•Golf activities your attendees won’t forget.
Golf events are a great way to combine work and play. A game of golf provides healthy competition with light-hearted camaraderie. Meeting planners are constantly challenged to come up with new ways to engage meeting and event attendees. Midwest Meetings® spoke with Certified Meeting Planner (CMP), Candy Adams. Adams, whose home office is located in Ohio, started out managing tradeshow exhibits and has been doing meetings and events for over 15 years. She trademarks herself as The Booth Mom® and of her many titles, she creates customized marketing plans and budgets for clients who want to improve their Return on Investment (ROI). After planning countless events, Adams shared what she has done over the years to make golf events unique and fun.
Midwest Meetings: Among the many events you’ve done, you’ve planned a fair share of golfing events. Tell us about your experiences that included golf.
Golf events are a great way to combine work and play. A game of golf provides healthy competition with light-hearted camaraderie. Meeting planners are constantly challenged to come up with new ways to engage meeting and event attendees. Midwest Meetings® spoke with Certified Meeting Planner (CMP), Candy Adams. Adams, whose home office is located in Ohio, started out managing tradeshow exhibits and has been doing meetings and events for over 15 years. She trademarks herself as The Booth Mom® and of her many titles, she creates customized marketing plans and budgets for clients who want to improve their Return on Investment (ROI). After planning countless events, Adams shared what she has done over the years to make golf events unique and fun.
Midwest Meetings: Among the many events you’ve done, you’ve planned a fair share of golfing events. Tell us about your experiences that included golf.
Candy Adams: When I worked for a company called Intel, I planned an event where we sponsored a hole at a golf tournament the day before. We had 2 custom 4-wheel drive Humvee radio controlled cars built by a custom model builder. Their paint was in the corporate colors, with the logo on both sides of the door. The cars actually had 2 transmissions so the front and rear wheels moved independently, and a whip antenna with a small “Intel” flag on them. We ordered the usual golf towels with the hanger that would fit rolled up hanging out the windows of the Humvee and took them out on the course. Every time a cart full of golfers would come our way, we took out after them with our little cars and literally “chased” them to our hole, playing a sort of cat and mouse. Sometimes they’d intercept the Humvees and take the towels… and then we’d send out the second car out to chase them. It was a riot! Since most of the golfers were also visiting the tradeshow the day following the golf tournament, we used them as an interactive draw in our exhibit to promote our “overcoming all obstacles” theme where we had sand and small rocks (with the types of obstacles our product could overcome painted on the rocks) piled in the middle of our exhibit for attendees to scale. We raffled the Humvees off the last day of the show, cleaned the sand off, repacked them in their original boxes and shipped them off to the winners.
I’ve also decorated the refreshment golf carts for corporate golf events. It’s amazing what you can do with crepe paper, beads, flowers, lights, and even AH-OOOOO-GA! horns. At an October golf tournament one year (not far from Halloween), we not only dressed up the staff driving the refreshment carts but had little trick-or-treat bags with really gross candy – spiders, eyeballs, etc…
On another occasion I planned an employee “fun day” on a golf course in the snow – it was too cold to play 18 holes, so we only played the front 3 holes (with neon golf balls) before retiring to a big bonfire to toast marshmallows and wieners. The day before the event, we made snowmen next to each of the 3 holes. The snowmen held golf clubs, wore typical golfing polo shirts and wore the little visors at each hole so you could see where you were aiming. We prized individuals for the normal “longest shot”, who hit “closest to the snowman” and the big prize was if you took out the snowman with your golf ball. The big cash prize got donated to the company pet charity. I originally conceived of doing it at a miniature golf course, but they had torn apart their equipment for the winter and stored it so that swamped that idea. Ah, the best laid plans of mice and men…
MM: When you first began planning golf events, what were your initial thoughts?
CA: It was scary because I had never played golf before. When I found out I could get the golf course’s planner and pro to do the “golf” stuff, it just became another event and I was okay with it.
MM: What is the most rewarding part of planning a golf event?
CA: Golfers seem to have more fun than usual and that makes more memorable for them because they have a goodtime. Memorability makes my customers happy campers!
MM: What are some of the biggest challenges when planning a golf event?
CA: For me, who is a stickler for everything happening when and how it should, there are two things that are challenging – neither of which a meeting planner can control; weather and timing. Depending on where are you at, the weather can change in a heartbeat and a lot of things can throw the timing of a golf event off. I hate not being in control!
