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How to Get the "YES"
You already know you want to be there. The harder part is asking. Here's how members have made the case, and a ready-built email you can send today.
"... the AGM Retail Conference was the most informative and insightful one I've ever attended. If there is any conference you need to attend, this is it."
- Joe Costa, Director of Operations, NGBA, and 30 years in golf retail
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Two Ways to Frame the Ask
Ask for the outcome, not the trip
A day away is a cost, but a restocked buying plan is a result. Tell them what you will come back with and by when, and the trip becomes the method of getting there rather than the object of your request.
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Name what it costs to not go
Most of us learned this job by trial and error, and the errors were markdowns. One thing you learn about planning a buy, or one change to how the shop is laid out, pays for the day several times over.
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What to Say
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It means flying in one day earlier for a trip we are already taking. I am at the Show all week either way.
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It is the only education day built for golf shop retail specifically. Not general retail with a golf slide.
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Three tracks built for retail operations: marketing, merchandising, and management.
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It is built by merchandisers for merchandisers. The sessions come from people doing this job now.
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The roundtables are the part I cannot get anywhere else. Real problems and people who have solved them.
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314 people came in 2026 and 59% of them had been before. People do not repeat a day that does not pay off.
If They Push Back
"January is our busiest month."
This Conference is one extra day at the front of a trip we are already taking. The shop will be covered, and I am at the Show all week as planned.
"Can you not learn this online?"
The sessions, maybe. The roundtable where four buyers work the same problem, no.
"It is not in the budget."
Since it is the same airfare and same trip, the only additional costs will be one extra hotel night and the registration fee.
The Email to Send
Fill in the brackets. Keep it short and sweet.
Subject: AGM Retail Conference - One day in Orlando on January 26
[Name],
I would like to attend the AGM Retail Conference on Tuesday, January 26 in Orlando. It runs the day before the PGA Show floor opens, so it means flying in one day earlier. I would be at the Show all week as planned.
It is the only education day built specifically for retail operations in golf. Three tracks, marketing, merchandising, and management, taught by people running shops like ours.
Here is what I want to bring back:
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[Something you would buy differently, or a category you want to rebuild]
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[Something about how the shop looks or flows]
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[Something you would change about how the team works]
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Registration is [$X], and it includes breakfast, lunch, and the evening vendor reception where I can see the new lines before appointments fill on the Show floor. Early pricing ends November 15.
[If credits apply to you: I would also earn education credits toward this year's requirement.]
[Name] can cover the shop. I will write up what I bring back and share it with the team within a week of getting home.
Details are at agmretailconference.com. Happy to talk it through.
[Your name]
The Numbers, If They Ask
Attendees in 2026
314
Returning attendees
59%
Rated the day "very satisfied" on organization
83%
Cost per day of education
Time out of the shop
One day
Registration opens
Early pricing ends
Conference
Monday, September 21, 2026
Sunday, November 15, 2026
Tuesday, January 26, 2027