Disc Golf Daily

Disc Golf Daily Sunday: Calixto Garcia, PDGA Europe's Plan

Summary Calixto Garcia, the PDGA Europe marketing and media manager, discusses the plans and initiatives of PDGA Europe to grow the sport of disc golf in Europe. The conversation covers topics such as the National Association Support Plan, the Disc Golf Development Grant Program, the Communication Plan, and the Competition Program. The goal is to support the growth of disc golf at all levels, from grassroots to elite competition, and to provide resources and assistance to national associations, content creators, course builders, and tournament organizers. The focus is on tailoring solutions to the specific needs of each European country and fostering collaboration and cooperation among disc golf enthusiasts.

Keywords disc golf, PDGA Europe, growth, initiatives, support, national associations, content creators, course building, competitions Takeaways PDGA Europe has implemented various programs to support the growth of disc golf in Europe, including the National Association Support Plan, the Disc Golf Development Grant Program, the Communication Plan, and the Competition Program. The National Association Support Plan aims to provide assistance and resources to national associations in different European countries, tailoring solutions to their specific needs. The Disc Golf Development Grant Program focuses on supporting initiatives to build new disc golf courses, introduce disc golf in schools, and promote disc golf growth in various ways. The Communication Plan aims to support content creators, such as YouTube channels and podcasts, by providing financial, technical, and human support, and fostering collaboration among European disc golf media. The Competition Program aims to support and elevate disc golf competitions in Europe, including national championships, underserved categories, and international events, with the goal of spreading top-level competition and helping countries achieve higher standards of events. PDGA Europe encourages disc golf enthusiasts to get involved, support their local clubs and associations, and reach out to PDGA Europe for assistance in realizing their disc golf dreams and initiatives.

Chapters 00:00Introduction and Background 03:20Supporting YouTube Channels and Content Creators 12:25Building Courses and Promoting Growth 21:54Spreading the Word and Encouraging Membership 26:43PDGA Europe as a Facilitator 29:34Call to Action and Conclusion Music by contreloup

Duration:: 30m
Broadcast on:: 29 Jun 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

PDGA Europe has implemented various programs to support the growth of disc golf in Europe, including the National Association Support Plan, the Disc Golf Development Grant Program, the Communication Plan, and the Competition Program.
The National Association Support Plan aims to provide assistance and resources to national associations in different European countries, tailoring solutions to their specific needs.
The Disc Golf Development Grant Program focuses on supporting initiatives to build new disc golf courses, introduce disc golf in schools, and promote disc golf growth in various ways.
The Communication Plan aims to support content creators, such as YouTube channels and podcasts, by providing financial, technical, and human support, and fostering collaboration among European disc golf media.
The Competition Program aims to support and elevate disc golf competitions in Europe, including national championships, underserved categories, and international events, with the goal of spreading top-level competition and helping countries achieve higher standards of events.
PDGA Europe encourages disc golf enthusiasts to get involved, support their local clubs and associations, and reach out to PDGA Europe for assistance in realizing their disc golf dreams and initiatives.

(upbeat music) - Welcome back to Disc Golf Daily Sunday edition, everyone. I am here with Calixto Garcia, the PGA Europe Marketing and Media Manager. So welcome Calixto. - Hey Ben, thank you very much for having me. - Of course, for the people that don't know, you just tell us a little bit about yourself and kind of your background in Disc Golf and what you do exactly for PDGA Europe. - Yes, I'm Calixto Garcia, I'm from Spain and I've been working for PDGA Europe since April 2033. I joined also the Disc Golf Movement in 2020 or something like this with the COVID as everyone. - I was actually a golfer, a bull golfer and also an avid mountain biker back in the 80s. I loved Disc Golf. I was already playing Discs with my kids and I didn't know that it was called Disc Golf but it was something similar. So when I saw my first bike did I say, I think that I know what's this for and then we started growing the sport here in the north of Spain. - That's awesome, yeah. And obviously we need to grow the sport worldwide. So it's pretty awesome what you're doing. You're actually at the Turco Open recently, you just told me. How is that and how did that go down? Any opinions on that? - Well, yes, we are going to all the DGPT Europe elite events and they are growing bigger every time. There's a lot of, you know, the people really know about the sport they're respected as a legit sport and the level of organization is very high and it's really, it's the way to go and it's showing a bit, you know, the path for other European countries, knowing what's happening in Finland, Sweden, Norway, they are like, you know, the three biggest countries in Europe. - So you say you're from Spain. Is there a big scene in Spain in a lot of courses or is it something that you're working on to kind of grow more courses in Spain? - Yeah, we are something like 25 big, these of courses in Spain for 50 million people. So there's a lot of potential, but it's very interesting because it's a lot of countries are in the same situation. Italy, France, UK, Germany, you name it. There's a lot of potential of big countries in central and southern Europe that still have to reach that level of growth that we find in Scandinavia or the Baltic countries. - Yeah, and I