Press attendees and guests gathered on Friday 6th July at the Alstom French Open to Mark the official announcement of the theme of 2012 European Golf Business Conference.
The conference, now into its 7th year, is fast becoming a major event for golfing industry players of all levels, and is a once-a-year opportunity to get up to speed with the latest trends and developments in the European and worldwide golf arena. The conference will be hosted from the 21st – 23rd November at the Hotel Majestic Barriere in Cannes, France.
EGCOA Director Lodewijk Klootwijk outlined some of the current difficulties the European golf industry is facing such as declining numbers of golf participation and rounds played. He added: “This year’s conference theme ‘Recreating the Golf Business’ will be focused around the development of new and creative ways in which to attract golfers to your club and run more efficient and profitable golf facilities. A number of our speakers will explore techniques in which to utilise the assets you have within your business to grow and further develop as a golf facility. We are very excited for this year’s conference, the line up for the event promises to be our best yet. We would like to thank the Cannes Tourism Board and the Groupement des Entrepreneurs de Golf Français (GEGF) for their ongoing support.” Mr. Klootwijk also announced the latest speaker to join the 2012 conference programme is Pascal Grizot, Chairman of the successful 2018 Ryder Cup bid.
Paul Armitage, Director of Le Club (NGF Golf), explained how France is “Recreating the Golf Business” in their own way with their future development plan to boost the game to levels never seen before. Now that France has been chosen as the host country for the 2018 Ryder Cup the plan is to continue to grow the game of golf throughout the country and make the game accessible for all. The development plan includes the creation of 100 new urban golf clubs in an effort to raise the number of registered players nationwide from 400,000 to 700,000 by 2022.
Registration for the European Golf Business Conference is now open at www.conference.egcoa.org
Delegates registering before 1st August will receive a discounted early bird registration rate.