White-Paper

DSC_0457DIVE LOCAL – A Dive Community Cooperative Effort
by Gene Muchanski
DIVE LOCAL Coordinator

DIVE LOCAL is a community effort to reach the general public and promote snorkeling and scuba diving as a exciting recreation. Our Mission is to show people how to; 1) Learn to Dive.  2) Buy Their Dive Gear.  3) Go Diving.  4) Stay Active in the Recreation.  Our Goal is to support and promote; 1) Local Dive Stores.  2) Local Dive Operators.  3) Local Dive Clubs.  4) Local Diving Instructors.

DIVE LOCAL – A Dive Industry Community Effort

Chapter 1 – What is DIVE LOCAL?
Chapter 2 – What is Local Diving?
Chapter 3 – Four Pillars of the Local Dive Community.
Chapter 4 – Levels of Participation.
Chapter 5 – Geographical Breakdown.
Chapter 6 – Population Breakdown
Chapter 7 – The Industry’s Key People
Chapter 8 – The Problems with the Industry.
Chapter 9 – Possible Solutions.
Chapter 10 – Actionable Items to Work on.
Chapter 11 – Regional Summit Conferences
Chapter 12 – Unifying The Diving Industry

CHAPTER 1 – WHAT IS DIVE LOCAL?

DIVE LOCAL is a community effort to reach the general public and promote snorkeling and scuba diving as an exciting recreation.  It is a combined industry effort of dive industry professionals to promote diving and stimulate diving activity within the diving community.  DIVE LOCAL uses National Magazine coverage, Regional Dive Shows, and Regional Summit Conferences in addition to websites, newsletters, blogs, electronic mail, press releases, and social media networks to promote local diving shows & events and local diving activity.

Our Mission is to show people how to:  1) Learn to Dive.  2) Buy their diving equipment.  3) Go Diving.  4) Stay active in the recreation.  Our Goal is to get new customers in the doors of:  1) Local Dive Stores.  2) Local Dive Boats.  3) Local Dive Clubs.  4) Local Scuba Instructors.

Think of DIVE LOCAL as a pot-luck dinner that everyone can participate in, but only works if everyone brings something to the table.  For the community effort to be successful in the long-term, all of the participants need to gain something from their involvement.

CHAPTER 2 – WHAT IS LOCAL DIVING?

All diving is local.  It doesn’t matter if you’re in Chicago, Los Angeles or Cozumel.  Every geographical area has its own local diving community.  We are interested in having Local Ambassadors promoting their Local Diving Sites in their own Local Diving Community.  When a Dive Store in Chicago sponsors a dive trip to the Great Lakes, that’s local diving.  Same thing with a California Dive Boat taking Divers out to Catalina Island. When a group of dive resorts on Bonaire work together to identify and post 63 beach diving sites along the shores of Kralendijk, that’s local diving too.  To be perfectly honest with you, there is good local diving all over the world.  This fact has been with us all these years – the Heart & Soul of the diving community is “Local Diving.”

CHAPTER  3 – FOUR PILLARS OF THE LOCAL DIVING COMMUNITY.

The diving industry as a recreation is spearheaded by four sectors of the industry who come in contact with the general public on a daily basis; the Local Retail Dive Centers; the Local Dive Boat Operators; the Local Dive Clubs; and the Local Diving Instructors.

Local Retail Dive Centers are the centers of activity in their Local Diving Community.  As public businesses, they are usually the first point of contact between the general public and our industry.  Hundreds of thousands of people in the United States learn to dive at dive stores every year.  Dive Centers are where people learn to dive, buy their equipment, and if done correctly, stay active in the recreation. Dive Stores also rent equipment, have a fill station, repair and service equipment, have a club, book local dive charters and conduct annual dive vacations to dive destinations worldwide.  A well-run retail dive center is a one-stop-shop for the recreational diver.

Local Dive Boat Operators do their part in keeping divers actively diving.  And they make money at it too!  Dive Boats service the student divers and certified divers alike.  Keeping Dive Operators in the public eye and publishing their individual schedules is a full time job.  Promoting Dive Operators is a national industry priority.

Local Dive Clubs were very popular in the 1950’s and 1960’s.  Those were the days when being “Social” actually meant something.  In the past 46 years Dive Clubs have performed a very important role in keeping divers active.  Today, non-profit organizations like the Underwater Society of America are still bringing divers together by planning local events such as Underwater Hockey.  If we want our recreation to survive, we need to return to the club concept and keep divers actively involved.

