Every year, the HETMA Golf Classic sneaks up on me a little bit. We spend months planning it, talking to sponsors, scheduling foursomes, working our course logistics, ordering trophies, and just trying to knock off all the little things that have to come together. Then suddenly everybody is there. We get swag bags stuffed, the carts are lined up, people start rolling up with clubs in hand, and it feels like the whole thing has a life of its own.
What I like most is that nobody really acts like they are at an industry event. It’s just such a unique day with a special purpose. There is something about golf that gives people room to actually talk. You are together for several hours. It’s not an event with a main stage. There’s no booth, no presentation, and no internal clock telling you that you have five minutes to get to your next appointment. Sure, you talk about work for a while, then usually you stop talking about work. You start hearing about families, career, crazy travel stories, what someone is trying to figure out next, and all the stuff that never really comes up during a normal conference conversation. It’s work without being work. It really is the definition of “AV is a relationship industry, not a tech industry.”
I think that is why I have grown to love this event so much. Some of the best relationships I’ve built in our industry were never built in formal meetings. They happened over breaking bread, in water cooler hallway passings, after-hour events, virtual happy hours, or somewhere just random nobody planned for anything important to happen. The HETMA Golf Classic creates a whole day for those kinds of moments.
The cool part is you also see people differently on a golf course. The person you might only know as a VP, director, manufacturer rep, integrator, consultant, or university leader is suddenly just the person in your cart trying to find their ball through the trees. All it takes is for somebody to hit that first terrible shot and everybody laughs and the walls come down. And then, somebody unexpectedly drains a long putt that becomes all the talk for the next three holes. Oh, and it’s usually the person who never golfed before who hits that 60-footer. Seriously, the walls come down pretty fast. That’s what a relationship industry is all about.
Out of everything, that’s the part that matters to me, because AV is a very small industry. We all cross paths over and over again in a ton of different event and career settings. People change companies. People move from the manufacturer side to higher ed, or from an integrator to consulting, or into some role none of us saw coming. The relationships remain even when the business cards change.
This year, I am also excited about the newest addition to the schedule… the AV Expo. I know that kind of contradicts everything I just state, because it adds a trade show aspect to the event. However, it also opens the day up to even more people. You do not have to golf to come out and be part of it. Golf is thought of by some people as “exclusive,” so adding a social expo with drinks and food, opens it to everyone. The expo is free, open to everyone, and gives people another reason to show up, see what companies are doing, and spend some time with the community, in a more intimate and fun environment than a trade show. I like that because I never want the Golf Classic to feel like an event only for the people who already know everybody. It shouldn’t be a good ol’ boys club. That’s not the point.
The point is to be about Prism and the values surrounding that. And that is the part underneath all of it that matters the most. As you know, the Golf Classic supports the HETMA Prism Scholarship. Yes, we are golfing and socializing, yet we are also helping create opportunities for someone else in the industry who isn’t yet part of an inner foursome.
That is probably the part I think about the most after it’s all over. Seeing the impact of the event and putting the mission of Prism front-and-center is always life-changing. We get to enjoy the day, but the impact extends far beyond the people who are actually there on the day. A deserving HETMA member earns a scholarship. A deserving HETMA member gets connected to a mentor. A deserving HETMA member is introduced to opportunities they may have never discovered. A deserving HETMA member realizes there is a place for them in this amazing AV community.
In the end, sure we judge fundraising events by the funds they raise, but it’s the intangibles that are hard to measure. You cannot always put a “number” on the conversation somebody had in a golf cart or the introduction that happened over a drink at the awards banquet. And usually, you do not know for years what came from a simple moment between two people who exchanged numbers after that random encounter.
Truthfully, that’s become one of the things I appreciate most about HETMA in general. You put talented, deserving, and dedicated people in the same place, give them a reason to connect, then you see what happens. And something incredible always does.
So, yes, there is golf. But more than that, there is life-change waiting to happen.
Register to attend the HETMA Golf Classic for free as a higher ed or industry partner at: https://www.HETMAGolfClassic.com.
