Page 8 - GBC Fall English 2023

Message From The CEO, NGCOA Canada • Jeff Calderwood
It seems like Artificial Intelligence (AI) is suddenly everywhere in our lives!
No doubt, it has been inevitable since the earliest days of computing, as IT evolved from those basic applications to better serving our needs with advances such as smartphones and smart cars, all the way to the latest Open AI triumph, ChatGPT.
This may indeed be that critical moment in time when AI has become capable enough to replace human intelligence with a superior brand of thinking. Of course, that kind of power does lead to both new opportunities as well as risks to be managed.
Last week, I went to see the new Mission: Impossible movie. Sure enough, the main theme was built around AI, which had evolved to become a creation called The Entity. This abstract “being” knew everything, everywhere, all the time. Whoever controlled it would become the most powerful person in the world, and hence the usual Hollywood plot of good guys versus bad guys fighting to gain ownership over this AI power.
The First Tee
Mission: Possible
ChatGPT is now pretty close to knowing everything, everywhere, all the time. It learns as it goes, getting smarter all the time. So, how might you leverage the advantages of this powerful knowledge that is now available to your golf operation?
Our cover story in this edition of Golf Business Canada features the recent emergence of ChatGPT and offers various thought starters to prompt your strategic planning on how to capitalize upon it. The potential to improve your sales and marketing, communications, customer service, administrative efficiency, labour costs, etc., is certainly worth contemplating. We are pleased to have had this article written by the world’s leading expert on ChatGPT!
Meanwhile, the more conventional business dynamics that you must manage carry on. This issue of Golf Business Canada also presents several insightful articles on these topics.
In our legal article, Out of Bounds, you will read about updated precedents on errant golf ball liabilities and solutions, authored by lawyer Manjote Jhaj. Kevin Penner, Sysco Canada, addresses the Other Side of Food Inflation to maximize your F&B. We also bring you
some great insights into leveraging the Changing Demographics of the Golfer, by Lee Tamburano, Director of Sales and Marketing at the Canadian Golf & Country Club.
On behalf of our Golf Business Canada team and the NGCOA Canada, I wish you all the best with the balance of your 2023 golf season, another very successful one we hope. Mission: Possible!
See you soon at an NGCOA Canada Golf Invitational near you, and then at our Golf Business Canada Conference & Trade Show, November 28-30, in Montreal.
Jeff Calderwood, CEO NGCOA Canada jcalderwood@ngcoa.ca
8 Golf Business Canada