Permanent Impact of the Digital Age

We are all aware of how quickly the digital age has transformed the way we interact, are entertained, shop and access information.  Astute service providers across the spectrum are going online to access new markets and hold on to current consumers exhibiting new, digital behaviours and precedents; the non-astute are disappearing quickly.  Analysts are how new digital behaviours will ultimately reshape the way we live and we do business - tossing out traditional paradigms and speculating on new ones. 

Consider the following eight essential shifts in the way we view our lives and the way our expectations are shaped.  These are the key elements of the digital age:

The new approach to living suggested by these digital age elements challenge the very roots of the recreation, parks, arts, culture and sport movements.

• we traditionally plan next season's programs months in advance and put a hold on required facilities at the same time - we must find ways to protect at least a portion of our assets for the more immediate demands that digital consumers will create
• we have become accustomed to developing a program, putting it in a brochure, and signing up those who like it - we must learn to work with potential participants to develop a new generation of even better services, customized at least in part by the consumer
• once a program is developed, we traditionally identify a space, schedule a time, and then register a bunch of strangers as participants - we will have to learn to facilitate and work with self-identified groups, at times they suggest and be flexible as they suggest alternative spaces that they know are available (perhaps better, cheaper, more convenient)
• much of our cost in providing a program has to do with leadership (administrative, program, janatorial, etc.) - new communities of interest are accustomed to sharing these roles and costs and are likely prepared to 'go it alone' if they meet resistance rather than facilitation
• we will only be able to attract the new consumer if we work with them to offer unique value - the offering must be desirable, accessible, credible, findable, usable and useful.

Potential Shift in Leisure Service Paradigm