Well, I’m still feeling the “buzz” after spending seven days (and nights) on the road with Gregg Patterson and Norm Spitzig!

What an honour for me to spend this up close and personal time with them, being able to see them working the crowds, and the one-on-one conversations over dinner or breakfast. These guys know their stuff! It was great to see these old friends just enjoying the time to give back to the industry that has been so very good to them.

It was fantastic to see so many delegates that had not experienced their messages and enthusiasm for the club world previously. City after city, faces in the crowd started with a “WTF”, to finishing with a bellowing “Ha ha ha” and “potato and french fries” to finish things off. The crowd became part of the Patterson-Spitzig tribe!

I’ve come back refreshed personally and professionally, and I am even more enthusiastic in spreading my passion of golf and club management to Australia and New Zealand.

It was a great experience for Golf Industry Central to finally get this roadshow happening after three years of discussion.

I met Norm back at a GMA Conference on the Gold Coast in 2008 when I first started my company. We’ve kept in touch ever since and devised this roadshow after another event in Jakarta 2014, when Norm, Gregg, Michael Leemhuis (and yours truly) were on the speaker list. It was a highlight for me to speak on a stage with those three in the front row- “wow” talk about nervous. (video below)

We tried to get off ground last year but timing was bad as Gregg and Norm are booked out to speak almost a year in advance, and to get them both together on the same week is tough.

Gregg and Norm want to thank everyone for their support of this four city tour- it was a journey they (and I) won’t every forget.

We are already looking at another visit Down Under in the not so distant future.

We will have a full roadshow wrap up in our upcoming Winter edition of GIC Magazine (with videos).

A special thanks to MSL Solutions and Parkland Toro as well as the NZ GMA for helping this all work out.

Final parting words from Gregg and Norm

Mike Orloff 2014 Jakarta