Riley Seuser (MPI Kansas City Chapter) is an avid sports fan and golfer who plans conferences, trade shows and events in the architecture, engineering and construction industry. In April, she attended MPI and the Golf Tournament Association of America’s (GTAA) Frisco Golf Event Planning Program—hosted by Visit Frisco—to grow her personal and professional knowledge while earning her Certified Golf Tournament Planner designation.
"My current organization plays and sponsors numerous association-related tournaments," she says. "As our organization grows, our team has started to expand in hosting internal regional golf tournaments around the nation."
Some of Seuser’s key takeaways from the experience—held at the Westin Stonebriar Golf Resort & Spa—were meeting new industry friends, getting an exclusive experience with Visit Frisco and playing on an elite golf course through the PGA Headquarters.
"The highlight that stuck out the most was brainstorming with industry peers during our session with Phil Immordino with GTAA," she says. "It was an excellent opportunity to discuss how planners can better execute their events for their different clientele per industry. It created an elaborate brainstorming session with the planners’ past examples, thoughts, ideas and experiments. It was truly the magic of event planning!"
Immordino says the program offers event planners the confidence, credibility and knowledge to produce and host the best golf events for their clients or for themselves—from corporate to charity to networking to competitive events.
"It is important for meeting planners who would like to assist their clients with their golf outings and who are looking for new clients and offering golf tournament planning," he says, noting some of the many planner takeaways include identifying "the different tournament formats, the purpose of corporate golf outings, who you need on your team, how to find the best golf course, how to sell sponsors (if needed) and how to recruit golfers."
‘STAY ON TRACK AND COMMUNICATE WELL’
Christina Decker, CMP, HMCC, CGTP (MPI Dallas/Fort Worth Chapter), director of sales for Visit Frisco, says the city is the only destination to offer this program in person—with the April program, featuring 20 planner attendees, being the second iteration.
"Topics covered included games and contests, scoring options, hotels, food and beverage and more," she says. "Some of the learning and exploring activities included golfing at the PGA Championship Golf Course in Frisco along with learning the ropes of golf at the PGA of America’s Coaching Center where they were trained by the professionals—while there, they also got to explore the Omni PGA Frisco Resort, which offers everything from a putting course to large meeting space to an events pavilion and lawn. We incorporated learning opportunities at all of our stops, which included the beautiful new art- and wine-inspired Marriott Autograph Collection property, HALL Park Hotel; the Hyatt Regency Frisco; and The Star—the Dallas Cowboys World Headquarters."
Decker says a challenge with planning and executing an event like this program is balancing attendee time/schedules.
"For me, I wish we had more time so they could see more of Frisco," she says. "We have an amazing Destination Services Team that are the experts of executing this event, but if I had to name a challenge it would be our golf day. With any outdoor program, especially a sports event with a planned start time in a busy environment like a golf course, the weather is a challenge. Luckily, any issues that come up with rain or temperature can be a good learning experience for the attendees. It’s also a challenge to put inexperienced golfers on a difficult, championship course like Fields Ranch at PGA Frisco. This is where it’s important to group players together to help the pace of play stay on track and communicate well with the participants before and during the outing."
For Visit Frisco, the objective of the program was to showcase the city as the ideal location for meetings and conventions, as well as a premier golf destination.
"Bringing meeting planners to explore Frisco while also knowing they are leaving with a new tool in their toolbelt is a win-win," she says. "They sharpen their skills for planning a great event and we get to learn, network and showcase our destination."
