Many of us in the show industry love golf. Just about as many of us are jealous of Ed Several, vp and show manager of the PGA Merchandise Show for Reed Exhibitions. Who among us golfers wouldn't want to be running the greatest golf supermarket in the world?
Not to mention you get to hang with a lot of celebrities, including Alice Cooper, four-handicap, who performed at the Hard Rock during PGA week.
What I found interesting in the post-show glow of last week's event was the candor that PGA.com's Steve Pike used in assessing the show's maturity - and Reed's handling - of a show that recently was more sizzle than steak. It's rare that you'll see an association openly admit that it made mistakes in handling their events, so Pike's observations are surprising as well as being relevatory.
It's to Reed's credit that it hired Several, who used to manage Top-Flite's participation at the PGA Show, as the new show manager. Several's understanding of the exhibitor perspective seems to have paid immediate dividends.
And when was the last time you saw an association do a full feature article on its outsourced show manager in its magazine? (Not counting Tile Letter's cover story on Tamara Christian for Coverings last spring).
With Several at the controls and the PGA giving Reed kudos, this looks like the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
And before we forget, for all of you who are golfers, here's what's hot for this year.
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