think that it's just, I think adoption is a huge part of that kind of getting people from these countries into disc golf and then that's when the cities and towns start to, you know, be like, oh, maybe there's something here. So let's get straight into what PGA Europe is actually planning for this year. So there's a lot of awesome things that probably most people haven't even heard about. So just tell us about the National Association's support plan. So for the 29 National Association, just tell us all about that, anything you can give us. - Yeah, there was a big change. Last year we were organizing the PDGA Euro tour. So it was a lot of, our time was spent on this and we didn't have a lot of time for doing the rest of things. With that change of DGPT Europe, organizing the European swing, combining the European pro tour and the PDGA Euro tour events, now we have more time to do a lot of things related with the growth of a sport. It's also important that before it was Mattie Verl, which is the tour manager, which was doing basically all. And I joined one year ago, also Jews on the M&N, the general manager joined some months ago. And we even have a communication assistance in the Hochar now working in the summer months. So we are basically four people now working. And the idea was to help the growth of sport in every European country, knowing what they really need. So contacting all those country coordinators to say, okay, which is the situation in Latvia or in Italy or in the UK. You cannot really make a one size fits all solution for all Europe. It's so different that you really need to contact those people that know about the sport. And this way you get the real knowledge of what's going on in each country. And this way you can make like a tailor made solution for each country. - Yeah, so you mentioned in the thing you said, me disc golf schools. Is this something more like a camp based or is this like an academy where people go and they're teaching disc golf while also teaching subjects? - It depends on the country. What we did is we made 21 topics of discussion from disc golf in the schools to what are the problems to put more disc golf courses in your country to what are your expectations to make an international event, et cetera. So we have different answer 29 different answers for the same 21 questions. So it's very interesting because for example, Finland or Estonia are doing great school programs where they are part of the education in physical education. But some other countries are just starting on that. So we get the knowledge of each country and we try to make some different segments so that we can apply the ideas of one country to the other. For example, that ideas of Finland wouldn't work in Italy 'cause Italy is still very much in the beginning. But for example, the ideas of, I don't know, Switzerland could be useful in Latvia 'cause they are on the same level. So it's one of those 21 aspects where we can find great ideas from one country and apply it to other countries. - So out of these kind of 21 points of interest in topics, what is the one that kind of you're most excited to roll out in and work on? - Yeah, well, I personally have a special interest on everything related with the media. I have a channel in Spain called Phona Disgolf that I started some three years ago and I was filming all the Spanish tour events and the idea was to extend that model to other countries. So one of those four plans that we're working on working on is the communication plan. We are trying to support something around 60 YouTube channels in Europe that are filming the Latvian Championship, the Swiss Championship, and we are giving them both financial, technical, and human support so that they can deliver their products, their national championships. We have various interests. We want to have more European Disgolf content, but we also want to have skilled teams on each country 'cause for example, now MDG Media is doing a great job on the DGPT Europe with the live streaming, but you have the, in Novavaltic tour, you have the Central European tour, you have the Balkan tour, you have a lot of competitions and it's growing more and more and we need to have a skilled teams in Latvia, Spain, Italy, or Scotland. So we are trying to support them so that when it's needed 'cause there is a new international event that we will need people to film it, we have skilled people already able to deliver a quality product. The other thing that we are doing is we are combining them into what we call the PDGA European content creators group where something around 80 people already between YouTube channels and podcasts, they are offering and demanding professional services. For example, some of those channels say, "I can film the Slovenian championships, "but I have no editing skills. "It takes me two weeks to edit a round of Disgolf." And there is a guy in Poland, Disgolf media postcard that says, "Hey, I'm a professional video editor. "Upload it to Google Drive. "We can arrange a price and I can do it for you "and you just put the boys." So that's the idea. Or for example, for some bigger international projects, some countries are a team from Germany has filmed the Austrian championship. Some kind of international cooperation, gatekeeper media is doing stuff here in Europe. They are filming the Swedish Disgolf Pro Tour. They are going to start doing things in the UK. So the idea is to offer them the opportunities to grow and some of them more on the professional side, especially in Finland, Sweden, Norway, and most of them on the amateur side on Spain, Italy, France. But the idea is to offer them the opportunity to grow and some of them will become sustainable projects in the future. And we also need them because we need to spread the word of what we are doing. We have another special thing in Europe, is that English is spoken by around 55% of the European population. So there is a 45% of the people that don't speak English. So we cannot reach all of them. We need to go through those national associations and through those national YouTube channels to say what