Productivity in Las Vegas? You bet! (pun intended)

What do education, published research results, networking and David Feherty have in common? You probably answered "nothing", so let me give you the answer. All four were prevalent in Las Vegas this past week at the 2012 GCSAA Education Conference and Golf Industry Show.

Anthracnose updates

This event is held each year in varying cities and is attended by golf course superintendents, owners, builders, architects and equipment/product manufactures and distributors from around the world. Without a doubt, it is one of my favorite weeks of the year as it allows me to become exposed to new technologies, research that is being conducted as well as reconnect with fellow peers from throughout the world that I have developed friendships with.

The Business of Golf

Whenever I take classes, I am constantly reminded of how much my profession has changed over the years, but that is a topic for another day. This year's classes that I registered for included Best Management Practices for Anthracnose and its genetic history, The Business of Golf, Advanced Excel for Budgeting, Using Social Media for Communication as well as a few others.

A very small portion of the Trade Show floor

Of course, there is also the Trade Show which takes a couple of days in itself to get around if you have a lot of items to review and/or purchase.  It is literally miles of aisles worth of products and equipment all related to managing turf in some capacity.  It makes for a long couple of days and some very sore feet, but it is also a good opportunity to speak directly with manufactures as opposed to the distributors.


One of the highlights of the week was the Opening Session Keynote Speaker, David Feherty.  If you have seen or heard him on television, I can assure you that he's as engaging as you would think and even more "colorful" than you can imagine.  He took the stage at 8:15 am and had 45 min to talk.  By the time he was done with stories pertaining to his life, american citizenship, the golf industry and his extraordinary support for our military, it was about 9:30 am.  Truly an amazing individual that I could have listened to all day. I am really hoping that the entire video is released at some point so you can see it.  In the meantime, a brief interview and some of the highlights are in the 10 min. video below.


David Feherty from GCSAA TV on Vimeo.

It was a fantastic week, and this trip never fails to re-energize me and get me ready for the season. Yes, I was able to confirm how bad of a poker player I really am so there shouldn't be any concern that I will be leaving to join the World Poker Tour. It is, however, safe to say that I am officially ready for spring so, keep an eye out for new posts on everything that is happening on your golf course.