Lead With Your Vision
 by Gene Muchanski, Editor
The Dive Industry Professional

The diving industry has always been criticized for lacking vision. Going back as far as I can remember, Dive Industry Professionals have always engaged in conversations about the lack of vision in the industry, or would it more correct to call it the lack of shared vision in the industry?  I think it is the latter.  We have all been a part, to some degree, of bar room conversations about what was wrong with the diving industry or what the diving industry should be doing.   We have even blamed single individuals, companies, and associations for not doing for the industry what in the industry needs to be done.  That’s our opinion of course.  Well, that was then, and this is now.  We can no longer blame others for the lack of growth or the lack of unity in the diving industry.  It’s time for those who have a vision for the successful future of the diving industry to put their vision to the test.

Let’s begin by saying that a vision is something which is seen.  If it exists in the physical realm, then most people can understand it and get behind it.  But if the vision is in the imagination of an individual, or visionary, then it becomes an idea that fewer people will understand, comprehend, believe in, or follow.  So, after all these years in the diving industry, I’ve come to realize that our visions and ideas must make their transition into the physical realm to be seen, understood, and believed in.  I know, as my grandmother used to say, “Too soon old, too late smart.”

To be perfectly honest, there have been many visionaries in the diving industry.  Individuals we all know have put together training agencies, trade associations, trade show organizations, retail chains, innovative travel companies, liveaboards, and resorts, and some of the best dive equipment manufacturing companies in the industry today.  We have all benefited from the application of the vision from photographers, explorers, environmentalists, and engineers.  What they all have in common is that they saw something that didn’t exist, and they made it a reality.  We all need to follow their example and do the same.

Not everyone in the diving industry has a vision for the future of the diving industry.  Many people just deal with the present conditions, challenges, and opportunities in the industry and deal with it the best they can.  I believe that a vision for the betterment of the industry, comes from studying the global diving community and understanding its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, and limitations.  When we see things that are wrong with the industry, it seems natural to offer suggestions for their improvement.  When we see things that are missing in the equation, filling in the blanks would appear to be the next logical step.

Eight years ago, we came up with the concept of creating a Global Diving Business Network that would work to grow the Global Diving Community.  The concept became known as DIVE LOCAL and was designed to be a diving industry community project that created and maintained local diving communities across the globe.  We created the framework, defined objectives, established geographical boundaries, organized dive industry professionals into stakeholder groups, and described levels of participation.  Our original group sponsored three regional summit conferences where we met with over 100 Dive Industry Professionals and recorded their comments, suggestions, and feedback.

Our first project in 2018 was to list all the Retail Dive Centers in their respective territories, by state.  The goal was to verify dive stores that are currently in business so we could refer divers and prospective divers to their local dive stores.  We listed each store by their name, city, and state.  To confirm their current business status, we offered to include their website address in exchange for one of their business cards.  The listings were free because we were looking for local diving community participation that would unite and grow the local diving communities.  In the following two years, a few dive stores sent us their business cards and claimed their complete free listing.  A number of Sales Reps verified their local dealers, and we added their website addresses to our web pages.  We were thankful to the Retailers and Sales Reps who participated in our project, but it wasn’t enough.

We brought back our annual first class, post card mailing to all dive stores in the United States in January 2020.  Although our mailing eliminated out-of-business dive stores and gave us the new addresses of stores that relocated, it did not help us identify new start-ups nor did it verify stores that went out of business but had a mail forwarding agreement with the post office.  We needed to do something more.

Beginning in 2023, we started to spotlight one state per month in our Weekly Dive News press release service, with a link to the DIVE LOCAL website page that listed the dive stores by territory.  This weekly press release has turned out to be one of the most clicked-on press releases in the Weekly Dive News.  The releases were getting good readership, and a few people started to send us comments on the stores that were listed on the web page.  The comments about the stores who are no longer in business and the new stores we had not listed were very helpful.  What hurt the most were the negative comments we received about the validity of the listing without specific reference to which stores were current, not current, or missing.  We were being judged on the validity of the actual listing and not on the community project we were undertaking.  The community project of listing the current dive stores is a work-in-progress type of project that gets a local diving community involved in promoting their own community.  But sometimes, a work-in-progress project is too slow to do much good.  Based on the comments we received, we decided to speed up the process of verifying current dive stores.  We have added the process of verifying the website address of each dive store from our database, and then adding them to our website listing.  We have already verified over 500 dive store email addresses but have a few states left to complete.  We are now finishing up with California and Florida.

Beginning in 2024, we will continue with our annual first-class post card mailing and showcasing one state per week in our Weekly Dive News press release service.  We will continue to verify website addresses every week and hopefully fill in the blanks of the stores currently listed without website addresses or delete them in the process.  Our goal is to direct divers and potential divers to their local dive store to begin their underwater experience.  As always, community participation is still welcome, while we lead with our vision of a united, transparent, and growing Global Diving Community.

This is an exciting time to become part of the Global Diving Business Network.  For more information, contact Gene Muchanski, Executive Director of the Dive Industry Association, 2294 Botanica Circle, West Melbourne, FL 32904.  Phone: 321-914-3778.  Email: gene@diveindustry.net  Web: www.diveindustry.net

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