we are doing in their local language. So, for example, we have made some a couple of ads and one of them, related with the girl, the sport, explaining what we are doing. We have made it in 17 different languages. So we have a Czech version. We have a Spanish version. We have a German version so that when it appears in that YouTube channel, we buy some other types of space so we can give them some money. It appears that ad in Czech or in German or in the Spanish. And people really understand what we are doing. So this is our communication plan. I'm very connected with that because of my past as Thona, this golf doing exactly the same in Spain. Yeah, it sounds like an incredible opportunity for anyone coming up in disc golf in Europe for if you're paying them and having this support group that I think is so important to have when you're starting out or even if you're established because it can be tough if you don't have that. I remember, I remember a couple of years ago, I had an interview with Johnathan Gometh from Gometh Pro when I was starting Thona disc golf and it was, "Hey, man, I'm talking with Johnathan Gometh." And he was so kind explaining, "Hey, Calix, go ahead, "film with whatever you have. "If you start with a phone, it's okay. "If you start with a DSLR, it's okay. "Go ahead, do things." And that this is the kind of role that we want to support. And we want to give that opportunity to do bigger things in communication in Europe. Yeah, so if you're in Europe, check out what they got going on. That was really, really fun, really cool and fun to hear about just like all the things you guys are working on, especially helping people out monetarily wise. That's awesome. So let's just go to your guys' plan to support course building. As you were saying, we were talking before how Spain and Italy have, there's 50 million people in Spain and 25 more courses. And I'm sure there's a bunch of more European countries. Like I know Ireland probably has like five courses. So it's sparse between country to country. It depends like you were saying. So just tell us more about that plan. Yeah, this is the second plan. This is the Disgolf Development Ground Program, which is the European name for the Marco Polo program that maybe you know in international wise. And the idea is to support those initiatives of people that were to build new courses in different countries. Not exactly, not only these golf courses, but it can also be related with introducing Disgolf in schools or some kind of all the activities related with Disgolf Road, no? And this is lead, this is led by Joseon Yamini, the General Manager. And we are making a big effort also in communication. We have already granted something around 20 programs. And we are getting the info of what they have done to show it 'cause we want PDJ members to know, hey, this is what we are doing with your membership fee. This is really helping to grow the sports. I want you to see what your money is doing. And I want to also to inspire some other countries that could say, hey, that's what I want. That's exactly what I want to do in Italy or in Slovenia or in Latvia or whatever, no? So we are trying to support that with the second of the programs, which is the Disgolf Development Run program. - So that's another very special thing that you're doing. And it's kind of awesome that you guys are able to focus sort of less on the tour because I think as important as the tour is for professionals and growing the sport, I think the way to grow the sport the best is actually getting the disc in the people's hands and having them throw. Because they're not gonna be interested in the pros until they have that experience of throwing at their courses. So it sounds like you guys got a lot of awesome things for them. - Absolutely, right? I feel that there was a big change first when a couple of years ago, it was only Matee, was the only employee. And even before there was only a board of directors, when you have an organization and basically you have a board of directors, you don't have a staff, you cannot really do a lot of things. So you can take a lot of good decisions, same as with the National Association. You have a board of directors, but if you don't have employees, you cannot implement those programs. Now we have four people working full time to develop this golf in Europe. And that is really, really helping because I love competition, I love top level competition. I just came from the tour co-op and of the DGPT. But for me, it's equally important, the Austrian Championship for the Austrian guys. Maybe it's the top event of the year because they don't travel abroad. And for them, it's very interesting. And also the local city or the local league is what it will help us grow the most and get more resources than we can apply both in the grassroots level and in the top elite level. But we have to take care of all the levels. - Yeah, exactly. I can't forget 'cause the beginners and the amateurs, I guess, are the biggest supporting cause of the tour and stuff like that. So it's definitely very important. And I've seen it even locally that the easiest courses get played the most. It's just kinda how we are in disc golf right now where the reds at Maple Hills, the most popular. It's not the golds. Barely anyone plays the golds. So tell us about, you have another plan to support competitions. Tell us more about that. - That's it. We have four programs. We have the National Association Support Plan, the Disc Golf Development Grant Program for the courses, the Communication Program for the YouTube channels and podcasts and the Competition Program. It's similar to the Disc Golf Development Grant Program but focused on competitions. Our idea is to say, okay, we want to help, for example. National Championships on countries, maybe with more than 50 PDJ members, if help them to become B tiers in Spain, all our tournaments are C tiers except for two of them. But the idea would be, okay, let's make the, if they want the Spanish championship a B tier so that they can have a higher prize pool and the Spanish champion can get