TOCA President Ed Hiscock

By Ed Hiscock, TOCA President

When we started GCM’s blog a couple of years ago, we really didn’t know what to expect or really what we were doing. But companies blog nowadays, right? And we have the technology, don’t we? So shouldn’t we be blogging?

The magazine staff saw blogging as an exciting, if ancillary, new way of connecting with members. Now it’s hard to imagine not blogging. During the recent Golf Industry Show the GCM staff blogged all over the place, covering the show in an immediate way that was unheard of just a short time ago.

Not only was our coverage immediate, our members and others who read the blog could comment immediately on what they read. For an association whose bread and butter is communication with members, blogging seems to let us butter the bread on both sides. The blog got thousands of hits during the week of GIS, which just encourages us to do more with a blog that’s already pretty active.

But blogging – especially active blogging – comes at a price. When GCM staff members are on the road at an industry event, they blog. Can you guess when? That’s right – from their hotel rooms, often past midnight. They can’t do it when they’re doing what they came to do, so blogging is a schedule afterthought, squeezed in when the day is done.

Blogging, like many other new technology-driven duties taken on by communication staffs (think podcasts), takes time. But so far I haven’t discovered the technology that makes more time. You’ll undoubtedly agree that how to make the best use of technology is a perspective that needs to be explored.

What a coincidence, then, that the theme of the upcoming TOCA annual meeting in Minneapolis is “Exploring Perspectives.” (Shameless, yes, I know. No, really, I have no shame – you can look it up.) And how mega-weird is it that we’ll have a presentation on blogging and podcasting?

And with blogging, podcasting, social media and other things your kids know about and you don’t, how valuable might a discussion of generational issues between Boomers, Gen Xers and Gen Yers be? I’ll be darned – we have one of those scheduled too.

Add in the return of the ever-popular PR/editor panel and music by Little Chicago (Den on drums, Dan on keyboard) and some major involvement by Dave Cassidy and Bill Klutho (the Yoda of the iPod), and you’ve got yourself an education, networking and professional development funathon May 6-8 at the Radisson Hotel in Minneapolis. Golf? One word – Hazeltine.