MC Fireside Chats – January 18, 2023

Brian: Welcome everybody to another episode of MC Fireside Chats. My name is Brian Searl with Insider Perks here as always with Cara Csizmadia from the Canadian Camping & RV Council. [00:01:00] Super excited to have our normal kind of Campground owner focused show here, minus a couple Campground owners who are in Tampa for the Florida RV Show who had unfortunately some emergencies where they couldn’t join us.

We hope everything is well with those people. But we do have Duncan Winship here who’s a normal guest from Papoose Pond. And we have a special guest, Andrew Garcia, who’s kind of just breaking into the business, but also already owns two campgrounds. So I already feel like he’s kind of a veteran and he’s gonna talk us through some of his story, how he got into the business, some of his future plans and stuff like that.

And then who knows where. We’ll go from there. We’re gonna talk a little bit about the Canadian, Camping and RV. Council’s virtual conference that’s coming up here in what about a month, Cara? Something like that? 

Cara: Yeah, just under a month. The timeline is flying by. But yeah, it’s coming together. We’ll be virtual again this year for 2023 and have lots of people registered already to attend and building out a great agenda and some great sponsors coming in the door already, so it’s coming together.

Brian: All right we’ll dive into that and see what kind of exciting things and topics and sessions are happening. So I’m excited to hear about that. And then maybe if we run out of [00:02:00] time, we’ll just talk about ai, cuz that seems to be my focus for this year. And maybe I can blow some of your minds about some efficiencies that you can do around your Campground with technology that is free and exists today already.

And I feel like you’re on the right path, Kara, with your virtual conference. Maybe, I mean, maybe by the time 2024 comes around. We’ll all just have like VR headsets on and the attending conferences, we can actually feel each other’s shaking their hand. I don’t, probably too early and too ambitious for that, but 

Cara: yeah, I think we need a bit of time for that.

We are, maybe the dynamic here in Canada’s a little bit different. We’re really just getting back to in-person stuff here, so there’s a big appetite to do that. So I think we need a couple of those under our belt to, to refresh the handshakes we haven’t had for a while yet. 

Brian: I’m super excited for that.

I don’t think I ever wanna really attend a conference in pr, but it’s fascinating to imagine some of the possibilities that will exist out there though. 

Cara: Sure. 

And we do have lots of attendees and members and stuff who prefer it virtual who get that feedback regularly. So, you [00:03:00] know, they’re, they are out there, there’s demographic that wants it, for sure.

Brian: And you can kind of fit in with all the crowds too, if it’s virtual. Right? So like, here’s a hypothesis. You’re at the hotel bar and you wanna network, but you don’t drink. . If you’re in vr, you could just pretend to do a shot and they wouldn’t really know any different. Right. And then you would fit in with the crowd, you could network with more people.

So there’s benefits. We just have to imagine our minds and think of them 

Cara: always thinking outside the box. Friend. 

That’s good. 

Brian: So, okay let’s start with Andrew Garcia from Outdoor Venture Group. Is that right, Andrew? 

Andrew: Yep. Outdoor Venture Partners. 

Brian: You wanna Yeah, just introduce yourself. Tell us who Outdoor Venture Departures is.

Take it away. 

Andrew: Sure. And thanks for having me, guys. Super excited to be here. Like you said we’re kinda, we’re early in our venture or early in our, into our Campground ownership journey. But we formed, my partner and I formed Outdoor Venture Partners at the end of 2021. We were both coming from the Wall Street side of the business.

I, I was a, an investment banker up in New York spending time you know, kind of across your real estate industries. But had the last few years started to focus [00:04:00] on campgrounds, spent time with Kampgrounds of America, some communities, equity, lifestyle properties some of the larger players in the industry.

And really liked what we saw, right? So we were familiar with the sector on the capital market side. And, you know, we call it outdoor recreation broadly, has always been a passion of mine. And we saw the opportunity to blend work and personal passion. So, We formed Outdoor Venture Partners in November.

Had already had our first site that we wanted to go after kind of in our targets, and it started conversations there. So we closed on that the day before Thanksgiving much to the chagrin. My, my wife. And that was our first property, so that’s Wilderness Cove out in Western Carolina.

And then we found our second deal and closed on that. It’s 33 3 Fish Camp in central Florida, Crescent City. And now we’re on the run. We’re off to the races. We’ve got our third deal we’re hoping to announce in the coming weeks and. , you know, really just starting to get our feet undressed.

But we’ve got a lot of exciting stuff going on, and we love the industry. We love what we’re [00:05:00] doing, and you know, looking forward to continuing to do it. 

Brian: So, I’m curious, and I kind of had the same question for every group that we either talked to on here or I talked to you by email or whatever else, right?

There’s so many of you now who have gotten into this and really the last five to seven years, but obviously it was dramatically accelerated during covid and, you know, those kinds of things. What do you look. from your group’s perspective, when you’re out there trying to purchase a camera, and I’m not saying give me away any of your secrets so that you’re , right?

But there’s obviously something that, you know, some people prefer lake, some people prefer mountains. Some people prefer always sunny all year. 

Andrew: So we, you know, I think a lot of folks maybe take this angle or this approach, but we’re focused on facilitating access to high quality outdoor recreation.

Right? That could be fishing, that could be mountains, that could be desert, that could be ocean, it could be beaches. But we’re looking to basically activate high quality outdoor recreation and provide, you know, comfortable accommodations. You know, and. [00:06:00] Facilitate access for folks, right? That are looking to to get out there and do stuff.

You know, and that’s kind of, it’s turned into a hybrid model. We do everything from your traditional RV campgrounds. We do glamping we’ll do marinas outdoor entertainment venues. We’ll kind of look at anything. And it ends up being kinda a hybrid model, right? So our western and seaside has glamping.

It’s got primitive camp. We have a single family home that’s kind of irregular way Airbnb. We have RV pads. But it sits at the entrance to 18,000 acres of game preserve in state forest. . And it’s got a thousand feet of river frontage on the Green River, which is kind of a lesser no, but really cool river that runs south of Asheville and it’s got eight class, five rapids, nine class, four rapids.

Really good fly fishing. It’s a beautiful river. You’ve got excellent mountain scenery, you know, 30 plus miles of hiking and biking trails. It’s just kind of an outdoor recreation paradise. And there wasn’t much in terms of accommodations in the area, right? . So that, that’s really what we’re looking to activate.

Cara: I’m [00:07:00] curious to know about the transition, what it looks like when you first buy a park these first couple of months. How does. . How does that work? Are they just kind of hand you the keys and walk out the old guys or what’s the deal? 

Andrew: Pretty much 

Brian: What do you mean old. That’s a stereotype. . 

Cara: I meant old, like previous.

Not technically old. We don’t age. . Shame here. 

Andrew: Yeah. And look, that’s pretty much what happened. And it, I’ll say it took us a little while to get our feet under us from the op side. Both my partner and I were familiar with the business, call it 20,000 foot view, your kind of capital markets your capital markets knowledge.

And, you know, we understood the business, general operations. We really understood it from the real estate side of the house. But on the operation side it’s kind of been figuring it out, right? Getting the word out there, figuring out, you know, continuing to work with our dedicated guests that have been coming to and enjoying the parks we bought for years.

