Jim Carroll- Futurist, Trends & Innovation Keynote Speaker

I’m very sad to learn that Canadian PGA Professional, Jerry Anderson, who was a fixture around my home club of Credit Valley in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, passed away at the age of 62.

As reported in the news, Jerry was “the first Canadian to win on the European Tour when he shot a 27-under par at the Ebel European Masters – Swiss Open in 1984. That 72-hole score was a record on the European Tour until Ernie Els shot a 29 under par score at the 2003 Johnnie Walker Classic.”

I spoke about Jerry Anderson in my opening keynote at the 2016 PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando; the theme that year was that we should recognize and give thanks to the PGA Professionals who had an impact on my our golfing life. Jerry certainly had an impact on mine; he had the remarkable patience to try to teach me over 3 seasons.

Jerry was a fixture around our club in so many remarkable ways. He was a PGA teaching professional; a regular participant in Mens Day, where he would go and shoot the lights out with an incredible short game; and in the latter years, a regular fixture on the lawn cutting equipment, constantly watching me duff my shots into the river!

And when you would pull up to the bag drop, there he was, as started, getting your bags and schlepping them to the start. I always felt bad to have a guy who was a European tour pro take my bags like that, but he would insist.

A remarkable man, and the golfing world will miss him.

#thkpgapro — Video from my keynote for the PGA of America Merchandise Show: where I thank 3 key PGA Pros in my life!

It’s the 100th anniversary of the PGA of America, and they are running a campaign to encourage people to thank the PGA Pros in their life. In this clip, I’m going on stage to open the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando, and I start out with my own personal thanks!

In January, I was delighted to be the opening keynote speaker for the 2016 PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando, one of the largest trade shows in the world. After my keynote, I led a panel discussion with some of the companies that are having a major impact on growing the game through innovative technology.

One of my panelists was Andrew Macualay, the CIO of TopGolf, one of the most innovative and fastest growing sports facilities in North America. Given that there is a video of their new Las Vegas facility circulating around the Internet (and which is gaining quite a bit of attention), I thought I’d run a clip from our discussion on stage. It’s pretty insightful in terms of the impact of TopGolf on potential growth of the game.

Here’s the Las Vegas TopGolf clip filmed by Golf Digest.

Topgolf Las Vegas is insane! It has 108 hitting bays, five bars, four floors, two swimming pools, a Callaway fitting center and more. Watch our Snapchat story (golfdigestmag) to check it all out! It opens to the public on May 19th 👊🏼

A post shared by Golf Digest (@golfdigest) on May 17, 2016 at 10:10pm PDT

Is TopGolf on the right track? Drawing in millennial? Watch this!

If you ❤️ @Topgolf and haven't registered for the #TopgolfTour what are you waiting for!? 👀 @ashleykmayo take you behind the scenes at one of their regional qualifies, then go to TOUR.TOPGOLF.COM to sign up! #TopgolfTuesday #TopgolfTour

A post shared by Women With Drive (@womenwithdrive) on Aug 16, 2016 at 7:15am PDT

I just wrote an article for the PGA of Canada, around the issue of new technologies coming into the game. Enjoy! You can access the full PDF of the article As a PGA Pro, What Are You Going to Do with Drones?

Sometime in the next few years, someone is going to arrive at a golf course and have their entire round filmed by a drone up in the air overhead. It will follow them around via a GPS link ; their fellow players might be annoyed at first, but with the ultra silent motor, they’ll soon barely notice.

Or will they? Might drone technology present your golf club with the ultimate breach of golf etiquette?

The idea is not far-fetched at all – just visit the Web site for the Lily Camera (http://lily.camera), which ships in just a few months. Turn it on, start your round, and it will follow and film your round!

There are a few questions that come with this fast- paced technology:

What will your club policy be? Will you ban drones or welcome them? Might they be a fascinating tool to help grow interest in the game, which all of us know is a critical imperative? Not only that – might they prove to be an invaluable teaching tool at the same time that they emerge as a critical annoyance?

As a PGA Professional, you should be thinking about these issues. Right now, drone technology is where the Internet was in about 1993, and in the next 1-2 years we are going to see explosive growth in both the number of drones as well the sophistication of the feature set they support.

I was thinking about this while out for my latest golf round in Florida a month ago; I’m pretty wired up already, and maybe I just need a drone to complete my wired golf-self.

I’ve got my GPS watch to help plan the accuracy of my shots, and I’m a very active user of the GameGolf GPS tracking system. It monitors every swing, and at the end of the day, builds me an interactive map of my round with all kinds of useful insight on my performance. I joked to my playing partner: “It provides me with really good insight on how bad I am.” Not only that, but the golf cart I was driving had the latest in on-board GPS tech, providing me even more information on the course and hole layout.

That’s 3 GPS devices. What’s to prevent the addition of a 4th, in the form of a self- flying drone?

Like every sport, golf is bound up in a rich tradition and history. The idea that drones might become part of the game will make some go apoplectic; as did the arrival of golf carts in the 1960’s, as did the arrival of GPS shot tracking technology in the 1990’s!