Local Scuba Instructors teach in dive stores, high schools, colleges & universities, YMCA’s, resort destinations and independently.  Is teaching scuba diving a hobby or a business?  It could be either and it could be both.  Many of our industry retailers, reps, manufacturers and travel professionals started out as scuba diving instructors. Getting access to a classroom, pool and open water is relatively easy and there are many ways to accomplish this.  With the introduction of social media and modern marketing vehicles, advertising instructional services is easy and inexpensive.  There is no reason why Scuba Instructors shouldn’t have a WordPress Blog Website, a Facebook Page and a Constant Contact email account to help them market their services to the general public.  The only major challenge independent instructors still have is their access to reliable instructional equipment.

CHAPTER 4 – LEVELS OF PARTICIPATION

Categories of participation for the DIVE LOCAL Community Campaign include: Ambassadors, Volunteers, Sponsors, Donors, Advertisers, and “Friends of the Industry.”

  • Ambassador: Any person that has a vested interest in the economic development of diving as a sport, recreation, profession, career, or hobby.  Ambassadors come from Dive Retail Centers, Dive Boat Operators, Dive Clubs, Scuba Instructors, Employed or Volunteer Diver, or from any Service Related Business.
  • Volunteer: Divers and non-divers alike.  Anyone can donate time and/or talent to the campaign to promote local diving.
  • Sponsor: Businesses that specialize in diving and watersports or who benefit from the economic impact of diving and diving related businesses have the duty and responsibility to help promote the community they rely on for a living.  Sponsors receive a direct benefit and promotion from their generous donations.  Sponsorships start at $5,000 per year and may be tax deductible.  Check with your accounting professional.  At least one sponsor is needed for every Trade Show we exhibit at.
  • Donor: Any person or business entity may make a donation to the Dive Industry Foundation, in any amount.  The Foundation is a non-profit, tax exempt, 501(c)3 charitable, educational organization.  Donations are tax deductible and Donors can specify what their donations are to be spent on.  The Foundation promotes local diving, conducts industry surveys, sponsors business seminars and luncheons, works with diving and diving related non-profits and has helped members of our community in times of personal need or disaster.
  • Advertiser: There are plenty of advertising opportunities through the Dive Industry Foundation and the Dive Industry Association. Media Kits are under construction and will be available in the near future.
  • Friends of the Industry: Any person may become a “Friend of the Industry”, our partners in promoting local diving and doing good work for the industry.  Annual Memberships are recognized for a donation of $25 or more.

CHAPTER 5 – GEOGRAPHICAL BRAKEDOWN

To make the DIVE LOCAL concept work, we have to take into consideration the world’s geographical locations as they pertain to direct access to various bodies of water.  Then we have to consider the comparative population in those areas.  The most important consideration to the international diving community right now is the number of active divers and diving businesses in each geographical territory.  Since the international diving community has never organized a concept like DIVE LOCAL before, anything we do to identify, organize and target the world’s diving population (the international diving community) and diving businesses across the globe (the Global Diving Business Network), the better position we will be in to effect development, growth and prosperity in our recreation.

Mind you, any efforts we make to identify, organize, and target the international diving community, will be subject to change as we evolve.  We are on virgin territory here, and that’s a good thing.  None of us is an expert at this, so we can all consider ourselves to be discovery pioneers.

Principle Guideline:  Before we begin with the work of setting our geographical boundaries and identifying the number of divers and diving businesses around the globe, let me make one ground rule that we will follow.  It doesn’t have to be a rule that everyone agrees with or follows.  It’s just a guideline that the Dive Industry Association will follow.  Our one organizing guideline that we will adhere to, is to start working with divers and diving businesses we identify in the market, immediately.  This is not an academic pursuit for us and we are not interested in building a list of certified divers or licensed diving businesses.  The question we will be focusing on is “How many divers and diving businesses have we identified and started working with so far”, rather than “How many divers or diving businesses are there around the globe?”   This may seem like a confusing point to some people, but if you think about it, shouldn’t we concentrate on identifying as many divers and diving businesses in the international diving community so we can start working with them immediately?  I believe that is more important than just knowing how many there are.  It’s about creating a market for the Global Diving Business Network so that we can focus on bringing buyers and sellers together immediately.  I know that some marketing experts will want to identify the total market and its potential first, so they can calculate their anticipated market share.  I appreciate that concept, but I think we’ll just skip to the part where we identify and start working with Dive Industry Professionals around the world that are looking to do business with the current, participating, global diving business market.

Geographical Breakdown:  In most cases, we attempt to be Geo-Graphical rather than Geo-Political.  When dealing with the International Diving Community, it may be necessary to group different countries together where there is close proximity, rather than which political flag they fly under.  Such is the case with the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico which are United States territories but located in the Caribbean.  There are many other similar cases all across the water planet.  When it comes to planning DIVE LOCAL shows & events, I believe that catering to divers and diving businesses in close proximity is a better option, barring any political or territorial conflicts.