And then finding new guests, right? And figuring out what they were looking for. So again, I’ll mention Wilderness Cove because we’re a little bit [00:08:00] further along the Western NC site, but we kept hearing from folks, Hey, we. Pop-up Camping, we want RV pads we want food onsite.

So we took an old school bus and converted that to a commercial kitchen. We’re gonna be serving hot food onsite. We’re in the process of installing new RV pads. And then there were some feedback from families that, hey, you know, it’s easier with young kids if we’ve got, you know, a home that’s kind of more contained and off that’s often and easier to kind of, you know, keep an eye on everybody. So we incorporated the adjacent single family home property and have that in the mix as a rental now. And we’re really just looking to you know, be what folks need us to be, honestly. 

Cara: How is the staffing.

Andrew: That’s been interesting. And look, that’s something else that it’s a learning process, right? Work campers has been like the holy grail for us. There’s an excellent network of work campers. It’s kind of growing every day it feels like. And if you can find folks that are into what you’re offering in a specific site, I think the kind of sky’s the limit, [00:09:00] right?

Because you’ve got great people that are familiar with the industry, that have inevitably spent time in numerous parks and really know the biz. And they’re there 24 hours a day, which is a great thing, especially if you’re talking about remote location. So that’s kind of been our saving grace, honestly.

And then it’s us just kind of getting, again, getting our feet under us from the op side and figuring everything out. Cuz you know, each of our sites is a little different. Usually based on the type of outdoor recreation we’re looking to facilitate. But again, you know, Wilder’s Cove will do everything from tubing kayak rentals.

We’re doing belly acts, which are like you whitewater kayaking on your stomach, which is pretty cool and crazy. Fishing and hiking, everything, mountain climbing, s splunking, like kind of every, everything under the sun. But the other property’s more fishing oriented and we were lucky enough to purchase the site from a major league fisherman.

He’s on the Major League Pro tour. And he kind of plugged us into that industry. And it’s on a really cool lake in central Florida called Crescent Lake. They call themselves the bass capital of the world, but it really does have just amazing bass fishing and [00:10:00] you know, there’s a variety of other fish that are out there as well.

But bass fishing’s kind of the game and we are able to get plugged into that kind of major league fishing pro network. We’ve got a major league fishing pro on staff that serves as a charter captain. He stocks our Batton tackle store. You know, he does fishing reports for folks at urchin come to the site.

So, you know, kind of a wide variety of stuff, but it’s been interesting on the staffing side to say the least. 

Brian: Yeah. And I think you’ll, what you’ll find, and I’m sure Duncan will back me up here, is that yeah, it does take some time to get your ops and things underneath you, but after about a year, really Duncan just comes to the show every week and is on vacation and sits on a beach the rest of the time.

Uh, And I feel like that’s what most camp owners do. Is that accurate? 

Duncan: Yes, that’s exactly it. Most Campground owners just, you know, set it off, never check in, never see how things are going. , none of that stuff. They just run themselves with no issues in any way, shape, or form 

Brian: Really don’t know why I’m not a Campground owner yet.

It seems so easy. Anyway. What do you think about all this Duncan, all these people getting into the business and trying to find different? I think it’s 

Duncan: [00:11:00] outstanding. I like all the new blood, the new ideas, the new energy. . It’s really going to push this industry in a fantastic direction.

Knowing what your niche is, knowing what your market is, knowing what people want and listening to your guests is just outstanding. I mean, that’s really what’s gonna propel you moving forward. , being, you know, like us, we’re very family oriented. We got an antique carousel, we do the kayaks, that kind of stuff, cuz that’s the lake that’s kind on the behind us, but that’s what they ask us for.

You know, buildings, you know, whatever the rental, you know, item is that continues to see incredible demand, but also, you know, pads or some weird hybrid in between, you know, like what we have where like their RV pads, but they have their own private bathroom on them. So there’s lots and lots of weird space out there right now.

And if you keep your head on a swivel, there’s lots of opportunity. 

Brian: Absolutely. Yeah. I definitely agree with you and Duncan. I don’t wanna alarm you, but your chair appears to be disappearing behind you, so don’t fall or anything. I wanna make sure [00:12:00] you’re safe Chef first. But yeah, I mean, and this is what we, you know, at Insider Perks, I was telling Andrew before the show, we do marketing for some of these larger groups who are just coming into the industry and some who have been here a long time.

And it’s just fascinating from my perspective to kind of hear their stories, why they got into the business, what are the specific types of assets they’re looking for. And then once they have those assets, what are they gonna do with them? Like you were talking about Andrew, is it gonna be a everything to everyone?

Is it going to be a, you know, based on your location, is it going to be a mix of all those things? And so I just like hearing the stories and seeing how people, especially how they change over the years, right? Because they come in with one kind of mindset and maybe it stays the same, but quite often it, it doesn’t, and sometimes it works.

Most of the time it works out for the better, that they change their. Yeah, 

Andrew: you bring me back in six months. I might be singing a different tune, but 

we’ll see. 

Cara: Yeah, I was gonna say, oftentimes the market dictates those choices for you. You might have an idea that you want the park to look and feel a certain way, but unless your guests buy into that it, it may not be the right thing.

It’s sometimes less about how you feel about your [00:13:00] property and your business and your park, and more about, you know, what the market wants. 

Brian: So what have you seen Cara from Canadian groups trying to get into this space. 

Cara: Ah, we’re seeing lots of groups like Andrews, you know, starting to buy up one or two or three properties.

And being very strategic about where those properties are located the kinds of natural environments they have to offer. Those groups are very strategic and, you know, they’ve got some dollars behind them to let them, to allow them to be that way. Which is you know, I agree completely with Duncan.

I think it’s a great opportunity for the industry just to kind of elevate across the board and continue to. Keep things a little bit competitive and everyone motivated to, you know, be the best they can possibly be in terms of offering really unique experiences and setting themselves apart.

It’s one of the best, in my opinion, the best features of the industry as a whole is, you know, unlike hotels and things like that, who kind of have, [00:14:00] you’re pretty stuck in a fairly small box in terms of experience offering, you know, outdoor hospitality. This guy really is the limit. You know, I saw Brian your post on LinkedIn about the, those really whimsical RVs.

Brian: Oh, the toilet thing? Yeah. 

Cara: Yeah. I mean, those kinds of things are doable in an RV park or resort setting. And you know, it’s really just, we’re really just limited by resources are a factor for sure but imagination in this industry. And so we are seeing a shift here in Canada. I do think we’re a little bit behind you guys in terms of some things, you know, I saw.

The other day, there’s a fully automated park opened in the States that has no one,

Brian: is it Duncan? Yeah. There’s a couple. 

Duncan: There’s a couple now that are open. Yeah. And I would be really curious from a operational standpoint , how that will continue to progress. Yeah. Especially as I think there’s operational challenges without a human body there.

Yeah. That [00:15:00] you may run into, you may find that you’ll have it a more frequent touchpoint than it will be completely autonomous for six months at a time. Right, right. You know, I think you’ll run into, but I also think that it’s a great idea because you don’t have a lot of cost, operational knowledge loss.

