The Club Managers Association of Europe and the Hungarian Club Managers’ Association organized the 1st Central & Eastern European Club Managers Conference on 10-11 November 2011.
The Club Managers Association of Europe and the Hungarian Club Managers’ Association organized the 1st Central & Eastern European Club Managers Conference on 10-11 November 2011. The associations’ main aim is to provide continuous training to the professionals working in the club industry, to which end it invites the most renowned foreign speakers in the industry to its events. The conferences organised by the HCMA are increasing in popularity, with almost 50 participants enjoying the 14 presentations this time round.
Due to the unfortunate illness of Jerry Kilby, CCM CEO of the CMAE, the two-day conference was opened by Tamás Révész, President of the Hungarian Club Managers’ Association, with Péter Sarlós, Vice-President of the Association, also contributing.
Following a short introduction, Gregg Patterson, General Manager of The Beach Club (California, USA) commenced a rousing series of presentations, the second time Gregg has participated in the training of Hungarian club managers. His energetic presentations covered an extremely broad range of topics, ranging from service culture and human resources management to leadership virtues. Facility management was covered by Károly Szemerei, Hungarian distributor of TORO and CLUB CAR equipment and also a strategic sponsor of the HCMA, as well as Zsolt Berta, owner of Golf Menedzsment Kft. Balázs Dárdai deepened the know-how of the club managers with his interactive talk on online marketing, before Balázs Kormány, President of the Budapest Region of the Hungarian Hotel Association, closed the first day’s proceedings with a presentation on the Hungarian wine regions. The 10-hour series of presentations finished at 8pm with a networking dinner that extended well into the night as the participants took advantage of the opportunity to chat with the speakers.
The next day the conference continued with another presentation from Gregg Patterson, followed by Lodewijk Klootwijk, President of the European Golf Course Owners Association, who presented the Dutch development model for the game of golf. His contribution was extremely informative and his many recommendations will certainly prove useful in developing the sport of golf in Hungary.
Daniel Somogyi, CCM GM of Montclair Golf & Country Club (New Jersey, USA) is not a stranger to Hungarian club managers as he participated in the training of Hungarian professionals at last year’s conference too. This time round he addressed two topics. Looking at finance he spoke about planning and the importance of reports and statements, before switching to marketing and passing on many ideas to club managers that can be deployed in the Hungarian club industry.
The Club Managers Association of Europe and the Hungarian Club Managers’ Association would like to take this opportunity to thank the speakers and sponsors of the conference, Agrolánc Kft., Hungarian distributor of TORO and CLUB CAR equipment, Novotel Hotels, Pauker Printing House, Aranypók, Raiker, Róbert Steinhacker, Hungarian distributor of Golftech products, LOFT Outlet and Képshop.hu.