some money. Of course, he will not be a true professional but at least he can pay the expenses. So try to help those countries to grow at least their national championships. We are also helping events that are focusing on underserved categories. For example, we organized the PDGA Europe Women's Event. That was a big success. We are supporting, for example, a great Estonian youth program that they have a great championship for kids and youths in Estonia. All those kinds of competitions are also supported. And we also focus on those countries that want to achieve higher standards events, international events. For example, those international tours, those what we call regional tours. For example, the Inova Baltic Tour is well known on Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania. We have now the Central European Tour, which is Czech Republic, it's like, you know, like a polo of attraction in this area. We have a Balkan Tour in the Southern Europe. So those are the kind of tours that good players can drive their car, play a good international event with people over 900 or 950 and come back home because they have to work on Monday because they are not professionals. So we also want to support those kind of initiatives. And we also want to support those kind of big events that, for example, aspire to become, let's say, a DGPT silver event, especially in those countries that still don't have that. For example, the Belgian Open is a DGPT silver event in Belgium. We would like to have more DGPT silver events in Germany, in France, in Italy, in UK. So if we can help, we can support them, we can sponsorize them, we can help with the prize pool, we can find ways to help them so that they can beat on becoming a DGPT silver event and grow from there. So the idea is to try to, you know, spread the top level competition, which is awesome now in the Nordic countries, try to help some other countries in the central and Southern Europe to also host those international competitions. - Awesome. So just to recap, we've talked about the PDG or Europe Development Grant Fund, the PDG Europe Competition Grant Program and the National Association Support Plan. And we kind of talked about this briefly, but there's also the PDG Europe Communication Plan to support 75 content creators through direct financial support. And is there any more topics that I guess in that, content creation, space support that you wanted to mention that we didn't bring up previously? - Yeah, for example, this support is also, for example, technical, we are helping them, for example, on generating those scoreboard graphics that are not simple to do. I've done it myself in front of this golf and you need after effects Photoshop Illustrator. - Yes. - It's not as easy to do. And for example, we are trying to get a system where you can put the PDGA link of the tournament and it generates those scoreboard graphics, at least on a basic shape, so that anyone can really make a YouTube video of their local city because the score board graphics would be solved. That would be an excellent help for a lot of small content creators to generate those graphics. Or for example, we are helping them with b-roll, with technical support. We are even, for example, in some occasions, we are even traveling there. I just traveled to France to one of their events for support. We want to also go to a couple of national championships to give them direct support. And the idea is, try to help them that with that first push, initiate that snowball effect. We don't want to give a fish. We want to teach people to fish. So I can help you so that you can make it on your own, sustainably, or you can make a group with other content creators and give you more opportunities. Those opportunities, for example, we are interested in the multi-language broadcasting. Now, with this golf network, you know that there is that alternate stream audio option that you can have, you know, the standard commentary and the German's commentary. So that would be ideal. Imagine in the future that you could make an English version and a German version, or a French version, or as you enter sports TV channels, you can hear that the same broadcasting in different languages. That is why we want to have teams that are skilled, that are used to broadcast tournaments in different languages so that if the opportunity arise, we are ready to say, "Hey, this is your man in Czechia. "This is your man in Latvia. "This is your man in Italy," you know, try to help on that. And it's also important that in that communication, we want to spread that much such of what we are doing. We have created two video ads. One is called Go Europe and the other is Grow the Sport. The Go Europe is everything about competition, building the hype. We are very excited with the president's cap, trying to make a good role there, trying to support our players when they are playing in the US, trying to boost the European swing when now all the Americans are coming here. This is especially for this, no? And the other one, the Grow the Sport, is exactly what we are talking about. We are trying to tell the people to say, "Hey, I know that you are a we can warrior. "You're a local C-tier player, "you just played your local club league." And you say, "Why should I care about PDJ? "I don't need that." But I'm explaining to you, "Hey, those $20 that you are paying, "it's useful, we are building today new PT pads in Ukraine. "We are getting new disc golf in school programs in Estonia. "We are helping YouTube channel in the Netherlands. "Your $20 are very well used." Now, so become a member of PDGA and help Grow the Sport. So we want to people understand that PDGA is much more than competition. Yeah, exactly. And I really appreciate you coming on and explaining all this, because sometimes people just think when they pay for the PDGA, it's just for their ratings and their number. But something as special as what you guys got going on in PDG Europe is crucial to the growth. And I think what you guys are doing is pretty incredible. I didn't even know fully what you were doing until you