When you have turnover, when you have someone who moves on to something bigger and better, you , just the system is plug and play a little bit. So it’ll be fascinating to see. What role that fits versus like when you were talking about like hotels and hotels are kind of stuck in one style. I think you’ll start to see really a gradation between the two and start seeing a lot more gray.

Oh yeah. Especially when you talk about Airbnbs and glamping. And where it will start to blend into each other and it’ll be curious to see if there’s any true mix use spaces where you’ll find something that has a hotel, has a giant. , you know, amenities for guests. And include some of the higher end RV pads that we’re seeing rolling out [00:16:00] 

Cara: My favorite Campground here in Alberta.

Sundance Lodges was just purchased by a hotel group that owns, I think eight or 10 hotel properties here. And it sounds like they have some interesting ideas for that park. So it’s happening. 

Brian: Obviously let’s explore this. Like, this is fascinating to me, right? Let’s explore this briefly.

Automation at RV Parks, right? , because again, none of us really researched this, but we know what we’ve come across and we’ve seen, and some of the tech Duncan that you’ve seen it, we’ve seen it, the different shows, right? We were both at ipa, for example. How does this, I mean, what are some ideas that we have for an automated park?

Why, first of all, let’s start here, Duncan. Why wouldn’t it work? Step by step? Let’s, and let’s see if we can address each step with an idea.

Duncan: Some of the holes that you could punch into it. . I think groundskeeping is where youre gonna run. We’re gonna mo issues. , 

Brian: I have an answer to that.

Let’s take it step by step. Let’s take it step by step. 

Duncan: Yeah. So, alright. So I gotta find holes and you’re gonna try to find a solution. Okay. So grounds 

keeping or Kara can or Andrew can, yeah. I mean, you, 

we can all figure out, brainstorm it out. My concern would probably be pets Yes. And pet byproducts.

 And even with [00:17:00] live people on the ground to try to help abate that. I think if there’s no real person there, then you can run into issues that way. You know, the lack of facilities, like certain states require x amount of facilities in a overnight RV park stay. Like for example, here in Maine you have to have a bathroom, you have to have showers.

Otherwise you are not a Campground and you will not receive a license. Yeah. So then you have the challenge of cleaning them and having to be done. . I mean, can you do it like a automated car wash and a giant pressure stream just blows the whole thing and sprays hot water, cold water, all that stuff.

Everywhere. Maybe. I mean, I’m not an, I’m not an, 

Brian: not a bad idea because I was going to like the, you know, it doesn’t solve the problem, but the Roomba model type for commercial cleaning. Right. But it doesn’t do around the toilets and inside the bull and things like that. 

Duncan: You have to have a big circular room with a drain in the middle of the floor or something.

Terrible jet. 

It really isn’t. Hopefully it doesn’t come on while you’re using it. [00:18:00] Yeah. Seriously. What 

Andrew: about maintenance all in one unit? Think about all the day-to-day issues though, right? , somebody pulling their RV into one of your pedestals. Somebody running over your landscaping. You know, I think after a month or two months of no bot, nobody being out there to actually monitor day-to-day minor maintenance and repairs.

I think it, you might be bumping into some real issues. 

Brian: I think we have a couple things here, right? And I just I don’t wanna interrupt you. I just wanna take this chunk by chunk so we can address this. Cause we can give a whole list of what’s wrong and then maybe we won’t come back to maybe potential solutions or ideas that could work in the future.

And so, if you look at, I think bathrooms maybe is a, is, I don’t know how that gets solved. Right? Obviously I don’t think anything’s really, when you say autonomous, does it always have to mean nobody checks in? because I feel like there’s security cameras where somebody could be watching that and it still can be an autonomous park.

, I think there can probably be somebody who’s hired to say like once a month or once every two weeks, like I do at my house. Right. I hire a cleaning person to come in and at [00:19:00] least make sure everything’s not crazy damaged. But I’ve also been watching it as security camera, so I know if I need to step in or something like that.

So I think it’s a step toward autonomous. I don’t think you’re ever gonna remove human beings from the equation. 

Duncan: I mean, I could see it eventually getting there. I see the challenge of like, you’re newer, anybody who’s new to RVing, so say you’re taking it out for the first time and you decide to pull into a place like this where there’s nobody home, which I don’t think anyone’s currently recommending you do that.

Really, this is like targeted towards someone who has a lot of experience with RVing. . But you foolishly pull in and you have no idea how to hook up, plug in, do anything. and then it ends up being dependent upon your neighbors, which, you know, a lot of times they’re fantastic people, like some of the RVing and Cha and them as individuals are just really awesome in assisting each other.

. Yeah, but there’s no one there to give you any kind of customer service video. There’s YouTube, but [00:20:00] if you dunno how to do it, then you don’t 

Brian: If you set expectations for this in the booking process, that’s very clear, right? Obviously, some people are gonna ignore it, some people are gonna read it.

I know that argument, right? But if you set expectations as the booking process, this is a fully automated Campground. If you wish to stay here, then you must know how to do your own hookups, how to do this. 

Cara: But again, like they’re not gonna read it. And then when they show up, 

Brian: some people won’t. 

Duncan: But what’s under of that?

Like, how often does that really happen? Then? People don’t, but real life, if it’s less than 1% of your total overnight stays, Yeah. Then it’s really a rounding error at that point in time. Right? 

Brian: That 1% of your states that read it is what you’re saying. 

Duncan: No. One, 1% of your states have these issues that we’re outlining, right?

Oh, 99% of ’em pull in, plug in, spend the night, then roll out first thing in the morning. Right? 

Brian: Agree with you. That’s the thing. Yeah. So as long as you have that little human touch to back you up like a warning security system or a, I mean, even some kind of a sensor, right? If you look at, if you’re experienced in [00:21:00] RV parks and you look at where typically people cut corners too soon or roll their tires over the sites or hit the pedestals, if there’s some kind of sensor that says Alert, alert, somebody just bumped into a pedestal and it sends somebody a thing on their phone so they can check the security camera and see if it’s something they need to pay attention to.

Duncan: Yeah. 

And it also just causes, you know, you to change your layout for your next one. Eventually you get to efficiencies of how you have it built. Because this thing is not, they’re not super organic in how they’re done in design. A lot of times it’s a DC tin and asphalt. . Yeah. 

Cara: So I think for me as an operator, where I foresee issues are things like noise at night conflict between guests scenarios where maybe you have a per site capacity, but someone pulls in with 10 people in their RV.

Like, who’s, what are you? How are you gonna even know you’re not there? So those things 

Duncan: I think some of the way that they combat that is that there is nothing there. There’s no playground, there’s no bathhouse, there’s no fun. [00:22:00] There’s fire pits, there’s no swings, there’s no price.

Brian: Point is very high too, as we saw Expensive launched. . So you cut out that kind of lower to your market. I mean, I think eventually, yeah, there’s gonna need to be, again, a combination of security cameras in one day. , you know, I don’t know. Have a robot that patrols the thing with little 

sleeping darts.

Yeah. I mean, that’s 

your first, a little doggy with a camera on top and a speaker. What 

result in you being put to sleep until morning? Oh boy. 

