The Royal Sultanate of Brunei Darussalam is an excellent launch pad to help set a new course for the golf industry in what is generally perceived to be a fast changing and challenging business environment.
Brunei will serve as a beacon to help direct the golf industry especially in Asia, to become more focused on the challenges confronting it and with its sights firmly fixed on solutions.
The 2012 Asia Pacific Golf Summit (APGS 2012) has structured a three-day programme that will address the challenges confronting the industry and with the help of some of the best business brains in the golf industry, offer pragmatic and viable solutions.
Some of the challenges that APGS will grapple with will include:
- Innovative ways to bring back the club experience to golf clubs so that members get value for their money.
- Sustainability – to provide an effective an easily implementable programme so that golf clubs can actually walk the walk to become more environmentally friendly.
- Fertigation – to graphically show that there is a real cost effective way to reduce chemical usage and water for soil and plant nourishment on golf courses.
- Grow the game – encourage better coaching facilities and invest more aggressively in junior golf development programmes.
Put simply, golf in Asia has the same problems being experienced in the more advanced nations of the Western hemisphere. The only difference is that in the West, markets are mapped and there are statistics available to clearly show trends of growth, stagnation or decline.
Unfortunately, for most of Asia, these statistical barometers to measure the market trends don’t exist. Compounding matters, parts of Asia do not have effective national bodies to guide and monitor the game. To a large extent, Asia is dependent on surrogate governing bodies from the West to “look after” the development of golf course superintendents, professional club managers, golf coaches etc.
“Asia needs to become more independent and self-reliant,” says Mike Sebastian. “If it can be the provider of financial credit to Western nations; if it can make some of the best cars in the world; and if it can be the factory to the world, why can’t we take care of our own golf courses?”
APGS 2012 will help provide some answers to these pressing issues. No punches will be pulled over three days as speakers, panelists and delegates get into a huddle to prepare Asia’s golf industry and to help insulate it to weather the challenges ahead.
The stage is set for a real game-changer in golf in Asia. The 2012 Asia Pacific Golf Summit – a world class business conference working to keep golf relevant to changing times.
Full APGS www.golfconference.org/programme/