Maxstrasse, Augsburg
This week, GBD magazine was the first UK golf publication to visit Augsburg; the historic Bavarian city now the new venue for GOLF EUROPE 2012, the much-respected golf trade exhibition formerly held in Munich.
Around an hour’s drive from Munich, Augsburg is a compact city venue bursting with character and history, offering a friendly welcome to visitors and providing first-class social facilities to complement the 48,000 sq metre Augsburg Trade Show Center that will house GOLF EUROPE from 16-19 September.
GBD editor Ben Evans said: “Having attended 14 GOLF EUROPE trade shows in Munich and always being a fan of the opportunities that GOLF EUROPE has created for exhibitors and visitors wanting to improve their businesses, we were naturally very interested to visit GOLF EUROPE’S new host city and to meet the team who will be staging the event.
“I think it is significant that Messe Augsburg, the event’s new owners, are very serious about making this a successful long-term project to help grow the European golf market and create a genuine commercial advantage for all the exhibitors and visitors taking part.
“I was delighted to meet a friendly and very pro-active professional team who are highly focused on the task of creating a really strong show. Messe Augsburg has a strong track record of delivering excellent events and its GOLF EUROPE team are clearly excited about building on and enhancing the quality associated with the event during its Munichyears.”
Ben added: “Augsburg as a city should create a really strong venue. It is packed with character, very relaxed and friendly with good restaurants and bars in a compact layout which will encourage networking and camaraderie among GOLF EUROPE attendees in the evenings. Finally, the Augsburg Trade Show Center could be perfect for this type of show; it’s an exciting prospect. Rock bands Deep Purple and Jethro Tull are part of the Center’s diary of performers for 2012 and it would be good if plenty of the golf industry could follow this particular heavy metal with something containing a lower centre of gravity and good peripheral weighting.”
An innovative city public golf day on the Saturday, an Orlando-style Demo Day on the same day (day before exhibition), and equipment hitting nets, speaker platforms, educational seminars and fashion shows during the three-day exhibition, all aim to build on the format of GOLF EUROPE that was successful in Munich between 1993 and 2010.
GBD will be compiling a more detailed report on this Augsburg visit next week.
GOLF EUROPE www.golf-europe.com, or call +49 (0)821 2572 204. For UK and Ireland enquiries: Pattern (Trade Fairs) Ltd office: +44 (0)203 375 8230.
GBD magazine www.golfbusinessdevelopment.com