Duncan: There’s a bunch of options that you really see moving into it. I mean, you see the, like the automated vending machines that are open 24 hours a day and you can load ice cream.

Oh, the ice cream one we saw at Iopa, that was pretty wild. They got a pizza one coming out that I have a lot of interest in. , 

Brian: I still want that little claw machine that grabs the liquor bottles, but that probably wouldn’t work automated cuz you really wouldn’t want people partying. 

Duncan: Yeah, no, you gotta audit that.

You gotta, at least 

Cara: Id listen I still think there’s gonna be that segment of the market that wants a [00:23:00] personalized guest experience, but for sure, I think there’s a demographic 

Brian: that’s, see here’s what you’re missing though. There’s a difference between personalized and human. You can get very personalized with technology.

Yeah, 

Duncan: I went to one of the big sporting events, one of the football sporting events. They had an automated bar system and it took your credit card, it took your photo ID and used your facial recognition. And so the first time I went up to the machine, it asked what I wanted to drink, had a whole bunch of cocktail options, that kind of thing.

Ordered one, and then when I went back the second time, it said, do you want this again or do you want something different? I just said, yes, it dispensed it, and I was out of the way within 35 seconds. . Right. And back to watching the football game, which is really what I wanted to do. , 

Brian: And remember, if it’s automated, you can do those things.

Like we, we used to do this, we still do for some people. Carrie, you use smart waiver still, right? For cbc. That you can set up those kiosks in this, not saying it’s smart waiver, but something similar where it does take a picture of the guests when they check in. It makes ’em scan their driver’s [00:24:00] license, it records their license plate for security.

And then if they do anything to your park, you’ve got their license, you have their address, you have their license plate. And that helped. I’m not saying that’s always gonna solve the problem, but at least that gives the police a headstart. 

Duncan: There’s tools and assistance out there to really grow what you’re doing.

How do you keep guests safe? , how do you give them what they want and how do you make it easier for them? You know, like if you have a bunch of guests who are staying more long term, or they stay for the whole season and you have the ability to integrate facial recognition for them in their store, your cafe your boat delivery or your snack, whatever, all those locations, I feel like you’d get a fair amount of adoption on that.

So instead of having to go up to the kiosk to make sure you have it on there, you just walk up, grab what you want, and scan your face, and away you go. Really add some efficiencies. 

Brian: Part of the hesitancy that everybody will tell you is I don’t want people scanning my face, but as TSA releases this at airports, as you have it more at bars, it’s sports, it’s gonna become more commonplace and people, 

Cara: they’re already scanning [00:25:00] your face.

Duncan: Oh yeah. If you have a passport or a real id, your face has already been scanned. We’ve 

Cara: also been scanning your face with face ID for five years already. Yes. They have your face . 

Duncan: Yeah. You carry around a tracking device with you almost everywhere you go. And the individuals who do not. 

Brian: What do you think about all this?

Andrew? You have new business ideas, or do you think we’re. I’m 

Andrew: gonna go check out this automated park. I think it’s in Tifton, Georgia, and I’m heading down 75. Awesome. I’m in Atlanta, so I’m heading down 75 next week to, to go down to our Florida park and I’m gonna check it out on my way. I think it’s pretty cool, you know, and I think we talked about labor earlier, you know, that’s an issue.

It’s not an issue, but it’s a challenge. A challenge is probably not going anywhere, right? , especially as we see the industry, you continue to grow. So, you know, automating where you can, it’s probably the future. Kind of figuring out how you balance experiences and how to do that in the right way is pretty important.

I see it working in more of like your transient travel oriented parks. Yeah. Destination oriented you know, [00:26:00] resort style campgrounds. I think you probably bump into some more issues there, especially when there are kids running around and liability. Travel Park, and I think that’s what this one in Tifton is.

It’s right off of 75. You kind of pull in, pull out, super simple, not too many bells and whistles. It’s pretty cool. I think it makes a lot of sense. I’m sure these guys are, 

Brian: I think I have a great idea. Cara, tell me if you, Andrew, if you’re willing to participate in this, tell me, I think, when did you say you’re going to the Tifton, Georgia one

Andrew: I’m just gonna stop on my way to my other 

Brian: stop on your way there on a Wednesday during our show next week. And we should do a live test with you where you try to bump into things at the Campground and see if 

Andrew: Got car right now 

Brian: Sure.

Just walk up and just, I’m just gonna lightly kick this electric pedestal and then just look around, see if anybody like alarms or sirens go off or. I really am 

Andrew: pretty smart, curious. I mean, if they, if I go in and they realize I’m not staying, am I gonna be stuck and the police around? 

Duncan: Think your money good as anybody else’s.

Yeah. 

Cara: They’ll take your dollars. Yeah. Yeah. 

Brian: I think you’d have to give it dollars to get in. That’s the thing. [00:27:00] I think there’s probably a eight. 

Duncan: Yeah. Yeah. You have to book online. You have to have a reservation before you go in. And if you just pull in without one, there’s like a pull off area where it gives you instructions on how to do it.

And I think that they spent a lot of time on their signage to really curate what they need the guests to do to make it work. . 

Cara: Yeah, that makes sense. And I think, you know, as we see this grow the guests will get more and more used to it. And so there will be lots of more without, 

Brian: I dunno what their guest experience is, but if you’re talking about reserving online in advance, just like you would do at like a long-term parking garage at the airport when we go leave in Calgary, right?

, if you get a QR code, you just pop up and scan it and the gate opens and you’re in. Yeah. And then, yeah, I think it’s very similar. Technology is convenient. That’s what everybody wants. 

Cara: Don’t know about everybody. I cautioned this saying everybody 

Brian: I didn’t say everybody wants tech. I said everybody wants convenience.

Yeah. 

I dunno, 

Duncan: you wanna be inconvenienced. I don’t know that everyone want be more 

Cara: [00:28:00] No, I don’t know that everyone less con convenience as higher on the list than any other 

Brian: factor. I bet you if you gave them an example to solve whatever problem they were having, they would choose convenience every single time.

I know. 

Duncan: Yes. And type of thing. It’s yes, 

Announcer: convenience, but not 

Duncan: I want 

Brian: But it’s how that convenience, sorry Carrie, I don’t mean to interrupt you. Go ahead. No, 

Cara: I just I personally know several campers who would rather interact with staff and deal with humans. Let’s, 

Brian: that’s the 5% now. 

Cara: But I also know lots of people who don’t want to, who refuse to go through this self-checkout line at the grocery store because they wanna keep the humans in.

Brian: Is the next argument, right? This is, I hate the self-checkout store thing at the store too, because it sucks

Andrew: It doesn’t work as a half 

Brian: haphazard method. Method. It’s always, yeah, understand and recognize when you’re picking up bags and when you put down an item and when you press the [00:29:00] button, it sucks.

. And of course consumers don’t like that because in most cases, even though it’s billed as convenience, it’s not actually convenient. Right. 

Duncan: Have any of you been in the Amazon quick stop stores where there’s not even a cashier, you just grab, walk out and it charges? I haven’t, but I’ve read. How does that work?

Does that work? 

