year, the PGA Show returns to Orlando from Jan. 25-28. The 69th annual gathering of the golf industry will look different in size and scope thanks to COVID-19 concerns, but the Show must go on and Golfweek spoke with Marc Simon, event vice president for PGA Golf Exhibitions, who explained what to expect.
GWK: Why are we having an in-person show this year?
MS: That’s a great question. After having a virtual event last year, while so much of the feedback was positive and the educational component was good, people missed being together, the networking component and seeing, touching and feeling product. The industry is ready to come back. We have over 600 brands, 13,000 people pre-registered and the Show is an important conduit to drive the business of golf forward, to address the issues of the day, and how do we retain all the new players coming in. There’s no better way to do that than to meet in person.
GWK: What are the challenges you’ve faced?
MS: The world has changed in the last 18 months. Covid has affected us all. There are supply chain logistic issues in the industry. Combine all that plus there’s so much different information almost every day. The uncertainty, especially the not knowing what is coming next, makes it difficult to plan as far out as we do.
GWK: How has the Demo Day changed?
PGA Show Demo Day at Orange County National.
MS: It’s going to be very different. It used to be purely about the equipment testing. We’ve had to reimagine it this year. It’s going to be an opportunity for PGA professionals to learn about club fitting, coaching, fitness, and range initiatives that will work at their course. There’s still some 50 companies participating. In a normal year, it’s closer to 100 so it’s going to be about half the size in terms of companies. We’ve renamed it to be Demo and Fitting Day. There will be instructional workshops and clinics on fitting, but we’ve still filled out the entire footprint at (the range at) Orange County National (Golf Club). They’ll just have different experiences.
On the show floor, where we typically have close to 1,000 brands we’re going to have 600 exhibiting. You won’t see the large build outs that you’ve seen in previous years but it’s very powerful to have that many brands involved and it’s a sign of how important this event is for the industry.
GWK: For those companies that aren’t there this week, next year will be three years since they last exhibited. How will you try to attract them to return?
MS: Many of the largest brands and the largest builds aren’t here this year for a variety of reasons, but the good thing is we’re excited to welcome them back in 2023. We’re confident they’ll be there. We’ve had discussions with them about being there. It’s just going to be a very different show this year but we’re confident we’ll be welcoming those big brands back next year.
GWK: What do you say to the naysayers who think this is the beginning of the end for the PGA Show?
Lexi Thompson during Demo Day at the PGA Merchandise Show.
MS: I would say that this Show is one of the most important shows in many, many years and will serve as a very effective bridge to the 2023 Show. That is going to be a powerful event to bring the industry together and help PGA professionals and buyers to find better ways of doing business, of uncovering new products and connecting with their peers. We’ve put on 25 other events in the last 10 months and we’ve learned from those other events that have taken place and we’ve seen those events, albeit smaller, attract really strong audiences that are focused on conducting business and enthusiastic about being back together and have higher satisfaction and more positive results this year than in previous years. We’ve seen a lot of positive energy build toward those events as well. We feel that same enthusiasm. This could be a really powerful bridge to 2023 and help the industry learn from and take advantage of the positive dynamics that exist for the industry.
GWK: How have the more recent variants of COVID impacted the turn out?
MS: It definitely wasn’t great timing coming within a month of the Show. I think people have been learning to live with the Delta variant. The timing impacted some people’s plans. But we’ve seen 500-600 people per day sign up during the worst of Omicron. We looked at our hotel pickup and it has stayed consistent. It’s made people nervous but we’ve learned from all of the other events we’ve put on and have strict health parameters in place and added a face covering requirement inside based on current conditions. We’re just thankful we have such strong partners to learn on. There’s still something magical about being able to bring an entire industry back together. We all feel like we’ve been through so much for the past 18 months and a lot of us have only connected on a local and regional level. I’m excited to see the camaraderie and we’re here to help the industry to continue to grow.
