Where Is All This Cooperation Coming From?
by Gene Muchanski
Editor, The Dive Industry Professional 

Last month I talked about how the industry has its defining moments and its current need of unity.  From what I saw last month, I believe that our defining moment is now. Either the industry has woken up and decided that the way we did things in the past is not bringing us the outcomes we are looking for or our Association has hit the tipping point from all of our support, promotion and hard work over the past 18 years.

My message for the year is that we can grow our businesses and the industry by becoming more professional, productive and profitable.  The underlining foundation of our industry is based on the sale of diving equipment, training and travel.  The front-line dive industry professionals who account for the sales are the local dive stores, dive boats and dive instructors.  The companies that profit the most from these sales are the diving equipment manufacturers, certification agencies and travel companies.  Many other diving related businesses and organizations profit from a growing and healthy industry.  They are the service companies, non-profit organizations, shows & events producers and industry media.  Because and only because of a strong economic diving market, many industry celebrities, opinion leaders and influencers get to enjoy a healthy and robust social life based on the successful activities of our recreation.

The Dive Industry Association is the only Marketing & Trade Association in our community dedicated to building economic development by working individually with all of the industries specializing in diving and diving related activities.  Our focus is on the industry’s supply-side and demand-side of the market.  Our Goal is to bring Buyers and Sellers together using print, digital and face-to-face marketing techniques.  We perform our Mission by studying the market in its entirety and understanding how diving programs, products and services move through the industry’s channel of distribution from product conception to consumption.  We are, in essence, the Industry’s Marketing Team.  Our performance is judged on how well we understand the supply side and the demand side of our market and how we use that information to convert marketing efforts to sales.

A project we started this past week is to identify the industry’s Key Corporate Leaders and the Regional Sales Representatives in the Manufacturing and Training Sectors.  The Travel Sector will be next.  The purpose of the project is to identify the current Key Industry Professionals, nationally and regionally.  This will help the industry contact the correct person when connecting with a buyer or seller  We first asked 122 Dive Industry Association members and then 150 equipment manufacturing professionals for their input.   To our surprise we received complete responses from 22 companies in the first day of our project.  That is very encouraging.

We are giving this project one week to complete and will then send an updated listing to each participant.  The file will be updated throughout the year and made available to all participants.  To complete the supply side of the market, we will focus on the Travel Sector next week.  The second half of the project will be to identify the buyers and resellers before we move on to the demand side of the equation.

I want to thank all of the industry professionals who are participating in our industry surveys and projects.  Collectively we have the tools and talents to make our businesses better and grow our industry.  See you at Beneath the Sea.