To keep things simple, we start with Continents and break them down into Country, Region/Territory, State/Provence, County, City, and Neighborhood if necessary.  In the example below, we begin with the seven continents: North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia/Oceania, and Antarctica.  In the case of North America, we include the United States, Canada, Mexico, Central America, the Bahamas, and the Caribbean.  In the United States (where DIA HQ is located), we segment the mainland states into the Northeast, Mid-America, Southeast, Florida, North Central, South Central, Northwest, and Southwest.  Florida, incidentally, is sometimes separated from the Southeast Territory because it has 17% of the Retail Dive Centers, most of the Dive Boat Operators, and accounts for an estimated 25% of the diving industry’s annual sales volume.  As we mentioned before, because we have U.S. Territories, we include the Caribbean for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.  For Hawaii, Guam, and American Samoa, we include them with the South Pacific.  In the example below, we have taken our geographical breakdown to the state level.  When a state has a significant number of divers or diving businesses and becomes difficult to manage, it may be prudent to further breakdown the state into Counties, Cities and Neighborhoods.  There is no recommended minimum number of people in a Chapter but the maximum number should not exceed much more than 100 people per Chapter.  As your Local Chapter grows, we recommend you split the Chapter into smaller, easier to manage Chapters.  Chapter designations should be very flexible and changed to meet your local needs. The ultimate goal is to create Local Diving Communities that have a sufficient number of divers and diving businesses so as to create local diving events that bring them together and produces more activity and growth.

Continents

  1. North America
  2. South America
  3. Europe
  4. Asia
  5. Africa
  6. Australia & Oceania
  7. Antarctica

North America (Continent) – Country

  • United States
  • Canada
  • Mexico
  • Central America
  • Bahama Islands
  • Caribbean Islands

United States (Country) – Territory – State

  • Northeast – CT, MA, ME, NH, NY, RI, VT
  • Mid-Atlantic – DC, DE, KY, MD, NC, NJ, PA, TN, VA, WV
  • Southeast – AL, GA, MS, SC
  • Florida – FL
  • Caribbean – PR, USVI
  • North Central – IA, IL, IN, KS, MI, MN, MO, ND, NE, OH, SD, WI
  • South Central – AR, CO, LA, NM, OK, TX
  • Northwest – AK, ID, MT, OR, WA, WY
  • Southwest – AZ, CA, NV, UT
  • South Pacific – GU, HI

Canada (Country) – Territory – Providence

  • Atlantic – Newfoundland (NF), New Brunswick (NB), Nova Scotia (NS)
  • Eastern – Quebec (QE), Ontario (ON)
  • Central – Manitoba (MA), Saskatchewan (SK)
  • Mountain – Alberta (AL)
  • Pacific – British Columbia (BC)

Caribbean Islands

  • Barbados
  • British Virgin Islands
    • Tortola
    • Virgin Gorda
  • Cayman Islands
    • Cayman Brac
    • Grand Cayman
    • Little Cayman
  • Cuba
  • Dominica
  • Dominican Republic
  • Grenada
  • Haiti
  • Jamaica
  • Martinique
  • Netherlands Antilles
    • Aruba
    • Bonaire
    • Curracao
  • Trinidad & Tabago
  • U. S. Virgin Islands
    • St. Croix
    • St. John
    • St. Thomas

CHAPTER 6 – POPULATION BRAKEDOWN

Local diving communities are built and developed by the number of diving businesses in a particular geographical area and the number of divers that reside there.  The more divers a geographical location has, the more likelihood diving businesses will want to locate there.  More diving businesses create more new divers.  The number of diving businesses in a local diving community increases as the diving population increases.  The Dive Industry Foundation’s mission is to encourage the creation, growth, and continuance of Local Diving Communities across the globe.  Our purpose for writing this chapter is to show the industry how Local Diving Communities (markets) are created, how they grow, and how they are nurtured.  It’s important for Dive Industry Professionals to know how important Local Diving Communities are to the Global Diving Community and the Global Diving Business Network.

Business Population Breakdown:  The first step in addressing the diving population breakdown is to realize what creates the population to begin with.  We start the process by introducing the four pillars of market growth in the diving community.

The 4 Pillars of Market Growth

  1. Diving Instructors
  2. Dive Stores
  3. Dive Boats
  4. Dive Clubs

Diving Instructors create the market and the demand for diving related programs, products, and services.  I don’t want to limit the discussion to Scuba Instructor because diving is a big tent that includes many types of diving. When we talk about diving instruction, we should be referring to snorkeling, free diving, mermaiding, scuba diving, technical diving, and all the other forms of diving.  Instructors start off by teaching their family and friends how to dive, and as they gain more experience, their circle of influence grows.  Diving Instructors are the core component of our industry because they are the ones who create the market that we make our living from. 

