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The Asian Golf Industry Federation (AGIF) will unveil its new event format in Taipei next month.

The AGIF is partnering with the Taiwan Golf Course Association to hold the Annual Taiwan Golf Course Association Turfgrass Seminar & Club Management Mini Summit at the award-winning Sunrise Golf & Country Club on December 4-5.

“We’re excited to be showcasing a new combination format with dual stream education,” said Eric Lynge, the AGIF’s Chief Executive Officer.

In the past, the AGIF has implemented a successful policy of running separate Mini Summits at each market in which it also runs a Turfgrass Management Seminar. That will now change with a coming together of the two events.

Lynge said: “From an AGIF operational perspective, it consolidates two events into one event. From an industry perspective, it gets turfgrass personnel and club management mixing together. We will look at using this structure in our 2019 events.”

The scene will be set on the opening day in Taipei where there will be a general group introduction, after which the event will be divided into separate sessions for turfgrass management education and club management education.

The group will merge for lunch and in the afternoon the whole group will attend the Field Day followed by dinner.

On day two, the entire group will attend a morning session on turfgrass management at which course conditioning and maintenance will be on the agenda. The event will conclude with a Question and Answer session.

Bruce Williams, former President of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America, will tee-off proceedings at the Turfgrass Seminar on day one with a presentation on irrigation entitled ‘Identifying Problems and Prioritising Next Steps’.

He will be followed by William Jin, Course Superintendent at Shanghai’s Sheshan Golf Club, who will speak about ‘Water Management and Tournament Management’, and Roger Goettsche, Course Superintendent at Hainan Island’s Shanqin Bay, whose focus will be on ‘Minimising Algae and Black Layer on Greens’.

Meanwhile, the Mini Summit will focus on the golf tourism potential of Taiwan.

‘What Foreign Tour Operators are Looking for from Golf Clubs’ will be the topic forGeorge Somabha, Thailand Director with IAGTO, while Wee Peng Siong, General Manager at Indonesia’s Riverside Golf Course, will talk about ‘Bogor Wonderful Golf – How Clubs Have Worked Together in Bogor’.

More than 100 turfgrass personnel and general management representing around 30 clubs are expected to attend the Annual Taiwan Golf Course Association Turfgrass Seminar & Club Management Mini Summit.

To date in 2018, the AGIF has staged two events in Vietnam and one each in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand. There was also a stand-alone Mini Summit in Singapore.