came on. So I'm actually very appreciative that you came on. Is there any way other than getting a PDGA number to support you in the plans and the initiatives that you have going on? Well, basically spreading the world. Following our Facebook, our Instagram, we are sharing a lot of information there. And you can help on, as the motto says, think globally, act locally. So you can think on the growth of Europe, but you live in a corner of Bavaria in Germany, help your local club. This is what you can do, so we also want that local support, and we want to support at all levels. And that is why you insist that it's very important in those interviews that we are having with those 29 country coordinators. We are having a couple of long conversations with them to exactly know what Latvia needs or what Switzerland needs. The Netherlands has a problem with land availability. They have a very high population density. And in Finland, they have all the land that they want because everyone can buy a piece of forest and build a disco, of course, there, no? So every country is different. And we are trying to build everything, not on our imagination or our ideas, but on the knowledge of those skilled peoples on each country. And we are putting black and white and action plan on each country to say, OK, in Italy, in 2024, we are going to make those eight things. And we're going to help you on-- we are sending, for example, we have sent 14 sets of professional beach flags and corrugated signs of PDGA Europe to 14 different countries to help improve the look or the national tour. And they're saying, hey, we are so happy. Now our competitions look a bit better. And on the whole one and whole 18, we have some flags. And people say, hey, something is going on. So probably Finland have more than enough flags. But Italy appreciate it a lot, no? So it's important to be very close to the national associations. Because this is that capillarity to know what's going on. And this way, we can arrive to every-- we can warrior, every simply casual player that just plays and thinks that PDGA is not his business. Agreed. Yeah, it's definitely important to get the professional side look on these tournaments, especially if you're trying to go to sport, because people walking by, seeing like, oh, what are these banners or feather flags? What does this mean? It all is a part of a one big puzzle piece. So before I let you go, is there anything that you want to just let the people know that we didn't discuss yet, that you guys are working on? Yeah. I feel that now we are in a good situation. We have an excellent board of directors, which is very active. And we are discussing a lot of ideas. We are counting with the support of the international department with Brian Höninger, the international director. And we are-- the key idea is that PDGA is a facilitator. I have the experience in media. And I have been doing videos for Spain and for Latin America. I know how to do it. But PDGA is not a media company. The idea is to act a facilitator to let the other media companies grow and find their spot. We can organize events. But the main idea is, OK, help those organizers to grow and become sustainable and even profitable. So we feel that the most important thing is to understand that PDGA is the facilitator that has the clear roadmap of where we want to go and try to put everyone in connection so that if you have a plan, if you have an initiative, you are in Romania that now is starting with this goal. Count on us. Just tell us what you are thinking about. And we will find a way even through us or in cooperation with other countries or other companies to make this goal grow in Europe. Yeah, so this is a call to anyone, even in America or anywhere, especially if you're in Europe, it's a call to action that these PDGA Europe is here to help you if there's not a course near you or you want to get into the media scene or just get better competition and better payouts. It's super important to look up to the PDGA and reach out to them to help you out. Because after all, the PDGA runs off of you. So without you and the people, so obviously they want to give back and help out as much as they can. So if you have a dream or anything, it doesn't hurt to ask, it's basically what I'm saying. Absolutely, absolutely. And just think about it, let us know. And we can help, for example, we are now cooperating with PDGA Latin America, which is growing quite fast. I have the advantage of, of course, speaking of Spanish. And some of those ideas are already there to apply adapting to the reality of Latin America. The reality is different. But you know, that kind of framework is as is applicable in other countries. We are also helping, for example, in Morocco now. We are trying to support the international department. So we are trying to, you know, get the good things of each area and act a facilitator to apply it in other areas. We could help of putting contact with the people that can really make your dreams come true, you know? Yes. All right. Thank you so much, Calyxo, for joining us. Is there any one last shout out you want to give to anything or anyone before we let you go? Yes, just, well, in July, we have the elections, both for the PDGA Global Board of Directors and for the PDGA Europe Board of Directors. So check out on PDGA.com website. And in our social media, we will make interviews with their candidates, explaining their ideas, their new candidates. Put your board, your boat. Let's make the disc golf even bigger in Europe. Yup. You heard them, everyone. Go follow @PDGA Europe. If you're watching this on video, it's on the screen. So go follow and tune in. 'Cause they got some special things going on. If you want to grow a sport, PG Europe seems to, you know, have it, have it on lock. You guys got a good plan, so it's awesome. Thank you so much for coming on Calyxo. This has been Disc Golf Daily. We will see you next time. (upbeat music) - Thank you so much for watching. Please like, subscribe, comment, and share. It really does help us grow. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)