334: CMAA 2024 World Conference Recap & Review

Hey everybody, welcome to Private Club Radio, your industry source for news updates, trends and conversations all around the Private Club industry. I'm your host, danny Corby, and this I just wanted to go over my time my experience at the CMAA World Conference in Vegas. The Club Management Association of America had their big world conference this year, 2014, in Vegas. Also, big shout out, big thank you to all of our show partners and sponsorships here on Private Club Radio. It's because of companies and organizations and groups just like them supporting us what we do here at the show at Private Club Radio. It allows us to go and do things like attend a conference and network and meet and help us grow ourselves and the show help this mix it the best it could be Concert Golf Partners boutique owner, operator of upscale private golf and country clubs nationwide. They have over 30 clubs on their roster and they've really helped elevate not only their member experiences but also helping them gaining financial freedom. So if you or a club is looking for some recapitalization, head on over to ConcertGolfPartnerscom. Set up a confidential phone call and just see if you guys are a good fit. We have our friends Paul Dank over at Kennes. They do really amazing member vetting. Head on over to membervettingcom, because what Paul and Kennes at the team has created is an innovative, confidential, comprehensive, applicant information gathering process that provides an unrivaled depth of information. We have a bunch of episodes. Please go listen to them because the stuff that they uncover it's fascinating, absolutely fascinating, because the world of member vetting has evolved to a new standard and Kennes is your turnkey solution to meet this new industry best practice. Head on over membervettingcom. Set up a call with Paul, he'll send you and he'll make you laugh a little bit harder. We also have our friends over at members first. Love our friends over at members first. Genuinely an amazing group of people. There's so many unique and great ways that they help clubs. But right now they have something really cool they're working on because I want to help you guys discover the future of club memberships with the members first new member onboarding program that revolutionizes how clubs welcome new members by streamlining the process, enhancing engagement. Say goodbye to manual tasks and hello to automated communications and a dynamic welcome center. Join us and transform your club's impressions into lasting relationships. If you want to enhance or evaluate your club's new member onboarding, head on over to membersfirstcom, slash PCR, fill out the quick evaluation and see what comes up. Regardless, you have to go talk to them anyway, because they're just really good people and just want to do my little quick recap what I thought. We're going to go through it a little bit.

It was held at the Mandalay Bay. That was the host casino, which was okay, a fine casino, fine place to have it. But realizing, when you have thousands and thousands and thousands of people, it's difficult to pick a place that could support all of those people coming in and out at all times. A lot of people say that the Luxor, which is also attached to the Mandalay Bay Delano as well, which is the casino that you you can't smoke in, could use a little bit of updating. But you know, beggars can't be choosers. Could have stayed Luxor or another place. A lot of people stayed at other places but was a great spot. Everything was good, food was well, everything was a bit overpriced, which is what you expect from Vegas, but it is what it is.

It started Monday but I couldn't see some of the sessions, but the Monday sessions included topics on emotional intelligence, leadership, wine trends, hr, body language. The big keynote speaker was Ben Menton, who is the main keynote person, new York Times bestselling, author of the book what to Do Before you Die. I was really upset. I couldn't make that but travel arrangements, so to speak. So I arrived super late Monday night. Tuesday I was really excited because that's when Will Gaderra spoke, the author of Unreasonable Hospitality. But before he came on, super early in the morning, they started off with updates, the State of the Union, all things that are kind of going on in the private club CMA world. They did the CCM awards, the Certified Club Manager awards, which was really, really cool.

I will say a little. No, I wish there was a little bit more excitement and fanfare when it came to some of the awards and when people came on and off stage. In the beginning, in the very beginning, when people were coming in, I felt like there was a little bit more energy. The lights were cooler, the music was kind of popping. But when it came time for the award and people coming on and off stage throughout the entire program, I just felt there was a little bit lack of fanfare. Not a huge deal. I just come from the entertainment and fun background, so that's just some of the things that I look at.

But Will Gaderra, unreasonable Hospitality, awesome speaker, great, great, great speaker. Some of my key takeaways from that were he likes to gamify as many things as possible, because then it makes it more fun to play the game of quote unquote work. And towards the end he had a really cool bit about talking about bridging the gap between authority and information. It was all about how the higher levels have all of the authority but none of the information and a lot of the lower levels have all of the information but none of the authority. So that was just a really cool way and how he just talked about bringing everybody together, making sure everyone's together and on the same page, and for all of the meetings that they had, he made sure at 11 Madison Park that they had people from higher levels and lower levels there in those meetings, just to make sure you get as much of the real in-depth information as possible. At the very end, one of my favorite quotes was generosity begets generosity. I thought that was really cool.

After him there was a bunch of panels all day. I tried to get to as many as I could. Some had a ton of people, some had a little bit a small amount of people. But in situations like that in these sessions, because there are so many and there's such specific and niche topics, it really doesn't matter how many people are in those sessions, because it's about those people who do show up getting as much as they can. So I got to go and spend some time watching my friend Passion Graham speak. She was on a panel. She was great. I got to go see my friend Ben Lorenzen speak from Champions Run. He was absolutely awesome. That night. I got to go to the boardroom magazine awards where some of my friends won some awards. Shout out to all my friends and all the people who won awards Yay. My friend Spencer Potter from the Club Grubb app got new product of the year as well as members first was there. They were winning some awards, used as chairs, strategic club solutions, scs, kkw. So many award winners. It was so great to see so many friends there winning in our industry and our people winning.