Retail Dive Stores are usually the first point of contact to our recreation for the general public.  Stores have a public store front and are open for business on a regular basis. Dive Stores teach diving, sell and service diving equipment, take people diving, and keep divers active.  It’s important to remember that the Instructors at the dive store are the ones responsible for creating the market.  It’s our job to acknowledge that Dive Stores are the ones who grow and maintain the market by providing and following up with post certification activity.  Creating a market by teaching people how to dive does the industry very little good if certified divers don’t buy their gear, go diving, and stay active after certification.

Dive Boats are the champions of local diving.  They are responsible for taking people diving and keeping divers active.  Our industry would be at a loss if not for local dive boats.  Boat diving has come a long way from the early days of “an instructor with a boat” that took scuba students diving.  It has grown into an important part of our industry.   Most of the dive boats that charter for hire are well built and maintained vessels, operated by a licensed Captain and crewed by a certified Deck Hand or licensed Divemaster.  Dive Boats are owned by Instructors, Dive Stores, or Professional Charter Boat Companies. Because chartering is usually a seasonal part-time business, dive boat operators do not have a large enough marketing budget to promote their business in the media and at local diving shows and events.  The Dive Industry Association provides a low-cost membership in their trade association to help dive boat operators deal with the business of diving issues for this segment of the industry.

Another very important segment of the local diving community is the Local Dive Club.  Although not as popular as they once were, Dive Clubs are still very active in parts of the country.  Dive Clubs keep divers active in the recreation.  Some clubs are dive store affiliated and some are independently operated.  Diving is a social activity and meeting face to face with other divers on a periodic basis is an enjoyable way to stay active in the recreation.  If managed correctly, active participation in a local dive club could be the glue that keeps our industry together.

There are other stakeholder groups in the diving industry that build, support, and benefit from a strong and successful local diving community.  Because of the way our industry’s channel of distribution works, traveling sales representatives have become the link between the local dive businesses and their distantly located vendors, the equipment manufacturers, training agencies, and travel companies.  The bulk of total industry revenue comes from the sale of diving equipment, training courses, travel programs, and lifestyle products.  The producers of these products are nationally located as opposed to the buyers and resellers of their products who are the Local Diving Businesses.  The challenge of bringing buyers and sellers together has been dealt with by having local sales representatives calling on their local accounts during the year or meeting with them at regional shows and events in addition to the one annual national trade show.  To increase wholesale orders, Regional Diving Communities can organize local buyer-seller events for qualified retail buyers who are unable to attend the national trade show.  This option would increase sales on an industry level and strengthen the concept of the Local Diving Community.

Dive Industry Professionals Actively Engaged in the Local Community

  1. Equipment Manufacturing Sale Reps
  2. Training Agency Reps
  3. Visiting Travel Advisors

No one outside of the local diving community spends more time in the territory than sales reps who work for dive equipment manufacturers, training agencies, and travel companies.  Some of the Sales Reps, or Sales Agents as we call them, live in the local community, but most travel to many dive communities in their territory.   Face-to-face selling is one of the most expensive and time-consuming ways to sell programs, products, and services, but in our industry, it is the most effective way to conduct wholesale business.

Dive Equipment Sales Reps:  Sales Reps have been used in our industry from the very beginning.  Today, diving equipment companies may use both in-house salespeople and outside sales agents.  Most outside sales agents are independent contractors and carry multiple lines, whereas in-house salespeople are most likely to be employees.  Sales Reps that represent the larger manufacturers are assigned territories that may include, on average, seven states and 163 dealers.  Sales Reps for the major lines normally focus on their primary company and may also represent another non-competing brand.  The bulk of the industry’s sales force either works for a professional repping company (sales organization) or independently.  Smaller companies usually do not have a sales team.

Outside Sales Reps visit their Dealers on a seasonal basis as often as they can.  Reps have used Regional Dive Shows, Regional Dealer Meetings, and National Trade Shows to meet with their Dealers.  When such an event is well attended, the sales meetings can be very cost effective.  Although a Sales Rep can make a very attractive living as a Rep, traveling to meet with their accounts individually is very expensive.  In past industry surveys, we discovered that Sales Reps spend on average over $33,000 a year on travel and are on the road 183 days a year.  Sales calls for dive equipment Sales Reps average $203 per Dealer.

Training Agency Reps:  The role and responsibility of Training Agency Reps has changed many times over the years.  Depending on the training organization, Agency Reps can operate regionally, nationally, or even internationally.  It all depends on the size of the organization and their business model.  Some Agency Reps focus on training, some on service, and some on sales.  Again, depending on company and business model.  Agency Reps can either focus exclusively on training whereas other agencies allow their Reps to represent diving equipment companies.  Either way, from our point of view, this makes the Training Agency Reps an important stakeholder group in the Regional Diving Territories and the Local Diving Communities.

