Over 150 club managers, leaders and industry professionals were brought together by the CMAE for the 2021 European Conference on Club Management for three days of virtual education and networking.
Over 150 club managers, leaders and industry professionals were brought together by the CMAE for the 2021 European Conference on Club Management for three days of virtual education and networking.
The event, which is held annually by CMAE, attracted a global presence as delegates representing a record 32 countries gathered for the three day event.
Day 1 of the conference opened with Director of Education Torbjorn Johansson updating members on CMAE activities and the future, followed by three separate seminars on digital marketing, technology in clubs, and growing the golf industry. Three keynotes also featured on day 1 with Ian Peek presenting on High Performance. Joining all the way from Canada was golf industry guru James Cronk who shared his advice on managing second in commands, before Adam Rowledge finished off the day with his 8-lesson methodology to create a FIVE STAR team, a world-class, award-winning culture and create competitive advantage through your people.
Keynote speaker Adam Rowledge
Day 2 of the conference was a full day of learning with 9 seminars taking place, with active club managers and industry experts presenting on subjects such as Operations excellence, club governance, building the golf industry in Saudi Arabia, challenges with working abroad, leading your committee, protecting your club from cyber attacks, becoming a golf club general manager, why understanding human behaviour and emotions can lead to bigger profits, and the future of I.T.
Four keynote sessions also took place during the day, with AELTC’s Club Manager Ross Matheson talking about the journey in the delivery of the 2021 Championships. Global keynote speaker Rasmus Ankersen, who is also a Director at Brentford Football Club, brought to life the lessons to be learned from some of the worlds most successful organisations. Megan Reitz, who is on the Thinkers50 Radar of global business thinkers and HR Magazine’s Most Influential listing, presented a dynamic and engaging session on ‘speaking truth to power’ all about the need for people up and down the formal hierarchy to speak up with disruptive, innovative ideas. Finally Gregg Patterson, former GM of the Beach Club in Santa Monica and founder of Tribal Magic brough his energy to the floor with a talk on climbing the mountain to success.
Keynote speaker Gregg Patterson
On day 3, delegates had a choice of six specialised workshops to attend diving deep into six different subjects – brain training, mental health, resilience, sustainability, improving member loyalty, and food & beverage before the conference closed with a final keynote from Shannon Herschbach & Mike Phelps on member retention and loyalty post covid.
The CMAE has received excellent feedback from the event, with 100% of delegates saying they felt the conference was good value for money and many commenting on the well-run logistics hosting such a big event online.
Commenting was CMAE’s Director of Education Torbjorn Johansson. “For the past 18 month CMAE has learned a lot about hosting events online and that was reflected in the fantastic feedback and positive comments we have received from delegates. We worked hard to make sure that all delegates had the best experience possible and we look forward into 2022 with optimism and hope of being able to meet the Tribe in person at our educational events.”