Andrew: No . You know, one experience you have to register in advance and , I ended up shoplifting by accident. , so I kinda went back in there and brought my stuff back in. I realized I hadn’t paid for it. I think it’s better now. This is pretty early and I haven’t gone back.

I haven’t gone back since then, 

Duncan: so. 

Cara: But you’re also seeing like places like inter international airports and stuff where it’s like a walkthrough. You go in, they, I see you just need to have your credit card on your person, and you just pick up whatever you want, and they just, it just automatically charges you for what you walk out with.

Brian: Yeah. That’s what they’re doing at TSA security too, with the facial recognition. They’re gonna launch with Delta. 

Duncan: Right. Those things, to me, Cara’s point, and to Brian’s point, you’re both saying the same thing. , you’re [00:30:00] just looking for the same solution. Guests who want to go in and interact with your staff are doing it for the interaction.

They’re not doing it because it’s mandatory. . If you make it convenient and you make it what they want it to be, you want to get in, I wanna get to the site, I want to get set up, I want to have my chairs, I want everything to be all set, and I can have my first soda of my Camping trip right out the gate, and I don’t want to do it.

Versus someone who’s, maybe this is like their 12th trip and they know me personally and they want to say hello. . And that’s part of their, that’s part of their experience and part of their convenience is to be able to walk in, ask for someone and our staff who’s maybe been there for a few years, have that personal connection and then go set up.

It’s the same thing, 

Brian: right? But it’s also why Poos Pond will always exist with Duncan and there will be also be an automated park for the other people. 

Duncan: , 

it’s never, or there be automation at pap post and you can go in and talk to somebody if you want, or you can drive your site. But it’s 

gonna be a hybrid.

Brian: Yeah. I’ll give you a perfect example. It’s like I had this debate with somebody, I can’t remember [00:31:00] who, the other day where they were talking about, we were looking at I don’t know if you remember four or five years ago, Duncan, where Google did that demo of that automated thing calling and making a hair appointment for a lady.

And it was really smooth and it hum, you know, it paused. Do you remember that Kara? , 

. Yeah. And so it was like four or five years ago. But, so I was having this conversation with somebody who wasn’t aware of that, but she was basically saying nobody wants to talk to a robot when they call customer service.

And nobody, you know, nobody really wants to, they always wanna talk to a human. I said, yes for the same argument I’m talking about now, because when you call that robot, the stupid phone tree sucks. It doesn’t get you to where you want, it doesn’t hear what you wanna say. It doesn’t route your call the right way.

And then when it gets there, it doesn’t even pass along the half hour of information. You’ve been feeding it to the agent who answers the phone. . And the reason that you like that is because the phone agent is still more helpful than that robot. But then for me, like I’ll get to a customer service agent and Oh, I have to transfer you to this department.

I can’t help you with this. You’ll need to email these people. , what if you had an ai you could talk to like the Google thing that could actually interact with all of the systems at all of the. And had [00:32:00] access to all of the support tickets and all the resolutions of the entire history and could do anything that you wanted in 30 seconds to get you off the phone better.

Many people would wanna talk to a robot, then it’s 

Duncan: gonna get there. It’s so, yeah, 

Cara: what we’re saying is we just aren’t there yet. All these 

Brian: from customer service agents 

Duncan: like that fifth, 20 years ago, computers won chess. You could, there’s not a human on the planet who can beat a computer now at chess.

 Like, I think there’s one right. In the last five years I 

Cara: heard there’s one, isn’t there? 

Andrew: He beat that 

supercomputer. 

Brian: And you’re talking about, it’s a, there’s a big difference between a supercomputer who can calculate chess and an AI who can. And know all the chess games and all the history, all the people 

Duncan: where AI can write a college level paper on any subject, on 

anything.

Brian: We’re gonna dive into this. We’re gonna dive into this and show this, but I wanna talk about the conference. We 

Andrew: were playing with that the other day for blog post. That was pretty interesting. One more, what about rules though? Is this gonna be like ruthless [00:33:00] enforcement of Campground rules, which we all 

Duncan: a Terminator robot?

It depends on the level of the ai. 

Andrew: You’re five minutes late to your check-in, you’re outta luck. I mean, come on. I dunno if that works, 

Duncan: As the AI gets more data points and more sample points, it would start making that decision. , so fu 

fuzzy logic, huh? 

That’s what AI is fuzzy logic.

Yeah. 

Brian: Yeah. But the benefit of, and again we’ll, I’ll show you a couple examples of this in a second, but the benefit of that is that AI knows you can train it on whatever data set you want. So you can take an automated park and you can train it and say, here are my rules, here are my processes.

Here’s how you should react in this situation. All the things that it needs to know so that it will respond the exact way you need to. But it’ll also have a whole library of customer service interactions and how to solve problems and how to do this and how to deescalate situations. And it’s just, it’s gonna be so much smarter.

Duncan: The more feedback you give it, the better job it will do. Like if you go back and audit what it did previously and you’re like, this is a hundred out of a hundred experience, this is [00:34:00] a 70 out of a hundred experience, this is a five out of a hundred experience. 

Brian: Andrew is skeptical, but we need to get to the conference and then we’ll make Andrew not accept a skeptic anymore.

I promise. 

Andrew: I dunno. Cause I’ve 

seen, I question the full automation, I think a hundred percent. There’re numerous, you know, numerous functions that, that automation, there’s definitely 

still challenges to automation. Totally. I think. I think as we’ve seen, you can get 99% of the way there. , 

Duncan: At the futurist. I agree.

Andrew: What about security too? Sometimes you feel alone, these rural locations and you know, people are people. 

Brian: That’s what I’m trying to say. Like, we’ve already, and we keep cutting Kara’s time off here but like when I say robots, I’m not joking. Like Tesla has invented their robot. That’s kind of clumsy so far.

There are plenty of humanoid style robots. And when I show you this conversation interface that I’m about to show you, it’s not far from just loading that as a voice assistant into a robot to be able to talk to people. Yeah. Like 

Duncan: The little doggy robots that run around now that can open [00:35:00] doors.

They can do all kinds of craziness. 

Andrew: Security guards, robot security guards night something. Remember night 

Duncan: It’s like you heard about that hitchhiking robot, 

Brian: Oh yeah. The one that, but somebody destroyed it, didn’t they? 

Duncan: In Philadelphia. Just completely ruined it. So, you know, you have your robot security dog and then next thing you know, you find it in a dumpster.

Brian: But again, that’s what you got. Security cameras and other methods in place. But anyway, Cara, go ahead and then we’ll pivot back to AI specifically is what I wanna talk about, how it would integrate with this stuff. So Cara, the Canadian, Camping &, RV Council is having their third virtual conference coming up here in about a month.

Yeah. Tell us a little bit about what’s going on, some of the education you have planned and the cool things. 

Cara: Yeah. Okay. What a pivot. . Yeah, 

Brian: it’s important. It’s virtual. It’s still tech. 

Cara: Sure. And you know, it’s interesting Brian and I were talking about delivering some of these education sessions using some AI support too.

So, it does kind of fit. But anyways, yes, we are we’ve announced our third annual conference. We were kind of on the fence about person or virtual for this year. [00:36:00] So, that was kind of a tough a very tough decision for our board. But we’re full steam ahead here for virtual just with our short timeline.