After that I got to go to the CMA before dark, a licensed to chill event. That was really fun. It was a big networking, a big party put on by all of the CMA chapters. It was now. It was outside, it was. It was at the pool area, the beach area I'm not a big beach person or cold, and it was cold and the beach. But it was such great networking, such great connections. That was a highlight. That was a really fun program. Big shout out to Kathy from the Wisconsin chapter. Thank you, kathy, for hooking me up with a ticket to go Really, really, really appreciate it. Thank you so much. But yeah, it was funny because I got to really connect with my PA chapter people and it's crazy how it takes for you to sometimes go across the country to connect with people who are so close to you, which I think is a statement and testament for the entire conference, which is what I heard from some other people, as some other people as well.

Now, tuesday was a very busy day for me. Unfortunately, I really didn't get to go to too many of the sessions. That's when the trade show opened and that's where I was most of my day. I'm going to make a video separate showcases all the footage I took. I was wearing a real crazy blue giraffe suit stuck out a little bit, but I wanted to go there and just connect more with friends in the industry, create new friends. That's where a lot of the energy and the vibe was. That was really cool to walk around and see all the different vendors, all the different suppliers, all the different. What's the word I'm looking for? All the different. I don't want to say products I guess they are products but all the different types of things that are available to club professionals today.

But if you didn't go to the trade show or the expo, if you were just walking around, but there were so many other cool topics that day they had the idea fair, which was really really cool. Clubs can make poster boards and showcase all the different cool, fun ideas that their clubs have done to engage their members and support the community. That was going on the entire time as well, but they had different talks of historic women's clubs of the world that a career opportunities and networking showcase. They had a lot of student sessions talking about careers, advancement, diversity, networking, tons of networking and tons of more topics, from making the time to lead, multicultural communications, next generation membership strategies, how to tackle the modern challenges with modern solutions, retirement planning super, super important, very important. There were topics on mastering the art of intentional communications, the power of collaboration when marketing meets technology, and some of these were put on by industry professionals somewhere from industry partners, suppliers. So there was a ton of information, tons of data and a wealth of knowledge coming from all over the place. But I think I have to say and I am a little biased my favorite part of the entire conference was me and my friend, sean Blile, from members first. If you don't know Sean Blile and if you don't know members first you have to. Sean's one of the best humans in the industry, best humans in general, and we were chatting one day and he just took this idea and ran and I wanna say I was a part, but Sean really spearheaded it.

We put together a industry invite only VIP poker tournament at the Mandalay Bay. So we had 40, I think we were supposed to start with like 30 people and we thought no one's gonna do this and we ended up having 40 people. It was a hundred bucks of pop and we played a Texas Hold'em tournament. It went a little bit long, ran a little late, we started late. I know I was tired a bit towards the end there, but we had a really fun poker tournament. We just had a bunch of people industry professionals, club professionals, suppliers, vendors a really good, healthy mix of people and we all just came together and just had a fun night of just laughing and playing cards. Not gonna lie, digga heated a bit. I was very frustrated. I got knocked out. The winner of the entire tournament was Mr Josh Parris, ccm from the Old Town Club in North Carolina. Hats off, kudos. I'm just really upset because he went runner runner on me and took me out. But other than that it was a great night On Thursday, which was technically my last day.

Friday was the official last day of the conference, but on Thursday there was the Business Expo. The trade show was open. There was a really cool section off to the side near the coffee area and there was an area for open sessions. So you can apply to give quick little open 30 minute sessions, just kind of free flowy. More out in the open. You can just chat and people come over.

And I did one on podcasting for clubs and I thought no one's gonna show up. We had like 70 people. It was awesome. It was a really great turnout. It was really cool to connect in, help clubs who may have thought about doing a podcast. We talked about equipment structure, how to do it, why to do it, the ins and outs a bit, and it was part talk, part Q&A, but that was a really really fun moment, really cool moment and neat to. It's always fun and enjoyable and giving to give back. As Will Godera sped, generosity begets generosity. So that was really cool and just that whole part, just the whole time, just making and creating meaningful connections. I think that's what it was really about. And, like I said, for me it was traveling halfway across the country to meet people and connect with people more. We're right in my own backyard.

And then I was a boring Betty and I was in bed by about 730 that night on that Thursday because I had to be up super early at a 6 am flight out of Vegas to go head to Desert Mountain out near Phoenix to perform. I did a show for Desert Mountain that night. It was a lot of fun but had to go to bed a little bit early, didn't go to the big event over at Allegiant Stadium. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do and make sure you're up and ready for client shows and work. So I was a boring Betty, I was out super early. But the whole conference, everything was a ton of fun. I loved, you know, connecting, making deeper connections with people who I already knew, creating and making connections with people who I didn't know but were like acquaintances with. It was just a really great time.

Anybody and everybody who's in the club space at least once, or hopefully every year, go to the CMA conference. It is a ton of fun. It's so big, it's massive. It is such a great time and such a way to learn so much in such a short amount of time. That's just my quick two cents. If you were there, you knew how much fun it was. You knew how enjoyable it was. The friendships, the connections, the time you get to spend with other professionals, people who are also giving it their all really means the world. So it was just a really great time. And if you were there, you know, if you weren't, you ought to be there. That's it. That was my little recap of the conference. I enjoyed seeing all of you there and look forward to seeing more of you at future conferences, from CMA to the upcoming NCAA conference in a couple of weeks. That's this episode. Catch on the flippity-flip.