feature - The Golf Show Group Trade Appeal?
“The Manchester Golf Show will have exhibitors coming from the USA, Europe, worldwide and the UK, who are all keen to meet potential trade partners in the UK and Europe. We envisage being inundated with many more enquiries for the London Show in November.”
Aſter 15 shows over a nine year period, the Golf Show Group are still a fixture on the golf consumer circuit despite the increased emergence of Internet retailing and the like. This year however, both the Manchester and London Golf show will open its doors to the trade for free
Christmas with goodies from the likes of Callaway, Cobra, PING and Titleist being exhibited to the wide-eyed consumer alongside a host of other treats.
F
or any golf enthusiast, a visit to either the London Golf Show or its sister edition, The Manchester Show, is like being a kid at
As a veteran of 16 shows over an eight year period, there is no one better placed than the Golf Show Group’s Damain Benstead to assess the state of the golf trade in general. “Aſter a recent trip to the PGA show in Orlando, my colleague Simon Jones and I realised that overseas companies looking to find distributors, stockists and media representation need a place to network, meet and present their products to the UK Golf market. The London and Manchester Golf Shows provide that platform; by inviting the whole Golf Industry along to the show for free, it gives them a chance to meet with these companies along with other companies within the UK that they may or may not already deal with”. Benstead however, is keen to emphasise that the
Like many others from the trade, the show acts as
a convenient meeting place as well as the chance to have a little stroll around and sense the vibe in the marketplace from the general public. Aside from that, the presence of the overall trade is somewhat limited, and so it should in the eyes of many. We already have the PGA Merchandise Show, Harrogate and Golf Europe, so why the need for another trade- focused event?
show is not abandoning its niche and waging war on Harrogate, the showpiece UK trade event. “I must stress that this isn’t a backdoor attempt to create a trade event- we are still a consumer show first and foremost. We are simply dipping our toe into the water to see whether the trade will be receptive to a networking opportunity. “This year at Orlando we met stacks of companies
with no obvious route to the UK market and many can’t just come to sell some kit, it simply isn’t feasible. If we set-up a networking opportunity at an obvious location, we can’t see how we will fail to generate interest.” The essence of the Group’s plan is to invite
anyone who works within the golf industry to come down to the show for free, to find new products to stock or distribute, and to network with new and existing clients. There will be no drinks reception or fancy trade lunch, simply a business lounge where business can be undertaken. With any trade event however, it lives or dies by the quality of those who attend. “We have had real
interest from a number of brands and some key people have expressed interest in this
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