That’s kind of how we’re rolling now. We’ve got two full days, February 15th and 16th of education conference content ranging from all kinds of things specific to tech and automations and all of that. But also, you know, the basics and touching on some important topics that members and attendees have suggested to us.

We, we sent out a survey after last year’s event, and then again prior to this one just looking for feedback. And so we’ve used that survey those survey results to really build out our education session agenda. We have some cool keynote session stuff planned. We’ll actually be doing two main stage sessions each day.

Just because we’ve got some interesting topics specifically around this big shift to EVs and the implications for the Campground industry. Specific to that we’ve got again an important update from the Tourism Industry Association of Canada and a couple of our government representatives [00:37:00] happening on the main stage.

We’ll be doing three session tracks this year instead of four. We’ll do a business basics track state informed track and an industry innovations track. Agenda is building out, there’s some great speakers confirmed already but lots more to come still on that front. Obviously we’ll be showcasing kind of what the association is working on and how it can benefit.

Members in their businesses, but also tons of awesome stuff. We’ll hear from Brian on some marketing things. Definitely. I’m hoping he’ll do a good deep dive specific to automations and things like that for one of his sessions. So, . Yeah I’m really excited. I think, you know, overall the last three, the last two years were incredibly successful.

We ha have received nothing but good feedback about the education content and sessions. And I have to shout out to Camps Spott for coming back as title sponsor. You know, the virtual dynamic for our suppliers is not the easiest and we’re very cognizant of that. So, you know, it’s incredibly important to us that our sponsors see the value in continuing [00:38:00] to educate Canadian, Campground owners.

And actually we’ve got some American registrants as well. So if you’re interested, join us. But you know, those sponsors realizing how great the event is in terms of helping the Campground industry continue to grow and be really successful and change and innovate over time with obviously so much shifting in the industry right now.

Brian: I think you’ve also reminded me too, and I want ask definitely some questions about you know, where, what was your focus on education this year, specifically your members. But we also wanna, I keep forgetting firefighters. Firefly Reservations is the sponsor for this episode of MC like cats and I put ’em in the social post and all that kind of stuff.

It’s kind of covering up dunking here. But we’re super grateful for them. They run a great reservation system for Campground owners. I think they’re just kind of evolving their platform and making more modern experience. And so if you’re in the market for something like that, be sure to check them out.

We really appreciate their support for this episode. But talk a little bit about your your education thoughts process, right? Because it differs from year to year based on what your members want, right? So where was your, some of your big focuses here? 

Cara: For sure. I [00:39:00] think the biggest feedback we got was really around this shift.

We saw a really successful couple of years in this industry the past two. And so ways to maintain that longevity is really important. Maintain that success for, into the future. As you know, the world is reopened and people can travel and experience things in different ways. How do we keep our campgrounds really competitive in that environment?

But then for sure more than any other year there is a huge appetite for attention to this these technological advancements and how they’re impacting the industry. Certainly the EV requirements, the electric component shifts in, in how we’re manufacturing RVs is going to impact our industry for sure over the next, you know, handful of your decade probably.

As we see the market really shift to embrace that But yeah it’s, you know, I think Campground owners are incredibly adaptable. And, you know, we’ve seen them get through all kinds of [00:40:00] adversity in the past, and so, you know, I’ve nothing but confidence in them. So I think they are keen to embrace kind of what’s coming and where the market is dictating they need to pay attention to.

And so we’ll be talking a lot about those things this year as compared to, you know, last year it was really about we were really addressing, you know, things like the labor market shortages and things like embracing automation and stuff to help with that. And then obviously in 2021, our big focus was, you know, getting back open and getting functional and really harnessing the incredible amount of interest in the RV Camping lifestyle 

for sure.

Brian: Awesome. Definitely looking forward to it. It’s just under a month now. It’s February 15th through the 16th, right? Correct. Make sure if you’re not registered, if you’re a Canadian Park or an American Park next education, which never, ever hurt anyone. , make sure you reach out to Kara and then obviously if you’re a supplier sponsor, stuff like that.

Great opportunities get in front of camp grand owners. Yes, it’s virtual, but that doesn’t matter. Like there’s gonna be people there who are gonna be attending and ready to purchase. So that’s what we’re all looking for. 

Cara: So one [00:41:00] of some of the greatest benefits of going virtual. We’ve talked, Brian and I talked, have beaten this horse to death, but is that ability to, all of our sessions are available recorded afterwards, so it really gives all that content that you’re delivering and the exposure for sponsor businesses, some more longevity over just the one or two days of an event like that.

It also enables us to kind of, do all kinds of communications throughout the year instead of just during the event dates. And you know, obviously also virtual really expands accessibility to. Folks all over, across, you know, broader swath of the continent. We’re actually have a really interesting session with some association representatives from other countries.

So, Germany and Australia, and those guys are gonna join us to have some conversations about how their associations are supporting their members in other parts of the world, but also how the industry’s looking for them as well. So those kinds of things I think are really beneficial from the, due to the virtual format.

Brian: I need to know who those people are because we’re about to [00:42:00] explain it to Europe. But anyway 

Cara: okay. 

deal. 

Duncan: Sure. That’s 

Brian: good. Anyway so, okay, so let’s blow some minds here. Let’s have some fun. So, Cara, I’ve shown this tool too, and there’s gonna be a couple we’ll talk about, right? We only got about 10 minutes left.

It’s gonna be brief. But Cara have shown this tool too. There’s also a couple we’ll explore. And Duncan and Andrew have. Heard of this. Maybe Duncan’s heard of this, but never played with it. Andrew, have you heard of chat g pt? Yep, we have. We were never played with it for both. Oh, you have messed around with it.

Andrew: It was pretty impressive actually. We were kind of blown away. I mean, just to get like a baseline down, you could kind of go in there. I mean, just talk about saving hours. Totally. 

Brian: So this is the thing, right? And a lot of people, this, I’m gonna share my screen here and let’s see if we can slot everybody to the side here so we can see this.

So for those of you who don’t know, chat, g p t. This program right here is run by a company called Open ai. And Open AI was founded, I think in 2015 by Elon Musk and Sam Altman, who Elon Musk, I think stepped away from it for various reasons, still I think is part owner. But [00:43:00] Sam Altman is now the ceo.

And so they do a bunch of different things. You’ve maybe seen them on the news before for I, you know, generating images and things like that. But this is something that they released on November 30th of last year. So it’s still brand new. Less than two months old, and it’s still very much in its infancy.

It’s a beta. They’re gonna eventually charge for this thing. It’s free right now. Use it while you can. It’s absolutely unbelievable. So, Duncan, what is a question that you may have had as a Campground owner? I don’t know, recently. Any time in the, you can remember that you would’ve gone to Google to look up, or you would’ve called a lawyer, or an accountant, or a marketer, or anybody that’s not you to get the advice from.

Doesn’t matter what, it’s 

Duncan: all right. Let’s see. I, you know, for a marketer, it would be like what are the best style of like waterfront images to be used? Do you want them up close? Do you want them far away? Like that kind of thing. All 

Brian: right. So what so let’s see. What are the best style of waterfront [00:44:00] images to use on your website?

