Daily Inspiration: “Highly interactive. Deeply analytical. Constantly connected. Relentlessly immersive. You’ll find your future in the emerging era of hyper-connectivity!”

“Highly interactive. Deeply analytical. Constantly connected. Relentlessly immersive. You’ll find your future in the emerging era of hyper-connectivity!” – Futurist Jim Carroll

It’s the only time in my speaking career that Roger Gooddell, the Chair of the NFL, followed me on stage!

His message at the time had to do with the then-emerging issue of Colin Kapernick and social respect – and at the time, he was in the midst of his initial mealy-mouthed response.

My message to the audience? Some people see a baseball bat – I see the future!

The SFIA is the Sporting and Fitness Industry Association, representing a vast cross-section of this multi-billion industry, This is the 2nd time the group had me in – they previously engaged me in 2006 when they were known as the Sporting Goods Manufacturing ‘Association. In both cases, the association brought me in for a keynote that looked at the future of sports and sporting equipment, and I delivered! In 2006, I took a look at the emerging world of social media, and how that might influence fan interaction, brand perception, marketing budgets, and more.

In 2015, I took a deep dive into the world of immersive and connected sports equipment.  And hence, I told the story on stage of the hyper-connected, Wifi enabled Internet-accessible baseball bat of the future.

Far-fetched? Not at all – we’re already seeing a world of hyper-connected sports equipment all around us. I golf with a set of clubs that are connected, GPS aware, and constantly feeding a rich data stream of analysis to a website that offers me deep insight into my game. I ski with a pair of iPhone-connected ski boots that examine my turn radius, stance, and other factors, offering up improvements in my technique. My mere act of walking or hiking is analyzed by my Apple Watch, providing analysis and motivation. I live in an immersive data cloud of deep analysis.

We’re already living in the future of a hyper-connected sport, and we’ve barely begun to scratch the surface. My key point for the SFIA was that while older generations might not understand such a future, the next one does. As I commented in my keynote for the PGA of America, the largest working sports organization in the world:

“…..these kids live, breathe, learn, teach, talk, listen, create and innovate through a widely networked world that facilitates feedback so quickly it’s rapidly changing how this generation will expect results and satisfaction from new products……”

The future of sports is all interactive, all the time.

That’s a trend you can motivate yourself for!

Learn more at https://sports.jimcarroll.com