The next Asia Pacific Golf Development Summit will be staged at Mission Hills in China. The agreement to stage this major industry event was concluded in Hong Kong on 8th January.
“We are delighted to be able to play host to this very strategic and important industry event and will do everything to ensure that all delegates are given a truly great experience”, declared Dr. Ken Chu, Vice-Chairman of the Mission Hills Group.
Mission Hills is the world’s single largest golf complex boasting a total of twelve world class golf courses designed by some of the greatest names in the game.
The 2008 Summit will be held on 2nd – 4th December and it will be staged at the venue’s brand new purpose-built multi-million dollar international convention centre. The timing of the Summit will mean that it is staged back-to-back with the Omega- Mission Hills World Cup of Golf tournament.
The theme for the Summit is “Golf Development – making Asia world class and keeping it that way!”
“We have decided to bring the Summit to China because we feel that Mission Hills fits in perfectly with the theme of the event which has to do with making Asian golf clubs world class”, pointed out Mike Sebastian, managing director of Asia Pacific Golf Development Conferences Pte Ltd, the owner and organiser of the event.
He went on to add, “Mission Hills is living proof of Asia being able to deliver a truly world class product matched with a standard of service that is absolutely world class.”
The organisers are now actively engaged in recruiting world class speakers to present major keynote addresses at the three-day event. “Based on the huge success of our inaugural Summit, we have been able to attract interest from an excellent cross-sectional sampling of industry heavy hitters and we expect to roll out our list of speakers and the programme within the next three weeks,” Mike said.
Unlike the inaugural Summit, the 2008 event will be structured to address critical topics with keynote speeches which will then be developed and discussed at specially structured break-out panel sessions. According to Mike, “We feel that this would be a more effective way to conduct proceedings and it will also allow for interaction between speakers and the delegates.”
He went on to explain that this was being done in direct response to feedback received from delegates who attended the 2007 Summit.
Another important feature new to the 2008 Summit will be a trade exposition which will be open to industry players. “We are not gunning for an exhibition on the scale of the PGA Merchandise Show …. this will be a more intimate exhibition that will allow exhibitors and delegates to network and work on business collaborations”, explained Mike.
A total of 30 exhibition booths will be provided at the Summit venue.
“The 2008 Summit will be bigger, better and more focused and it will definitely be very business-driven,” Mike stated.
The 2008 Summit website www.golfconference.org will go ‘live’ on 31st January and it will provide all delegate registration details together with other relevant information.