“Ignore for a moment all the doom and the gloom: rather, invest your time wisely with the trends and ideas from which your future might bloom!” – Futurist Jim Carroll
You are thinking the quote relates to the global economic downturn occurring all around us – it’s actually for a golf industry keynote today!
But it relates to both!
(My wife thinks the rhyming is kind of hokey. I’m going to run with it anyway!)
Later this morning, I’ll be on stage with an opening keynote for the Canadian Golf Superintendents Association of Canada, with a talk on the growth opportunities in the world of golf.
I suspect this might be the last stage keynotes for a bit of time as the global event industry unwinds as a result of the rapid spread of COVID-19, the related economic changes that are underway, and a new era of business uncertainty.
With that in mind, I will be spending my Tuesday in my home broadcast studio, getting it ready for a new era of video leadership keynotes. Stay tuned!
What’s my message? In a time of uncertainty, you’ve got to move quickly into the next phase of the downturn: getting beyond the shock, denial, and anger of the last two weeks — into acceptance!
The golf industry message today? The same!
Part of my message for these folks – and my message for previous keynotes for the PGA of America & others in the global golf industry – is that to innovate within the world of golf, we’ve got to move beyond looking at the doom and gloom stories: courses shutting down, declining participation numbers, less interest by mobile obsessed millennials in a 4-5 hour game.
Stay focused on those stories & you come away convinced there is no future for the sport.
Or … focus on innovation, change, adapting!
Innovations like TopGolf! Webcam’s on par-3’s for that elusive hole-in-one. Using social media as a means to attract parents of young children into the game. Experimenting with new hyper-connected golf clubs for swing analysis and more.
There are lots of growth opportunities!
The world has changed in a big way – so get moving!