My wife got me a VCR for Father’s Day.
And right about now, you’re wondering one of a few things. Maybe this lady is loony? Did she time warp back to the 80’s or 90’s? Does she not realize they quit making these things in about 2016?
Well, I assure you, she’s not loony, she didn’t jump back in time and yes, she’s aware manufacturers quit making them in 2016. She told me as much when she gave it to me. She knows because it was apparently a rather challenging thing to find a working VCR for sale anywhere. It’s not exactly new, it’s refurbished. Though it does look like new. And it works. Swimmingly, I might add.
So, if you’re still reading along, you’re also probably asking the age-old question, “Why?”
Well, I’ll tell you why. First, because she loves me. I mean, no one would go to this sort of trouble if they didn’t. But more importantly, she knows I’ve wanted one for a long time, and she’s thoughtful like that. The last working VCR we had was probably in the early 2000’s, when we’d play all sorts of old cartoons and farming videos for the kids.
I’ve told her repeatedly that “someday I’d like to transfer all those old tapes into digital files.” But then the VCR broke, technology rapidly changed, we moved a couple times, and most of our important tapes found themselves stuffed away in packing boxes.
But this all changed over the weekend when I hooked up this marvelous new (old) video player. And for a few hours, I was transported back in time. You see, these videos I’ve been wanting to transfer to digital files include me proposing to my wife, our wedding, our honeymoon trip to Canada to fish for monster northern pike (Yes, my wife really did agree to do this. I know, she’s a keeper!), videos from my TV news days, videos of the kids when they were young, and a whole lot more. It made for an awesome Father’s Day weekend reliving lots of amazing memories.
As if all that wasn’t enough, my wife threw in a digital converter box, which allows me to play the video on the VCR and save it as a digital file all on my own. No sending them off to anyone else. So, once converted, I’ll be able to watch these videos on pretty much any device in our home and hopefully share them with family and friends as well.
I’ve got to admit though, maybe the biggest bonus is deleting a couple boxes of old videotapes from the basement. I mean it’s not as easy as dragging the file to the desktop trash, I’ll have to walk outside and put them in the dumpster, but still a win in my book.
Technology is crazy. The advancements made in just the last decade are the stuff of science fiction movies. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is absolutely blowing up. I wrote a bit about it in my last column, and I suspect I’ll be writing about it often moving forward too. It’s becoming part of our daily lives.
In fact, just last week I was able to take part in another AI-related webinar put on by our friends at the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF). The webinar, called “Prompt Like a Pro: Getting Started with ChatGPT & Pre-Built GPTs,” was a great introduction to the power of what’s coming to make your life easier and hopefully better. Computers clearly can’t do all things, but AI makes it possible for them to do a lot more than you might imagine. If you’re looking to do more with less, explore opportunities to streamline business tasks and processes, or maybe get ahead of the competition on your social media and marketing outreach, there’s a lot of potential opportunity using AI technology.
The webinar speaker, Ryan Boylston, from a company called 2TON, made it clear that retailers, gun shops, manufacturers and distributors can and should be harnessing the power of AI right now. Things like customer response emails can be customized and streamlined, freeing up valuable staff time. Companies looking to offer unique and creative events could use AI to help them come up with ideas and even define ways to promote the event to the best audiences at the best times. Advanced users can use AI to analyze their business performance stats and offer tips and tricks on how to get even better. The potential is vast, and I truly don’t think anyone believes there’s a limit to what could come from this technology.
For those interested, Ryan is giving a more in-depth presentation on AI and ChatGPT at the upcoming NSSF Range-Retailer Business Expo in West Palm Beach, FL on July 16-17.
We are also exploring AI at NASGW and hosting our own webinar in partnership with Business Solutions Partner, coming up next week on Thursday, June 26th at 1pm EST. In this webinar we will explore the power if using AI to analyze SCOPE data and provide some answers to key questions. We hope you will join us for this.
I’ll say this, if you’re not embracing new technologies, even if it’s just to bring the old back to life again, you’re likely missing out. Luckily for me, I’ll no longer be missing those old family memories, since I’m bringing them into a new digital world. A huge personal victory.
Change is hard. Not changing is probably going to be a lot harder. I’m excited about all the conversation around data and technology in our industry. The future is wide open.
Oh, and Happy Father’s Day to all you dads making a difference in the lives of so many.
Until next time,
Kenyon Gleason
NASGW President