 As a Campground who offers a variety of types of these and wants to use some that will increase bookings.

And we’ll see. It’s been overloaded recently. We’ll see how long this thing takes. Usually it’s like instantaneous. But sometimes it’s been timing out because for the last month and a half literally every, it’s all over TikTok. It’s all over Instagram. Everybody’s using this thing 

Andrew: it’s, they’re people are using it to write papers.

They’re worried. Kids will never write papers again because of this. 

Brian: Do they really need to, is the question. But that’s a whole different discussion. So, we’ll see if this thing goes here in a second and I’ll see if I can refresh it and get it to go. But you know, it’s just the ability for this thing, like this thing has scraped the entire internet or most of it.

From all the way up. 

Duncan: How did the Instagram reels Campground go for you? That chat right there 

Cara: proprietary information. 

Brian: Was actually, this is [00:45:00] actually just a blog post I was experiencing with one of my writers, right. Where we ask it and I’m sorry, I forget. Like, so it refreshed. So, the question was 

Duncan: what are waterfront images for marketing to increase bookings 

Brian: to use for marketing a Campground to increase bookings.

And you’re gonna find this with a free version and this is why they’re releasing it as paid is just because it continues to time out and sometimes it’ll say it’s at capacity and on. I think they had a million users for this in the first five days. I don’t even wanna know what it is now.

It’s gotta be probably 50 million. I would imagine. 

Andrew: I thought they were trying to cap it to like 10,000 at any given time though. Is that 

Brian: They did, they capped rate limit. But it’s still like there’s so many people who are trying to use it that sometimes like it, this is. Obviously we’re 

Duncan: doing and just query it until you get through.

Cara: , 

every time I try to log in, I get, there we go. Okay. We’re experiencing higher than normal volumes. We’re at capacity. 

Brian: I can never get it. So here we go. The best waterfront images to use for marketing and Campground would be high quality, visually striking photographs that showcase the natural beauty of the [00:46:00] Campground surroundings and the amenities it offers.

These might include pictures of crystal clear lakes or rivers, lush forests and mountains and outdoor recreational activities such as swimming, boating, fishing, and hiking. It would also be beneficial to include images of the campgrounds, amenities such as RV, hookups, tent sites, cabins, and bathrooms, as well as images of families enjoying their stay at the Campground.

Additionally, it would be a good idea to include images that show the campgrounds proximity to other popular attractions in the area, et cetera, et cetera. That’s not really what you’re asking though, right? Not why information. 

Duncan: It gives you a jumping off. Right. 

Brian: And so you just have to, what you really have to learn with this thing and most people are just using it for generic queries, and I’ve spent a ton of time setting this, but what you really have to learn is how to refine your question to actually engage with a photographer if you were talking to them, because they don’t know campgrounds, they don’t know your RV park.

It’s like a baby every time you open a chat with us. Right? So you can say like, that’s the wrong answer. I wanted to know specifically 

Andrew: what a good guide for website [00:47:00] photography though, right? That’s kind what it gave you. 

Duncan: Totally. Right. That’s a great, if you’ve never had anything done before, it’s just a great jumping off place to figure out what you wanna put on there.

That’s right. 

Andrew: Whether 

Brian: a picture of a waterfront RV site should be close up, wide angle, or what else? Duncan aerial or aerial.

Marketing and waterfront RV site, a combination of different types of images can be effective. A closeup image of the RV site can show the specific details and the amenities offered, such as the electrical and water hookups and the level of privacy and shade. A wide angle can give a sense of the overall layout of the Campground and the RV site’s location in relation to the waterfront and other amenities.

And then aerial image can showcase the waterfront location and the surrounding landscape providing a sense of the natural beauty of the area. It’s important to note the final choice may depend on the specific target audience, the platform you’re using for marketing and the overall message you want to convey.

Duncan: Yeah, that’s wild. That right there is just a wild. 

Brian: You’re not even [00:48:00] seeing like everything that’s like literally this is just the touchpoint, right? Yeah. So here’s an example. Let’s see. Let’s see what we got over here that I can. Oh, here I did a, we had a debate about MO on Modern.

Campground about this, about using some of these AI tools and journalism in the future, right? And so I literally had, I said at the top, can you write an argument for the use of AI and journalism from multiple diverse perspectives? Before you do so, state the characteristics of the various characters.

Sure. Here are three perspectives on the use of ai. A journalist has been in the industry for many years, a media executive, a media ethicist, and I guess there’s four, an AI researcher. Please proceed. And then it gave an argument for the use of AI journalism, combining those views. And then I said right from the media ethicist viewpoint, and it wrote an expanded on the media ethicist viewpoint of ai.

Like you can tell this to literally do anything. It really is literally. . 

Duncan: The other that’s interesting about this is that other AI programs [00:49:00] cannot even tell it’s being written by another computer. Right? So you have these, you know, anti cheat programs and all that kind of stuff, and this thing is blowing so much of it out of the water that they can’t even ke they can’t even tell if it’s real or not.

Andrew: I think the way they’ll catch ’em is they’ll be the same, right? The essays will be highly similar and they they 

won’t they’ve tried that, and what they found is that if you prompt it right, it won’t. 

Brian: Exactly. And that’s the whole key is interacting as the ai. Right. But we’re talking about things that can help you save staff time that can help you save even like, I’m not suggesting you ever use something like this for legal advice, right?

But you can use it as a basis, as a starting point. So, you know, I’m a Campground owner and I have a guest who is. Being unruly and will not observe quiet time. How can I quickly diffuse this situation [00:50:00] and encourage the guest to be compliant?

We’ll see if it’s pausing again, this is gonna, there we go. There are several steps you can take to diffuse the situation and encourage compliance. Approach the guest in a common professional manner and explain the campground’s quiet time policy. Ask the guest to lower their noise level and be respected.

Remind ’em of the potential consequences such as being asked to leave the Campground, offer a solution or compromise to the problem, such as suggesting an alternative activity or location. Document the incident and report it to the management. If the guest continues to be non-compliant, remember to stay calm and handle the situation with professionalism and respect.

We’ve done two things here. This thing is literally unlimited with what you can do with it. 

Cara: Yeah. I had it planned, my agenda the other day because I had way too many to do things on my list and didn’t know where to start. Optimize my time 

schedule 

Brian: for me. Yeah. You literally had it like Cara has to do [00:51:00] this, and it was a list.

Cara: 15 minutes. Do this for these 12 minutes. Do this. Yeah. It 

Brian: gave you eight to eight 30. Do this nine to nine 30 do that. Like it’s, it will do anything that you ask it to do. So we have maybe time for one more. Give something hard, Andrew. Anything that you can imagine that’s you think resolved? Yeah, 

Andrew: so we’re rolling out a few kind of Class C specific RV pads that are located in kind of harder to reach spots, but they’re cool, right?