Visiting Travel Advisors:  Salespeople from dive travel destinations, dive resorts, and dive operators have always visited local dive centers and dive clubs whenever they are in town for a regional dive show or event.   To create a sales force to call on group travel buyers throughout the year may be a little cost prohibitive.  We have seen in recent years, with the increase in travel shows, that Tourism Bureaus and Trade Organizations are sending their sales representatives into the field to conduct travel seminars and sales meetings with potential group travel buyers.  This trend may be an opportunity for Local Diving Communities to plan local diving shows and events to attract the travel industry as participants, exhibitors, and sponsors.

When we look at the population breakdown of the local diving communities, we see that some of the dive industry professionals are locals, and some are frequent visitors.  Local diving communities are also supported by people and businesses outside of the local territory that may visit only a few times a year.  And that’s OK as we’ll explain.  Certified scuba divers can also be classified as residents, frequent visitors, or occasional visitors.  All of these Dive Industry Professionals and certified divers help make the local diving community what it is.

Other Stakeholder Groups: There are other important stakeholder groups in every Local Diving Community.  As the Local Diving Business Community grows, businesses that support the diving community enter the market.  As more divers are certified in the communities, businesses that support divers also enter the market.  There are a few exceptions to the rule.  Besides more divers and more dive businesses, geography plans a major rule in attracting diving and diving related businesses.  Equipment manufacturers are influenced by proximity to their suppliers.  Resort Destinations and dive operators choose their location based on what they sell.  Non-profit organizations choose their location based on a variety of reasons.  For these reasons, it’s important that we identify each of these stakeholders because of their value to the local diving community rather than the reasons they chose to locate there.  It is our purpose in publishing this series to identify the stakeholders that make up our local diving communities and to think of ways we can interact with them to our mutual benefit.

Other Stakeholder Groups

  1. Diving Equipment Manufacturer
  2. Equipment Distributor
  3. Service Provider
  4. Media Company
  5. Trade Association
  6. Training Association / Certification Agency
  7. Non-Profit Service Organization
  8. Shows & Events Operator
  9. Travel Business (various)
  10. Industry Professional
  11. Certified Diver
  12. Friend of the Ocean

Each stakeholder group will have a different function in their Local Diving Community and each Local Diving Community will have a different mix of stakeholder groups.  It is our mission to identify, define, organize, grow, and maintain Local Diving Communities around the globe

CHAPTER 7 – The Industry’s Key People

What do you think about when you hear the words “Key People in the Diving Industry?”  A number of years ago we ran a survey and asked select Dive Industry Professionals who they thought were our industry key people.  Not surprisingly, a few training agency CEO’s names were mentioned, along with some  top executives of the large diving equipment companies.  Jean Michel Cousteau’s name was mentioned a few times and so were a few scattered individuals in different industry sectors.  It seams that our respondents were a little confused about the difference between the titles of  “Key People” and “Industry Heroes.”

I can understand that.  Sometimes we think about key people as industry heroes, Hall of Fame nominees, popular dive industry professionals, environmental volunteer workers,  gifted underwater photographers, or even accomplished underwater explorers.   But as we began the DIVE LOCAL series of articles, the words Key People took on a whole different meaning.  To us, a key person in the diving industry is a person who is making a significant contribution to their own business and the entire diving industry as a whole.  A Key Person in the diving industry is also the lead person in an organization that is responsible for leading their company forward, regardless of their total industry significance.

Last month we added this chapter to our DIVE LOCAL series because we wanted to add faces to the names of the companies that are actively involved in creating, maintaining, and growing our local diving communities.  It’s important to remember that businesses don’t make a local diving community successful, people do.  It’s the people we celebrate in this article and it’s the Key People we maintain contact with to follow and promote their progress.  Defining the diving industry’s key people is easy when we are talking about Local Dive Industry Professionals.  We see these people face-to-face on a daily basis.  It gets more important to define who are key people when they are infrequent visitors to our local diving community and especially more important when they are located outside of our community, state, or territory.  Let’s start with the top four sectors of our local diving community that are usually local residents.

The 4 Pillars of Market Growth

  1. Diving Instructors
  2. Dive Stores
  3. Dive Boats
  4. Dive Clubs

Diving Instructors:  Every diving instructor is a Key Person in our books.  Of course, we are talking about the active diving instructor who is currently engaged in teaching diving classes.  Diving Instructors are helping to grow the market every time they teach and certify a new student.  As we have said before, if it weren’t for diving instructors, there would not be a diving industry or a market for diving equipment and dive travel.

