Back to School – Back to DEMA – Back to the Future
by Gene Muchanski
Editor, The Dive Industry Professional 

August is the get back month.  It doesn’t matter if you have kids or not, you can’t get away from the Back to School activities in your community or in the marketplace.  August is also the month most Dive Industry Professionals are getting back from vacation and getting ready for Dema.  For us Industry Planners, August is the time to get back to the future, or at least get back to planning for the future.  Where did the time go?  Oh, it hasn’t gone yet.  The season is still underway and there are at least two or three months of good diving left before you know what.  It’s easy to get confused about the present when your marketing mind in six months in the future.  Planners are actually thinking about their post-Dema campaigns and the beginning of the 2019 pre-season promotion circuit.

2019 is going to be a much different year for some of us.  In the past two months, I have been working on an industry campaign called Uniting the Diving Industry.  The campaign is laying out a twelve point plan that Dive Industry Professionals can follow to unite the dive community, improve their business and grow the industry.  Ten of the twelve steps have been published already and have been included in our Blogs, Weekly News, Monthly Newsletter and Websites.  We are hoping to wrap it up by Labor Day and introduce it to the entire industry in one complete whitepaper.  The year is going to be quite different for me because I am more focused on the outcomes that need to be achieved because of this campaign.  It is much easier to find solutions to our industry challenges when our desired outcomes are well defined.

The exciting thing about the Uniting the Diving Industry campaign is that a number of Industry Professionals are excited about the program and are pledging to follow it and even adopt it into their company marketing plan.  In addition to authoring the Uniting the Diving Industry campaign and committing it to paper, I am implementing the ten steps (so far) into the Dive Industry Association Business Plan.  I can already see a small growth in the number of subscribers to our Blog, Weekly News and Monthly Newsletter.  Our Membership has grown slightly and the interest in our Association and Foundation has increased significantly. Here is a summary of the 12 steps in our campaign whitepaper on https://divelocal.wordpress.com/white-paper/

1. Subscribe to our Blog.
2. Subscribe to the Dive Industry Weekly Dive News.
3. Subscribe to the monthly newsletter, The Dive Industry Professional.
4. Participate in Industry Surveys.
5. Participate in DIVE LOCAL.
6. Become a Member of Dive Industry Association.
7. Submit 24 Press Releases per year for publication.
8. Submit 2 Articles about your company for publication.
9. Make a Donation to Dive Industry Foundation.
10. Volunteer to work with DIA or the Foundation.
11. Join a Specialty Advisory Group.
12. Participate in an On-Line Webinar / Digital Summit Meeting.

You’ll notice that steps 1-3 only asks you to subscribe to something and read it.  Very little commitment here.   In Steps 4-5 we ask you to invest a little time.  Steps 6-9 require you to invest a little time, money and manpower.  Step 10 increases your time, money and manpower commitment.  Steps 11-12 requires you to take a Cooperative Leadership Role in the Diving Industry.  Please read this draft copy of our plan and feel free to send us you comments and suggestions.

I am confident we will learn a lot about our Industry, as well as our Association and Foundation in the process and will be able to make the necessary changes required to grow.  Now it’s time to get back to work.