Whew! What a Day.


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   As seen in Golf Business July/August 2024   


jk.jpgBy Jay Karen, NGCOA CEO

My head is spinning today. When you see what crosses NGCOA’s proverbial desk on a daily basis - or mine in particular - you might think I’m a strong use case for some help with focusing, such as pharmaceuticals, mindfulness or anything else. Here’s a peek into today’s work. 


Testing AI Note Taking. My Chief Operating Officer and I tested some AI note taking technology for when we have Google Meets, Zooms, etc. Really cool stuff. We get the audio recording, a summary of the conversation points and a full text transcript. By reading the transcript, we both observed that we curse a lot. But probably in a good way. It’s our love language. What AI tools are YOU using or experimenting with?


Meeting with Google and Golf Management Software Companies. We hosted a very productive call with more than a dozen GMS companies in light of the new Book Online button that magically appeared in golf courses’ Google Business Profile pages. This is a very prominent feature in some very valuable online real estate. GolfNow and Google surprised the sector by adding these buttons, which currently only go to a course’s GolfNow booking page. Knowing that golf courses generally prefer direct bookings, Google is going to work with the GMS sector to get direct booking links online for you. More to come on this. Be sure your membership is up to date, so you can follow our updates on this. It’s a very big development.


Finishing the NGCOA Executive Roundtable Agenda. We had a meeting with the CEO of one of the industry’s largest course operators to put the final touches on the upcoming Executive Roundtable meeting agenda, which involves the largest operators in the golf space. In a couple of weeks, we will have more than ten percent of the entire golf course supply in the US around one board table. We will be discussing many important topics, such as insurance vulnerabilities in the golf sector, the golf rollback ruling, galvanizing support for the industry’s bill in Congress to treat golf fairly when it comes to disaster relief and economic stimulus, and more. NGCOA represents big, small…rural, urban…well-known, obscure. We succeed when everyone is participating in the association!


Gearing up for the US Travel Association Board Meeting. I finally booked a rental car for my upcoming trip to NGCOA member property, Silverado Resort in Napa, CA. Silverado is the host site for the summer meeting of the US Travel Association board of directors.  I am the lone representative for the golf industry on this board. Seeing that over $25B of golf’s $102B economy is touched by travel and tourism, I think it’s important that we help shape the agenda and the important work of the government affairs organization working to keep the travel sector thriving.


And that was only a fraction of my day! Why do I mention this? Because I want you all to know what NGCOA is working on. Course owners and operators pay dues to NGCOA, and industry vendors sponsor our events and initiatives. We are grateful for your support, and feel you should benefit from the work we do. If you’re not a member, please go to ngcoa.org/join and be part of our community.


Now, let’s see what tomorrow’s schedule has in store!

 

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