MM: Thinking outside-of-the-box is key when planning an event. What is your philosophy when planning any meeting or event?
CA: I have one word that I believe needs to be considered when doing ANY kind of event: memorable. What are you going to do to make the event stand out in the golfer’s mind? Create a memory that’s indelible in the participants’ minds. If your event or participation in the event increases mindshare, then it was a success. I try to come up with something you don’t see everyday.
MM: How do you think golf events differ from other events?
CA: I don’t do events or meetings unless they are for a customer I’m already dealing with on tradeshow exhibits and I already understand their basic goals and objectives. My passion in the industry is for tradeshow exhibits. And I never “work” a day in my life because I absolutely LOVE exhibits and all the opportunities they create. I’d be lost if I weren’t “The Booth Mom®” with my clients and their exhibits to take care of.
MM: What is the best advice you can give to others when planning a golf event?
CA: If you’re not a golfer, don’t let it intimidate you. Ask the course professionals (golf pro, shop manager, food service manager) to help you create something out-of-the box and memorable. They’ll have more fun, too, because they probably don’t get to be really creative too often! My other piece of advice is never stand under a tree on a golf course in a thunderstorm to stay dry. One time during an event, I stood under a tree and the tree was hit by lighting. It was truly an electrifying experience, which I will never forget. It sort of melted the bottoms of my tennis shoes!
I’ve also decorated the refreshment golf carts for corporate golf events. It’s amazing what you can do with crepe paper, beads, flowers, lights, and even AH-OOOOO-GA! horns. At an October golf tournament one year (not far from Halloween), we not only dressed up the staff driving the refreshment carts but had little trick-or-treat bags with really gross candy – spiders, eyeballs, etc…
On another occasion I planned an employee “fun day” on a golf course in the snow – it was too cold to play 18 holes, so we only played the front 3 holes (with neon golf balls) before retiring to a big bonfire to toast marshmallows and wieners. The day before the event, we made snowmen next to each of the 3 holes. The snowmen held golf clubs, wore typical golfing polo shirts and wore the little visors at each hole so you could see where you were aiming. We prized individuals for the normal “longest shot”, who hit “closest to the snowman” and the big prize was if you took out the snowman with your golf ball. The big cash prize got donated to the company pet charity. I originally conceived of doing it at a miniature golf course, but they had torn apart their equipment for the winter and stored it so that swamped that idea. Ah, the best laid plans of mice and men…
MM: When you first began planning golf events, what were your initial thoughts?
CA: It was scary because I had never played golf before. When I found out I could get the golf course’s planner and pro to do the “golf” stuff, it just became another event and I was okay with it.
MM: What is the most rewarding part of planning a golf event?
CA: Golfers seem to have more fun than usual and that makes more memorable for them because they have a goodtime. Memorability makes my customers happy campers!
MM: What are some of the biggest challenges when planning a golf event?
CA: For me, who is a stickler for everything happening when and how it should, there are two things that are challenging – neither of which a meeting planner can control; weather and timing. Depending on where are you at, the weather can change in a heartbeat and a lot of things can throw the timing of a golf event off. I hate not being in control!
MM: Thinking outside-of-the-box is key when planning an event. What is your philosophy when planning any meeting or event?
CA: I have one word that I believe needs to be considered when doing ANY kind of event: memorable. What are you going to do to make the event stand out in the golfer’s mind? Create a memory that’s indelible in the participants’ minds. If your event or participation in the event increases mindshare, then it was a success. I try to come up with something you don’t see everyday.
MM: How do you think golf events differ from other events?
CA: I don’t do events or meetings unless they are for a customer I’m already dealing with on tradeshow exhibits and I already understand their basic goals and objectives. My passion in the industry is for tradeshow exhibits. And I never “work” a day in my life because I absolutely LOVE exhibits and all the opportunities they create. I’d be lost if I weren’t “The Booth Mom®” with my clients and their exhibits to take care of.
MM: What is the best advice you can give to others when planning a golf event?
CA: If you’re not a golfer, don’t let it intimidate you. Ask the course professionals (golf pro, shop manager, food service manager) to help you create something out-of-the box and memorable. They’ll have more fun, too, because they probably don’t get to be really creative too often! My other piece of advice is never stand under a tree on a golf course in a thunderstorm to stay dry. One time during an event, I stood under a tree and the tree was hit by lighting. It was truly an electrifying experience, which I will never forget. It sort of melted the bottoms of my tennis shoes!
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