Cascais sets the scene for CMAE European Conference on Club Management

The Club Managers Association of Europe (CMAE) European conference on club management took place at the Clube de Naval in Cascais, Portugal from the 17-19 November.

The Club Managers Association of Europe (CMAE) European conference on club management took place at the Clube de Naval in Cascais, Portugal from the 17-19 November.

The event was keenly supported by CMAE’s members with almost 100 delegates attending from 16 different countries across europe and the middle east representing the very top echelon of the club management industry.

The conference theme was “The destination” and provided cutting edge advice on how to manage environmental issues, delivering service excellence, recruitment, strategic planning, increasing team performance, clubhouse design and more. Presenters came from 8 different countries providing an interesting lineup from almost all core competencies a club manager needs.

With delegates travelling from as far as away as Qatar, Canada and Finland, the conference fully delivered on the promise of quality relevant industry networking, ensuring that delegates engaged with the most dynamic club managers leading the very best clubs.

On Monday 18th the CMAE held their Annual General Meeting which saw David Roy CCM come to the end of a two year Presdiency term and James Burns CCM was voted in by the members as the incoming Presdient, with David Balden CCM becoming Vice-President.

Following the AGM was the drinks and gala dinner, which was an excellent opportunity to appreciate some of the recent successes of CMAE members and James Burns presented four Certified Club Managers with their certificates – Alessandro Napoli CCM, Cristian Fiora CCM, Michael Newland CCM and Robert Brewer CCM.

Marc Newey CCM, CCE, Chairman of The European Club Education Foundation, used the opportunity to raise over €800 which will go towards providing bursaries which will ensure that managers at clubs that are less well-funded can take part in the CMAE programme.

Facilitating the programme was CMAE’s Director of Education Torbjorn Johansson and Ed Plunket, Secretary at the City of London Club. Ed, who was one of the most appreciated speakers on the CMAE European Conference last year in Marbella, was invited by CMAE to co-facilitate the conference bringing his great sense of humour and his experiences of running a major project within the confines of a traditional City Club.

Commenting on the conference Torbjorn said “We are delighted with this years conference and would like to thank everyone who travelled to Cascais to join us and to our corproate partners for continuing to support CMAE, which enables us to provide the opportunity for club managers to drive their clubs towards ever greater achievements”.

In 2020 CMAE will host BMI International on the 8-13 October in Edinburgh, Scotland.