With planners scrambling to adjust their budgets for the remaining meetings of 2008 and preparing to be more frugal for events that take place in 2009, it would seem that golf activities hosted by corporations and associations would be among the first casualties. Interestingly, that’s not really the case.
On one hand, there have been some predictable changes. “The internal-employee meetings are often losing the golf component now,” noted Ken Schmalz, a partner in S&A Event Services in Far Hills, NJ. Some firms are taking golf off the meeting agenda entirely, shifting the expense back to regional offices or even to attendees, he said. “I recently coordinated a big software firm’s meeting where the executives said, ‘If you want to play golf, there is a free afternoon to do so—but it is not going on the master account.’ The cost had to go back to either an individual’s T&E account, the branch office’s account, or the attendee. That kind of item is not going under the corporate umbrella anymore.”
On the other hand, meetings that include clients appear to be fair game. “When clients are involved, companies are maintaining the formal golf component,” Schmalz said. In fact, Tom Pasha, president of Contact Planning & Production in St. Cloud, FL, has noticed that many firms are broadening the scope of what were once strictly internal meetings, so that certain clients are invited to participate in parts of those meetings—and in the recreation and team building.
“In the past few years, I was doing a lot of corporate golf where the companies were recognizing their top reps,” Pasha said. “But now, they’re doing golf in a way that also allows reps to bond with and reward top clients. So golf is still there, but it must be justified as a way of making an impression on the external audience. The firms are putting on a good show but still proving economic responsibility.”
When it comes to strictly customer-focused events, “golf is as integral as it’s ever been,” said Schmalz. “I don’t have any clients saying, ‘Golf is not achieving what we want, so let’s cut it out.’ They are still willing to pay for it because it makes an impact on clients—but firms are now being more selective in who’s invited. There is definitely a preferred list of clients, while second- and third-tier people are not being asked to participate this year.”
In terms of the experience being delivered to clients, the economic slump appears to be having little to no impact, according to Schmalz. “Almost nothing has changed, except the attendance numbers. The quality remains high because there’s no sense in doing an event that isn’t memorable.”
On the supplier side, there also hasn’t been much of a sense of sub-par golf, in terms of the quality or quantity arranged by groups.
“We’re not seeing much cutting back on the golf side,” said Scott Selvaggi, director of sales and marketing for the Renaissance Resort at World GolfVillage in St. Augustine, FL. “The groups are trying to have a standout event, so why would they make the golf experience any less than it can be and risk disappointing attendees? The number of people at meetings has become smaller, and planners are looking to cut as much as they can in food and beverage without affecting quality too much. But if the meeting is going to happen, they are still going to use golf.”
And, that doesn’t mean that planners can’t negotiate and plan differently to keep costs down, Selvaggi said. “We say to planners that if they can be flexible as to what time of day the group tees off or the day of the week they can play, it’s going to help a lot on cost. We just try to move them to times of softer demand; we’ll work with planners to keep golf on their agenda.”
The one place where firms are more noticeably trimming their spending is in merchandise giveaways. “We still do plenty of packages with hats, balls, and even golf clubs,” said Pasha. “But while groups are still going with higher-end items, they’re often not the top-of-the-line products anymore—they’re buying items one level down, which is still very nice stuff,” said Pasha.
Marc Reydams, general manager of the Country Club of Colorado, which serves Cheyenne Mountain Conference Resort in Colorado Springs, has seen a notable slip in the quantity of merchandise being purchased on site. “We’ve seen a big difference in the amount of merchandise that’s moving out of our golf shop this year versus last year … definitely down by both planners and attendees making impulse purchases,” he said. “Also, we’re seeing more people willing to rent golf clubs and even golf shoes instead of simply buying them at our shop and taking them home.”
Originally published Sept. 8, 2008