Golf Europe returned to the golfing calendar this year in a new home of Messe Augsburg in Germany, just 45 minutes from the show’s previous home in Munich.
The return also included the addition of the Confederation of Professional Golf and PGA of Germany “Learning Zone”, in which industry experts were invited to speak about their own particular niches of the industry.
Confederation of Professional Golf Director of Education, Tony Bennett, and Felix Lechner of The PGA of Germany coordinated the speaker line-up for the “Learning Zone”, ensuring presentations were all tailored to the ever-changing needs of PGA Professionals:
“If people can get some knowledge that they can take away and actually apply in their own environment, whether it be a retail shop or driving range, academy, whatever it is, I think people are very happy to go along to sessions and do some learning,” said Bennett.
“We’re keeping away from “education” and from “seminars” – I would keep it to what we call the “Learning Zone”. People can go along, they can take 20 minutes, and they can listen to an expert in that field. The speakers will effectively have three ‘top-tips’ and those tips will give the professionals something tangible that they can take away and use in their own environment.”
The Confederation of Professional Golf-invited speakers included Managing Director of Multi Mall Management; Matias Lopes, Managing Director of Club Inc.; Niall Flannagan, Head of Member Education for the PGA of Great Britain & Ireland, David Colclough; Director of Golf Pro Relations at Golfbreaks.com, Jim Long; and Advanced Fellow of the PGA, Ian Peek. All the speakers revealed some of the good practices that they have used successfully in their own niche within the industry.
The format of the “Learning Zone” is not something new, explains Bennett: “It’s a format that something we have used once before; there’s twenty minute sessions, ten minute Q&As, and it’s a relatively intimate setting as well. Not only that, but the professionals can take twenty, forty, sixty minutes, however long they want, and take that from the time they would normally spend in the show, and learn about something that specifically interests them – we think it’s been very successful.”
Watch the full video interview with Tony Bennett below:
Click the links below to view the interviews with some of the speakers from the Golf Europe 2012 “Learning Zone”:
Jim Long, Director of Golf Pro Relations at Golfbreaks.com, Discusses The Business of Golf Travel
Advanced Fellow of the PGA, Ian Peek, Outlines His Tips for the Business of Coaching
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Tony Bennett has been Director of Education for the Confederation of Professional Golf since 2008, focusing on education standards across Europe. ”The importance of education programmes to employers and the 21,000 individual professionals from the 38 Member Countries that make up The Confederation of Professional Golf cannot be underestimated. With Member countries at different stages of development”. Matters of Initial Professional Education and issues around Post Compulsory Education also occupy much of his time.
Tony is a PGA Master Professional and has a MPhil in Sports Participation and Coaching from the University of Birmingham.
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