Think about what happens when a golfer utilizes a drone to lm their round. We’re in the era of social networking and it’s not far-fetched to think that someone will will edit the video highlights of their round to share it with friends; they might even send it to the their PGA Professional to help analyze it for training purposes; or they put it some other unimaginable use.

Which leads us to another question: could it be an invaluable teaching aid? Imagine working with an aspiring golfer on the range, trying to fix their slice. Moving beyond filming the swing with your iPad or iPhone, you might now be able to film the student from above and provide them even more insight into their swing patterns, and help them really visualize the nature of a slice. Could it be a good thing, or something rather ridiculous?

I’m sure I don’t know – all I know is that drone technology is going to invade the game of golf faster than we might imagine. Already in Japan, there is a course that is using drones to deliver snacks, drinks and golf balls to players on a course!

What’s your club policy on drone usage — do you have one? Have you even though about this as an issue? And what will you do as a PGA Professional to incorporate this fascinating new technology into your instruction methods?

FOOD FOR THOUGHT!

Jim Carroll is a leading international futurist, speaking at dozens of conferences worldwide. Most recently, he was invited by the PGA of America to keynote the 2016 PGA Merchandise Show in in Orlando, where he spoke on the challenge and opportunities that new technology presents to the game. He’s a high-handicapper with good intentions, and is an active member at Credit Valley Golf & Country Club in Mississauga.

More food for thought! Here I am at the 2016 PGA Merchandise Show, speaking about the issue!

The PGA of America invited me in again to headline their main stage, to talk about how various emerging technologies will provide opportunities to grow the game. I was delighted to share the same stage as Bubba Watson, Lee Trevino and Hank Haney among others!

Here’s the entire video, running about 35 minutes in length. If you love the game, you might find it to be a worthwhile watch!

The PGA of America (Professional Golfers Association) invited me back! I previously was the opening keynote speaker for the 2010 Annual General Meeting.

They brought me into the massive PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando last week; I was invited to provide a keynote on the main stage on the future impact of technology on golf, how this might provide opportunities to grow the game, and provide insight into what golf professionals should be doing to adapt to a world in which a greater number of players will be using GPS tracking devices, launch monitors and maybe even flyover drones!

After  my keynote, I had the chance to interview some of the leading technology companies in the world of golf, including TopGolf, NextGenGolf, GolfTec, GameGolf and ClubCar.

And backstage in the green room while waiting and preparing, I was able to meet both Lee Trevino and Bubba Watson. Truly a thrill.

I’ll blog more on my keynote, including video, in the weeks to come, but must say it was certainly a thrill!

[fb_embed_post href=”https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10154545724915206″ width=”550″/]

A short clip from a recent keynote in New Orleans – in which I outline how everyone is focused on innovation. This was at the Talent Strategies 2012 event, where I focused on human capital issues.

Here’s a video clip from my opening keynote for the 94th Annual General Meeting of the PGA of America, in which I talk about the necessity of “thinking big, starting small, and scaling fast,” and of the importance of the concept of experiential capital as a foundation for innovation.

I’ve written and spoken about the concept of experiential capital quite a bit through the years – I think in a fast paced economy its one of the most important innovation strategies
that we can undertake.

One particularly good post which can help you get thinking about this concept is “Understanding 21st century capital: Why it’s not just financial capital anymore“, in which I wrote”

Experiential Capital. In a world in which Apple generates 60% of its revenue from products that didn’t exist four years ago, it’s critically important that an organization constantly enhance the skill, capabilities and insight of their people. They do this by constantly working on projects that might have an uncertain return and payback – but which will provide in-depth experience and insight into change. It’s by understanding change that opportunity is defined, and that’s what experiential capital happens to be. In the future, it will be one of the most important assets you can possess.

I also write about the idea in my book Ready, Set, Done: How to Innovate When Faster is the New Fast, where I made this observation:

“Innovation comes from risk, and risk comes from experience. The most important asset today isn’t found on your balance sheet – it is found in the accumulated wisdom from the many risks that you’ve taken. The more experiential capital you have, the more you’ll succeed.”

I close with the observation: “Investing in experiential capital is one of the most important things you can do.”

When people ask me about the “secrets” of innovative organizations, this is one of the key attributes I outline. They realize they are immersed in a world of fast-paced ideas — and they take on many different projects, some of which are doomed to fail, in order to build the overall experience of the organization.

Which begs the question: how many experiential oriented projects do you have underway that involves new technological platforms, social network and branding or marketing projects; business model innovation or any other number of ideas?

My recent post about using a live text message poll while speaking to a group of high school students drew a fair bit of attention as an example of the novel use of a social networking tool.

This isn’t the first time I’ve been using this type of tool on stage — I’ve been doing this for close to four years, and it always provides for an amazing amount of interaction with the audience.

Here I am opening the 94th Annual General Meeting of the Professional Golfers Association of America, immediately diving into a poll with the audience in order to gauge their thoughts on when we would see an economic recovery. While running the poll, I challenge the PGA to think about the impact of mobile technology out on the golf course!

Pretty darned effective, isn’t it!