Retail Dive Stores:  Every local dive store should have a Key Person in charge.  It doesn’t matter if that person is the owner, the store manager or the lead Instructor.  A successful dive store that is operating on all cylinders is the center of a successful local diving community.  Most dive stores teach classes, sell equipment, service equipment, and have some type of dive travel program, be it local diving or dive travel.  That means they are doing their part to grow the market.  Having a Key Person at the store that can take the time to communicate with the diving industry outside of their local diving community is extremely important and advantageous to the dive store.  The store key person should be forming business relationships with the stores equipment vendors, training agency, travel wholesaler and trade association.   The farther away that you are from your vendors, the more likely it is that you can miss out on business opportunities.  In our case, we give free website advertising to Local Dive Stores and often conduct email campaigns to divers in their local diving community.  All we ask is they mail us one of their business cards and keep in touch with us from time to time.  If the local store key person doesn’t know who we are, there is a very good chance that we don’t know who they are.

Dive Boats:  We’ve said before that Local Dive Boat Operators are the champions of local diving.  Usually, a dive store or dive instructor owns a boat that takes out students or local divers.  Since most dive boats are six-pack licensed, they mostly rely on their inner circle of students, friends, or customers.  Only when a dive boat decides to increase their capacity to run charters do they look into the possibility of advertising outside of their inner circle.  That’s where working with a trade association can help.  We would gladly list the local dive boats in a local diving community web page if the Dive Operator would send us one of their business cards and designate a Key Person from their Dive Boat to keep in touch with us from time to time.  All that is needed for a Dive Boat to stay in the public eye is to make that a responsibility of one key person.

Dive Clubs:  Dive Clubs were very popular in the 1960’s.  Maybe because scuba diving was new, maybe it was because there were a lot of baby boomers interested in an outdoor, physical activity or maybe it was because there were fewer recreational options available at the time.  I also think we were more social back then.  It was fun to get together with other divers and go diving, and talk about diving, and go to Film Festivals as a group.  Today is a much different story for dive clubs, although I do see some great activity from some dive clubs across the country.  I see press releases from Indian Valley Scuba Club (PA) all the time and I wish I still lived in Houston when I see Gigglin’ Marlin Dive & Swim write about their great club dives.  So good Dive Clubs are still out there.  What would help Dive Clubs grow would be to appoint a Key Person to represent the club and have a permanent mailing address that did not change with the election of every new president.  If they created a free WordPress website and free Facebook page, that would go a long way in creating the stability that dive clubs need.   Again, it all boils down to appointing one Key Person to be the face of the Dive Club to the Local Diving Community.

Now we get to the point of people who live outside of the Local Diving Community but are considered to be Key People in their Regional Diving Territory.  That would be the Sales Representatives working for the equipment manufacturers, training agencies, and travel tourism bureaus.  Because of the fact that Regional Sales Managers spend so much time on the road in their territory and are probably the best paid professionals in our industry, they are considered to be the most knowledgeable about the state of business activity in their territory.  According to DIVE LOCAL’s geographic breakdown, a territory may consist of multiple states and multiple local diving communities.  That’s the reason Regional Dive Shows like Beneath the Sea, Our World-Underwater, Sea Space, and Scuba Show were so well attended for many years. They created and grew a regional diving event that drew attendees  from multiple territories.

Dive Industry Professionals Actively Engaged in the Local Community

  1. Equipment Manufacturing Sale Reps
  2. Training Agency Reps
  3. Visiting Travel Advisors

Dive Equipment Sales Reps:  Each Sales Rep is considered a Key Person in their territory because of the amount of time they spend with clients and the amount of influence they have in the success of the local diving communities they work in.  We like to think of Regional Sales Managers as our boots on the ground regional influencers.  Regional Sales Managers can play a greater role in the Local diving communities they service. There are a great deal of benefits available to them by joining the Dive Industry Association.

Training Agency Reps:  Similar to Equipment Sales Reps, Regional Training Reps are Key People in their Territory.  There has been quite a bit of change in the past ten years with Training Reps.  Some Reps are now also working as Dive Equipment Reginal Sales Managers as in the case of Mares and SSI, while others  represent their National Training Agencies as Training Instructors, Sales Managers or Service Managers.  Training Agency market share was at its highest levels when training agencies used local Regional Sales Managers.  The strongest market share years for NAUI Worldwide was when they had Regional Branch Managers.  Having a local person responsible for sales and activity is the most competitive asset a company can have.

Travel Advisors:  The dive travel industry is a little different when it comes to local and regional representation.  Most Tourism Bureaus and Boards have regional offices in the major cities like New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Houston, and Miami.  Sales Representatives from their regional offices are the ones who participate in local dive shows and trade shows.  The regional offices also get extra help from time to time when Senior Tourism Managers from the Country’s Tourism Bureau happen to be in town for a local event.  It is our intention to work with National Tourism Boards to help them understand and sell to local diving communities and at Regional Diving Shows & Events.

