Halifax Chamber Golf Challenge Will Be ‘Best Networking Event Of The Season’
HALIFAX – By his own admission, Patrick Sullivan is not a good golfer.
“My handicap is my golf,” the president of the Halifax Chamber of Commerce jokes. “Honestly, I don’t know if my handicap can be counted. Let’s just say I broke 100 a couple of times this year and I feel like I’m playing my best golf ever.”
Despite his “exceptionally bad but very enthusiastic” golf game, every year Sullivan looks forward to the Chamber’s biggest and most exciting networking event. The annual Golf Challenge is a day-long tournament that brings the city’s business class together to rub shoulders out on the links.
Filled with great food, prizes, and ample (socially distanced) networking opportunities, the tournament is often billed as the season’s best networking event in Halifax. This year, the moniker is probably truer than ever.
With Covid-19 turning the business world upside down, Sullivan says the chance to chat with business contacts in person is crucial.
“In this time of many, many Zoom meetings this social interaction and this getting to know people is going to be that much more important—because there aren’t as many opportunities to do that as in the past,” Sullivan says.
“I think this is a good physically distanced way to participate in a great networking event,” he adds. “And, also, it’s just a lot of fun.”
Kerry Maher is a professional golfer and the owner of a Halifax Freshii franchise. She’s been attending the tournament for years and says she always enjoys the experience.
“The whole Chamber crew is all very warm and they do a really great job of just being really present, making sure that people are getting introduced,” Maher says. “I feel like it’s generally because of the crew and the team, the huge effort they make, that makes the difference compared to the other events I’ve been to.”
Like most business owners, Maher has been rocked by Covid-19. She says connecting with her local business community is crucial both for the moral and emotional support it can bring, but also for learning how others are overcoming the same challenges she faces.
She says it can be easy to turn inward during the pandemic, but an in-person event like the Chamber’s Golf Challenge is the perfect opportunity to connect.
“You can stay home and you can dwell in your own nothingness, or you can get out and try to keep the ball rolling and try talk about what really is happening,” she says. “Business is hard, so let’s help each other and connect with one another. Only through connecting to your local people that are moving and shaking in the city are you going to get through it.”
And what better way to do that, than over a round of golf.
The Golf Challenge is a team event, and Sullivan says the hours out on the course with your foursome is the perfect opportunity to build meaningful connections that can last for years.
For the accomplished golfers out there, there’s also the change to take home some great prizes and secure bragging rights by taking home the tournament trophy.
And, for the 100-strokers like Sullivan, the time on the course and the reception after the tournament are a chance to get outside, enjoy a beautiful Nova Scotia fall day, and have a blast with your peers in the business community.
The Halifax Chamber of Commerce’s 2020 Golf Challenge will take place on October 7 at Glen Arbour. The tournament has alreadty sold out, but you can still snag a spot on the green by signing up for the waitlist or through one of many sponsorship opportunities.
For more information, visit the Chamber of Commerce website.
This story is sponsored by Huddle.