After running two major golf trade shows over the course of 31 days, Mark Cramer was understandably a little tuckered out on Monday. But that didn’t keep him from smiling a day after wrapping up the inaugural Southern Colorado Golf Expo.
Cramer, who owns and manages the Southern Colorado and Denver Golf Expos along with wife Lynn, had reason to be happy after the first show in Colorado Springs exceeded his expectations.
Mark Cramer said last week that he hoped 2,500 people would attend the two-day event at the Phil Long Expo Center, but when all was said and done, 3,032 showed up.
“I thought it was fantastic; I was pretty excited and gratified,” Cramer said. “There are so many unknowns when you take a new show into an area. You don’t know if people are going to get it. But I had a hunch with the number of golfers per capita down there that it would work.”
With plenty of assistance and expertise from the CGA, CWGA and Colorado PGA, the Southern Colorado Expo featured 50 exhibitors in 70 booths. As with the Denver Golf Expo that took place Feb. 12-14, there were seminars, individualized instruction by Colorado PGA professionals, the Junior Golf Experience, a club demo area, and a CGA Golf Swap that will benefit the Pikes Peak Junior Links program.
“Everything was a little bigger and better than what I expected,” said CGA director of youth programs Dustin Jensen, who oversees the Junior Golf Experience and the Golf Swap at the Expos.
Jensen said that over the weekend more than 250 kids went through the Junior Golf Experience, which aims to attract youngsters to the game with supervised instruction, interactive games and all kinds of information regarding opportunities in golf for juniors. The University of Colorado-Colorado Springs’ PGA Golf Management Program provided all the instruction at the Junior Golf Experience. And while Jensen didn’t yet have final figures on the amount of money raised by the Golf Swap, he said that that likewise exceeded expectations.
“We think it’s a happening down there,” Cramer said. “When the word gets around, I think attendance will grow by 40 to 60 percent next year. (The people of southern Colorado) want to make the show theirs and we want to make it theirs.
“The attendees really seemed to enjoy it and the exhibitors were delighted with the turnout. I was hoping to get 2,500, but even at 2,500 I was setting the bar high. I love it when I under-promise and over-deliver.”
Cramer is proud of both the Denver and Southern Colorado Expos, but he’s quick to note the considerable contributions the CGA/CWGA and Colorado PGA make at the shows.
“The golf shows we’re doing in Colorado are being looked at as some of the best west of the Mississippi, but there’s no way we could do it without the industry,” Cramer said. “The CGA and the Colorado PGA are some of the best organizations of their kind in the country. They don’t miss a beat. They have great people and we’re very luck to have them. That gets back to the primary purpose of the shows, which is to support the industry and to support the game.”
Cramer said the first Southern Colorado Expo was, at best, a break-even proposition for his Expomasters company. And he doesn’t think it will ever make a lot of money. But he believes reaching the southern Colorado market is important, and that the show will grow over time.
“The first year is about building relationships,” he said.