The most difficult key people to account for and manage are the ones who live outside of the Regional Diving Community and are considered to be key people on a National or International basis.  There are a number of companies in a limited number of stakeholder groups that do not want their key people identified or even contacted by other members of the trade.  Whatever their reasons are, we have to respect that.  It’s their company after all.  Since our Mission is to bring Buyers and Sellers together for the benefit of the Global Diving Business Network and the Global Diving Community, we have chosen to focus on identifying and working with the Key People who are involved in the sale of diving equipment, dive training, dive travel, and lifestyle products.  We also have the social responsibility to work with the non-profit organizations in our industry.

Our approach to working with the Key People in the industry will be to follow the marketing channels of distribution that these companies use to move their products from conception through consumption.  We are more interested in working with diving companies that want to increase their sales, market share and marketability.  We view this as a life-long project rather than a short-term research project to build a list of Industry Key People.  This is our first pass at the Other Stakeholder Groups.  More detail and more stakeholder groups will follow.

Other Stakeholder Groups

  1. Diving Equipment Manufacturer
  2. Service Provider
  3. Training Association / Certification Agency
  4. Non-Profit Service Organization
  5. Travel Business (various)

Dive Equipment Manufacturers:  As a Trade Association, it is our responsibility to identify and work with original equipment manufacturers, equipment component manufacturers and suppliers, brand marketers, and distributors.  Since our mission is to help bring buyers and sellers together, we use a basic Channel of Distribution:  Manufacturer – Sales Rep – Retail Store – Consumer.  The Key People we are looking to identify are: General Manager – Marketing Director – Sale Manager.  The categories of manufacturing that we will start organizing are:  Full Line – Multiple Line – Single Line – Tech – Photography – Specialty – Apparel.

Service Providers:  A very important stakeholder group, but often underrepresented, is the Service Provider sector.  Mostly because the grand majority of service providers are small owner-operator businesses with a limited marketing and advertising budget.  The Service Provider companies we are following deal with:  Repair & Maintenance – Software – Professional Services.

Training Agencies:  There are over 50 Training Agencies in the United States.  Not all agencies have Training Managers or Sales Managers in all territories.  As a Trade Association, the Key People we look to identify are the General Manager (Executive Director), Training Director, Marketing Director, and Sales Director.  If the agency is looking for new customers, having one external key person to contact streamlines the acquisition process.  Having one internal key person that focuses on competitive strategy keeps the agency moving forward.  Having regional representatives engaged in local diving communities or territories, with their local contact information, is important to local diving businesses who want to have a working relationship with the national agency.

Non-Profit Organizations:  There are many non-profit organizations in the Global Diving Community.  We have identified non-profits that focus on environment and conservation issues, veteran health and rehabilitation issues, marine life programs, scholarship programs, and educational foundations.  There is a greater need in the industry to define, organize and promote non-profits for a number of reasons.  First of all, there are many people involved in non-profits.  They include the founders, board of directors, paid executive staff, non-paid staff members, and volunteers.  Secondly, there seems to be a higher turnover rate for people who work in non-profit organizations, and consequently there is a high turnover of the contact people who represent non-profits.  Finally, there is a disturbing trend in non-profits that are moving out of their national headquarters and no longer publishing a contact person or mailing address for their organization.  We are seeing an increase in online fund raising but a decrease in physical presence and personal accountability.  It’s important for non-profits to put a face and a name to all of their regional representatives and have a contact person (face & name) at their national headquarters.

Travel Businesses:  The Travel Industry is a very important aspect of our recreation.  Water covers over ¾ of the earth’s surface which means there are unlimited places to dive.  What is limited in the Global Diving Business Network are the number of Airlines, Dive Resorts, Liveaboards, Dive Operators, Dive Stores, and Dive Travel Wholesalers across the globe.  The Dive Industry Association keeps track of over 1,000 dive businesses that are involved in dive travel.  Based on the Channels of Distribution we work with in the travel industry, it is important that we maintain contact with two Key People at each company.   We’ve already stated why it is important to maintain contact with the Internal Key Person at the company.   But what about the External Key Person?  A travel company that specializes in adventure dive travel normally hires a number of external sales, marketing, and reservation specialists, in many geographical locations across the globe.  While it is important to hire these specialists, a company can lose its connection to a market overnight, if and when their market specialist stops working for them.  Why?  When an independent contractor leaves your employment, they take their contacts with them, and you are left to reinvent the wheel.  That’s where our association comes in handy.  We can help the Internal Key Person find a new local sales, marketing or reservation specialist.  That is one reason we work so hard to acquire and maintain our industry database.  We didn’t build a professional database just to have a list of the people who work in the diving industry.  We built our database to be able to bring buyers and sellers of diving equipment, training, travel, and lifestyle products together.  That is the true purpose of a Professional Trade Association.

