2027 Schedule of Events

 

Breakfast & Lunch included.

 

8:00 – 9:00 – Breakfast, Networking, and Swag Shopping Experience

9:00 – 9:25 – AGM Opening Remarks

9:30 – 10:45 – Workshop (choose one)

• MERCHANDISING TRACK
  Jennifer O'Hare - "The Buyer’s Table- Make the Call"
  Built around real-world buying and merchandising scenarios, this interactive session challenges attendees to make the call. Working in teams, participants will navigate situations such as an item or category outperforming expectations, excess inventory in another area, limited OTB remaining, or a new vendor opportunity. Attendees will determine how they would respond and, most importantly, why. The group will then work through the decisions together, exploring how to balance financial performance, inventory levels, customer and assortment needs, and merchant instinct when making thoughtful buying decisions.

• MARKETING TRACK
  Ken Morton, Jr. - "AI in the Pro Shop" 
  AI is quickly becoming a practical tool for golf retail, but the best way to understand it is to actually use it. This hands-on workshop will move beyond simply talking about AI and put the technology directly into your hands.
  We’ll start with a quick look at how AI can help with everyday tasks like merchandise planning, sales analysis, marketing, content creation and customer communication. Then, it’s your turn.
  Attendees will rotate through three interactive stations, where you’ll analyze a sample sales report, create professional marketing content and videos, and learn how to turn a simple idea into engaging visual content. Along the way, you’ll learn how to write better prompts, choose the right tool for the task, and recognize when AI needs a little human oversight.
  This isn’t a session where you simply watch a demonstration. You’ll create, experiment and collaborate with other golf retail professionals throughout the workshop. We’ll wrap up by showcasing some of the content created during the session.
  You’ll leave with practical skills, ready-to-use prompts and new ideas you can take back to your golf shop and start using right away.
• MANAGEMENT TRACK:
  Brett Mucheck - "The Questions That Change What Happens Next Better Teams. Better Decisions. A Better Way to Think About Success."
  Most leadership sessions give you more answers. This one starts with better questions.
  Through candid stories, humor, and an interactive experience, Brett Mucheck will challenge the way you think about your team, your career, and the success you're building. You'll leave with practical questions you can use immediately to lead better, create more ownership, make better decisions, and think differently about what really matters both professionally and personally.
  Because sometimes the biggest change doesn't come from having a better answer. It comes from finally asking a better question.

 

10:55 - 11:55 – Choice of Workshop or Roundtable Discussion

• ROUNDTABLE
• MARKETING TRACK:
  Rita Goodroe - "BEYOND IMPRESSIVE™: Communication to Stand Out and Sell More"
  What makes someone choose you, come back, and send others your way often comes down to how you communicate. In this energizing, interactive session, award-winning speaker and communication expert Rita Goodroe uses her REAL framework to challenge the way you think about selling. She’ll show you how to build trust faster, ask better questions, communicate value with more confidence, and follow up in a way that keeps you top of mind. Through humor, practical tools, and lessons from her signature “35 dates in 35 days” experience, Rita will show you how to recognize more opportunity in the conversations and relationships already around you - and turn those opportunities into more business!
• MANAGEMENT TRACK:
  Jack Dillon - "Leadership Excellence in 1200 Square Feet"
  This lively hour, presented by a voice of real-world experience, will offer you a range of valuable information. From the most valuable asset a buyer can own, to ways to build communication skills, to lessons in taking risks that succeed, Jack provides personal stories, fun stories, with content worthy of the red record button. The kind of content that gets stickier over time, over your career.
  While AI lectures bounce around the conference room walls, offered by many, Jack provides smart, proven ways, to lead, to learn, and to achieve more. The same learnings he uses to support the golf shops at The Happiest Place on Turf! This is your chance to hear the stories drawn from decades of service, two books, and several key positions as a merchant and operator. No theory here, Jack will provide an edge in thought, in motion, and in execution detail. That may be the edge that gains the raise, earns the promotion, and achieves the higher view up the ladder of that org chart. Join us to spend an hour, connecting to the joy from one who has experienced true joy from the golf shop for a long, long time.

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12:00 - 1:20 – Lunch Presentation

 

1:30 – 2:30 – Choice of Workshop or Roundtable Discussion

• MERCHANDISING TRACK:
  Leigha Turner - TBA Title & Description

• ROUNDTABLE
• MANAGEMENT TRACK:
  Golf Genius featuring Kyle Horton

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2:40 – 3:40 – Choice of Workshop or Roundtable Discussion

• MERCHANDISING TRACK:
  Panel featuring AGM Merchandisers of the Year

• MARKETING TRACK

• ROUNDTABLE

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3:40 – 4:00 – Afternoon Refreshments 

4:00– 5:00 – Closing Keynote:
Lou Mongello
The Disney Difference: Achieving the Ultimate Customer Experience
A great golf shop gives members and guests reasons to return that go beyond what's on the shelves. The welcome they receive, the care behind a recommendation, and the way a team handles an unexpected problem all shape how they feel about the shop, the facility, and their relationship with both.
Disney has built generations of loyalty through that same attention to people and details. In this engaging closing keynote, Disney expert, speaker, and WDW Radio host Lou Mongello explores the intentional choices behind Disney's approach to service, storytelling, and creating a sense of belonging. Through behind-the-scenes Disney stories and examples tailored to golf retail, he connects those principles to the daily opportunities facing buyers, merchandisers, shop managers, and golf professionals.
Attendees will discover how to make routine interactions more personal, help their teams deliver consistently thoughtful service, and use their shop's unique story to strengthen connections with members and guests. They'll leave with a fresh perspective on their role in the customer experience and practical ideas they can put to work without a theme park budget.

5:00 – 7:00 – Product Preview Reception​

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Schedule subject to change.