One’s kind of elevated directly up over the river. We want to find the best way to market to Class C specific RVers phone 

Brian: and RV Park and 25 feet down building some Class C motor home sites B, class 

Duncan: B, sorry, 

Announcer: at 

Brian: I Campground. What is the best way to market these to a potential audience that might be interested?[00:52:00] 

Andrew: I guess class B or Class C is really, 

Duncan: it’s really 25 foot RVs is really what it is. Can 

Brian: you be, yeah. Class B let’s just say RV sites. We’ll see if it knows what a class B is, right? Yeah. Can you be specific and provide actionable details that will inform me of a target audience spaces to communicate to them and how best to create a welcoming atmosphere editor.

Okay. I’m gonna copy paste. Hold on. 

Andrew: I wonder if you could use it for like, pricing optimization. You know, you say, okay I’m adding these 10 RV sites to this market. I’m targeting this demographic. Where should I price my site? You know, cause if it skims every. Every Campground in that region or that location on the [00:53:00] internet and tells you exactly where you should price.

Brian: That’s the limitation of it right now is it doesn’t actually connect to the internet. Okay. So it’s only got data up through, I think, 2021 and some of the smaller things that it’s involved. Like it doesn’t know who, for example, Modern Campground was and all those kinds of things.

And now it’s just completely timed out. So we build it, 

Duncan: it’s all right, we’re about to time out. Yep. . So 

Brian: that’s the thing is Microsoft has in talks to invest 10 billion more into this company and they want to integrate this into Bing search by March. Reliable. So that’s the thing that I’m trying to say is this is not like you can literally like, here’s perplexity ai another, we’re gonna close with this, right?

This other tool that it functions like a beta search engine. It’s not nearly as good as Google yet, but you can say, Duncan, where’s your Campground? Find me. 

Near 

Duncan: where Waterford, Maine, 

Brian: Waterford, Maine, that is kid friendly and [00:54:00] has five star reviews along with a swimming pool. And this is what the future of search is gonna look like.

Oh, hold on one second. Your screen is hold on. I gotta share a different tab. That’s my fault. So share. Okay, so this is Perplexity ai. Find me, you see my query at the top, find me at Campground near Waterford, Maine. That is kid-friendly. And then it just answers you, oo.

Family Campground and Cabins is a kid-friendly and it didn’t, remember I didn’t ask it. Poo Pond, right? Kid-friendly Campground with five star views in a swimming pool. And then it cites where it got the information from TripAdvisor. Yeah, the first has been highly rated by RV Life and camp spott.com, and is recommended as one of the best family campgrounds in Maine by Main Camp, ah, rentals, campon.

And then you can, and then you can view a detailed response too. Now, this isn’t always right yet. It just came out like a month ago. [00:55:00] It has been rated four and a half outta five stars and TripAdvisor, 8.3 out of 10 stars. And can, like, that’s the future of search. As soon as Bing turns that on, like it will take years for people to adopt it.

But if you don’t think Bing will beat Google with the convenience of that, as people figure that out, that’s a better answer. 

Cara: It’s also gonna change the way because it’s only giving you one answer. It’s not giving you a Google results with a million. 

Brian: If I do the same thing, you guys can see the Google thing, right?

, if I do the same thing on Google, I don’t really have get a list. I have a list and I have to go click through them and see what’s happening and look at, like an answer is convenience, right? And so this is just. This is so much closer than people think. It’s Wow. I mean, it’s here. 

Andrew: I’ve never heard of that one. 

Brian: It’s the last one is Perplexity ai and it’s built using the same technology that powers chat, G B T, all by the slightly older version. But that’s the, and that’s what Bing will look like with chat. TPT is integrated with it and they’re [00:56:00] pushing to do this. They’re putting it in Excel.

They wanna put it in Word, they wanna put it in everywhere. . And this is gonna happen really fast. 

Andrew: So, so what’s like your help function in Excel and words? You’re saying clip, 

Duncan: it’ll be your new version 

Andrew: about like, here’s little paper clip. I remember that. Yeah. Except it’ll 

Brian: be, you can do that with that ChatG PT thing.

Now you can tell it to act as an Excel spreadsheet and write a formula and it will write a formula for Excel for, I 

Cara: also learned it writes html code for you 

Brian: . It’ll write HTML code. I had that do it for care yesterday. Yep. and then you can instruct it to ask and answer questions too. So we did that with Cara.

We were building out a page for this new C V C board and I said you’re a website developer, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You know, we need a table that has three columns. Here’s the title of the first, second, third. The information will contain the name of the person, their title, and their, you know, affiliated association.

You’ll ask me each time for the name of the person. There will be a total of 21 people, and then only after that you will generate the HTML code. Do you understand? Yes, I understand. Can I please have the [00:57:00] first name? Wow, 

Andrew: that’s crazy. That’s unbelievable. 

Brian: It codes, it’ll code a WordPress plugin, like it’s not always flawless.

. And again, it’s all about how you prompt it. But if you don’t think this thing is coming to a speaker that Microsoft is gonna release, oh yeah. It’s gonna destroy Alexa and Google and will truly be valuable. . If you don’t think it’s coming to a robot that patrols an automated Campground that can talk and interact to a guest and diffuse problems on its own, this is very quick happening.

Duncan: You definitely need to look at what your infrastructure backbone is in your park. , that’s the amount of bandwidth that it would require to operate an autonomous robot with video, with a running, a cloud-based artificial intelligence. You need to be aware that, you know, you have to have infrastructure to support some of this stuff.

Brian: I’m not saying the robots are gonna be in campgrounds this year, but I’m saying that the AI is here and this is, this very much exists and this is only a beta and I think GPT three is what it’s based off of, and it’s been released for two. [00:58:00] they’ve said in the they haven’t said, everybody who seems to pretend they know on YouTube thinks they’re gonna release G P T four within the first quarter of this year.

And if you think you’re blown away with what chat g p t just did, wait until that thing comes out. 

Cara: I think it’s, at this stage, it’s important. If I were still in an operator, would be paying close attention to tools like perplexity that are providing one answer and being strategic about my park being the one answer.

, that’s where I would start. I’ve said that 

Brian: Years. Voice assistant. I didn’t imagine things, a thing like chat. G B T was as close as it was. I didn’t honestly think that, but I’ve talked about voice assistance to people at many conferences who will tell you before, that’s exactly what I said, the future of search is gonna be exactly what we typed in, and it’s gonna give you an answer.

Cara: You’re in trouble. That’s been the biggest eye opener for me lately, is that it’s here and people are already using it. And so if you don’t know about it, here’s here it is for you because it’s time to get ready. 

Andrew: Yeah. [00:59:00] That’s pretty amazing. You save a lot of time already, construction, RFPs and stuff 

like that,

Brian: I mean, it literally knows everything about everything. So, anyway, we’re out of time. We’re six minutes over. I appreciate you guys. We probably, again, I could talk on this for the next 48 hours straight, but super exciting times. We live in. Just, it’s coming. It’s not even coming anymore.

I keep even, I haven’t caught up to that. Right? It’s here. And you can use it and you can. Save so much time and so much energy and so much headache, and so much Googling and you can get, again, you have to fact check some of this stuff. Nobody’s saying it’s always right, but our world’s gonna change.

So I’m excited to see where it goes. I think it’ll be a lot of good, but we’ll have to expand on that in another episode. So thank you guys. I appreciate you joining us next for RV Industry Focus Show and take care. Thanks.

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