The New Expo Master

As it has done every February for more than two decades, this year’s Colorado Golf Expo will attract golfers by the thousands. And for the second straight year, those golfers will flock to the Colorado Convention Center in downtown Denver. The 2021 closure of the Denver Mart, the event’s longtime home, precipitated the relocation.

This year’s Expo (Feb. 17-19) brings another big change. Mark and Lynn Cramer, who have owned the event since 2000 and transformed it from an industry trade show into one of the country’s top consumer golf shows, will not be running it. The couple sold the show last November to Kevin Morton, the director of business development at Direct Mail Concepts.

A 51-year-old Pueblo native who lives in Denver and has attended the Expo for years, Morton played golf for coach Carl Casio at Pueblo East High School and worked summers as a counselor at the Billy Casper Golf Camp in California—“and I couldn’t learn enough being around him,” he says. After graduating from Arizona State, where he’d hung out with members of the golf teams, Morton spent the early part of his working life managing large booths at trade shows.

“I want to perpetuate the legacy that Mark and Lynn created,” he says earnestly, noting this year he’ll have them on hand as consultants. He’ll also have the benefit of roughly 100 exhibitors, including veteran vendors like Lenny’s Golf, South Suburban Golf Courses and Colorado AvidGolfer’s Golf Passport. Plus, the Colorado PGA Section, Colorado Golf Association and Colorado Golf Hall of Fame will all have booths.

“Attendees have an expectation,” he says. “They love Lenny’s. The Argonaut Liquors ‘turn’ area was a hit last year, and we’re expanding it.”

That said, Morton has tweaked the floorplan of the 100,000-square-foot space to create more room and improve flow, so people extend their stays and visit all the booths.

“I want to create an environment where people want to be,” he says. That includes golfers in their 20s and 30s, some of whom he gathered for a focus group. “They told me that golf was too expensive, the gear was too expensive, and golf takes too long,” he explains. “I want them to know you don’t have to have top-of-the-line clubs, you don’t have to play 18 holes and you don’t have to play a regulation course to have fun.”

The other thing the group told him: “I’ve never heard of the show.” To remedy this, Morton has amped up the Expo’s social media presence. “We’re not going to be TikTok creators, but we’re going to use Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and other channels and technologies, like geo-fencing and digital coupons to get people to visit. We’d never give up on the 50-plus demographic, but we definitely want to introduce younger people to the show.”

Including kids. The Expo has long had junior golf areas, but Morton is taking it a step further by introducing a nine-hole mini-golf course that’s fun for kids and adults. His inspiration came from being the father of two grade-schoolers. “When my kids say, ‘we want to play golf,’ I’m thrilled,” he reasons. “We have a little putting green at our house, and I’ll just watch. I don’t force it. I want to foster a sense of enjoyment, not make it a chore.”

Morton likes the idea of a fun mini-golf competition to go with the closest-to-the-pin, long-drive and other skills contests the Expo regularly stages. He also knows that bargains are the big draw, as is the opportunity to try the latest equipment.

What most excites him, he says, is getting to know the players in the golf community— and how they all know each other. “It’s a very close group of people,” he says. “They love golf and they’ve figured out how to make it part of their working lives.” Now he’s one of them. coloradogolfexpo.com