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VGM Club’s 2018 National Show Recap

Posted On: February 1, 2018 by ClubProcure in: Agronomy Clubhouse Food and Beverage Pro Shop VGM Club

VGM Club’s 2018 National Show Recap

Come Together for Savings, Come Together for Solutions, Come Together with VGM Club.

PGA Merchandise Show

During this year’s PGA Merchandise Show, we decided to change things up a bit. We did not have a booth for the first time in 22 years! This was not a referendum on the show itself – it was merely a chance to allocate our resources towards something different.

Before the show, and during our time walking the trade show floor, we invited pro shop contacts to our party at Howl at the Moon, a dueling piano bar. VGM Club reps spent the night introducing members to partners, and vice versa, all in an effort to create the community we strive to cultivate (We should mention there was no shortage of laughs as well).

That is precisely what the VGM Club community is all about. These connections may happen in all shapes and forms, but ultimately, VGM Club sets the table for a conversation to provide solutions. There are instances where your club may decide to go in a different direction. We get it. However, more often, many of our members find that we are able to save them time, money and offer solutions otherwise unavailable as a standalone club.

This party was a testament to our growing community. Over 150 people were able to attend. Many were members, but some were friends from valued partners such as, Club Car, Nexbelt, PepsiCo, Life Fitness, and Sun Mountain. We cannot wait to follow up with attendees and continue to explore exciting avenues to grow our VGM Club community.


Golf Industry Show

The Golf Industry Show never disappoints. Who do we thank first? Let’s start with the GCSAA. They always do a wonderful job making the show a worthwhile event for both vendors and golf course professionals alike. We would also like to thank our suppliers that filled out our VGM Club Village. Cintas, Stens, Gempler’s, Best Buy for Business, Sherwin-Williams, DJI, Gallo Design Group, and Affinity Underwriters rounded out the village impeccably! Finally, we need to thank all of our members and partners that stopped by our booth. It was awesome to see every single one of you!

We had a couple lasting stats from the show we wanted to share with you all:

1,000 + Visits to the VGM Club Village

Members, non-members, partners, prospective partners, the Golf Channel (!), and more stopped by our booth. We can’t stress how important this is to our success with your agronomic department in 2018. As much as we would love to get to every maintenance building in 2018, schedules conflict, and the Golf Industry Show provides an excellent venue for us to educate you on our solutions. Read Mike Woltz, Director of Business Development – Agronomy, explain how this parallels with your duties as a superintendent here.

20 + Partners connected

During the Golf Industry Show, we are able to connect with almost every single agronomy partner in our portfolio. This is an excellent opportunity to introduce our partners with members in need of solutions, and discuss strategies on how to provide the best program for our community moving forward.

1,300 Wristbands at the VGM Club and John Deere Golf #TurfParty

Whoa. Thank you to John Deere Golf for helping us with this event. The #TurfParty at the Hard Rock Cafe was more than we could have ever imagined. We are so thankful for everyone that makes up our VGM Club Community, and this was just one of the ways we were showing our thanks in 2018.

15 Members Spoke at Educational Sessions

The community VGM Club strives to create is a place for more than just solutions for products and services. Leading up to the show, we highlighted a few that were gracious enough to spend some time giving us their thoughts on the show. We hope to grow that list and become a resource for thought leaders like Ryan Cummings, Tim Hiers, Tommy Witt, Chris Tritabaugh and Rodney Crow to share ideas and practices to our community.

Let’s continue to grow together as a community in 2018. Thank you again for making this Golf Industry Show special.


CMAA Conference & Business Expo

Did you stop by our booth this year? For those of us that were there, it sure felt like it. The food truck was a massive hit. Foot traffic was up tremendously, and we could not have done it without our partners at SYSCO, PepsiCo, Chef Works, DIRECTV, Gallo Furniture and Affinity Club Underwriters.

We were shocked to see how many conference goers stopped to take pictures of the booth. People around our office are already asking, “how do we top this?” Thankfully, we have some time before that question needs answered.

“Any time we can bring a few of our partners into the show and display the savings and solutions they offer our members is a great experience. We challenge ourselves to find new and innovative ways to educate our members on the breadth of solutions we have to offer them. Our food truck was the latest example of that.” – Mike Sawyer, VP of Contracting at VGM Club.

Thanks to all who stopped to say hi, those interactions are vital to the success of not only our show experience, but your VGM Club membership. We often find these interactions leading to greater savings for the following year as we build your knowledge on all we can provide your club.

Let’s come together for savings and solutions as a community in 2018. 


Chef to Chef Conference

First, we would like to thank our friends at Club and Resort Business for putting on an awesome event out in Seattle. The Chef to Chef Conference was a delight, and it wasn’t just because of the fantastic food! It was a great experience to be among some of the most talented club chefs in America.

As part of our sponsorship, we were given an opportunity to speak about social media and how chefs can utilize easy to use platforms like Instagram to create another touchpoint for their members. Here is a section of the session from VP of Marketing, Cam Schultz:

“More than ever, members are looking for experiences. As chefs in the club world, you have a built in advantage to cultivating unique relationships with members. You get to understand their story because you catered their wedding, you made a cake for their kids birthday party, their kids have been to your culinary camp, they have been members for years, maybe only a couple months but have been at the club the last 3 weekends. Those relationships are unique.

Building your brand allows you to create that. Your food has its own story and uniqueness. It grew somewhere, people prepared it, plated it, and they ate it. Take the time to share those stories and create an immersive, intimate dining experience for your members.”

We cannot wait to build on this and create impactful experiences for our members in 2018.


For more information on how to take advantage of the programs we mentioned above, or to learn more about VGM Club, head to website at www.vgmclub.com or give us a call at 800-363-5480.

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