Steps to be included in our Global Diving Business Network:  We encourage Key People at companies that specialize in diving to register with us at the Dive Industry Foundation.  1) Send us your business card and any sales and marketing brochures you use to promote your company.  It doesn’t cost anything to register with us.  2) Subscribe to our Industry Blog, Weekly Dive News, Monthly Trade Magazine (The Dive Industry Professional), and our annual Trade Directory.  Subscription is FREE and you can change your subscription preferences or unsubscribe fully at any time.  Subscribe to our Blog at www.diveindustrynews.net   Subscribe to our other publications through Constant Contact’s Safe Subscribe Service at https://visitor.r20.constantcontact.com/email.jsp?m=1101436852044

To be listed in our Annual Trade Directory & Buyers Guide and be eligible for benefits from our Buyers & Sellers Referral Program, we invite you to join the Dive Industry Association.  Annual membership is $125.  We look forward to working with you in the months to come.

CHAPTER 8 – THE PROBLEMS WITH THE INDUSTRY

CHAPTER 9 – POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS

CHAPTER 10 – ACTIONABLE ITEMS TO WORK ON

CHAPTER 11 – REGIONAL SUMMIT CONFERENCES

Scuba Diving Shows are the annual highlight event of every region.  More people attend their Regional Trade Show than any other event in the year.  That is why we chose to conduct three Regional Summit Conferences in the United States in 2016.  Over 100 Dive Industry Professionals attended and participate.  We took good notes and video taped major portions of the programs.

Regional Summit Conferences Meetings Conducted

  • January 22, 2016 – World of Water – Frisco, TX – South Central Summit
  • February 25, 2016 – Our World-Underwater – Rosemont, IL – North Central Summit
  • April 1, 2016 – Beneath the Sea – Secaucus, NJ – Northeast Summit

CHAPTER 10 – UNIFYING THE DIVING INDUSTRY

Twelve Steps to Unifying the Recreational Diving Industry.  In an effort to overcome the fragmentation of the recreational diving industry, we are suggesting 12 steps that help to unify it and help it grow.  DIVE LOCAL has created a central place on the internet for all Divers worldwide to gather and get their information about all types of diving and adventure travel. The goal is to improve business opportunities in the recreational diving market for all businesses specializing in diving.

Step 1 – Subscribe to our Blog at diveindustrynews.wordpress.com All Editorials, Articles, Press Releases, and Industry News start out as a blog post.  Editor, Gene Muchanski blogs on important diving topics including; Monthly Editorials;  Press releases from industry businesses; Equipment reports and reviews;  Travel articles and resort destination reviews;  Industry Surveys and their results; Industry current events; and Industry Intelligence.

Step 2 – Subscribe to our weekly press release service, Dive Industry Weekly Dive News: Dive Industry Professionals need to keep their finger on the pulse of the industry.  It’s important to know what is happening in the industry and who the players in our industry are.  Dive Industry Association‘s press release service reaches the entire industry with current news and information, not just paid advertisements.   Dive Industry Association has been publishing its Weekly Dive News every Tuesday since January 2014.  Anyone in the diving community can subscribe to the Weekly Dive News free of charge, simply by subscribing on-line using Constant Contact’s SafeUnsubscribe.  DIA Members receive 24 FREE Press Releases per year with their Membership.  Non-Members pay $50 per press release.  Subscribing to the Weekly Dive News is FREE.  Subscribe here

Step 3 – Subscribe to our monthly Newsletter, The Dive Industry Professional. The mission of the newsletter is to inform, educate, and entertain Dive Industry Professionals Worldwide.  The Dive Industry Professional has been publishing monthly news since May 2001 and has undergone many changes and upgrades in its format and distribution since.  Our original audience was made up of Dive Industry Professionals, who work in the industry either on a part-time or full-time basis.  Over the years is has come to include certified divers of all levels and adventure travelers.  The Dive Industry Professional includes an Introduction, a Monthly Editorial, Featured Articles, News Articles, Marketing & Business Improvement Articles, a Shows & Events Calendar, and a listing of new and renewing Dive Industry Association Members.  Each edition includes a Monthly Birthday column and a reprint of the latest Weekly dives News press release.  It includes Quick Links to helpful websites.   We use a summary format for each article to allow our readers to quickly scan the entire Newsletter and then click to read complete articles that interest them.  The direct e-mail distribution, using Constant Contact’s e-mail marketing system and SafeUnsubscribe mailing reaches 5,000 diving professionals worldwide.  Each issue of the monthly publication is simultaneously posted to our social media network on Facebook, Twitter and Linked-In.  Copies of our Monthly Newsletter from June 2007 through August 2015 have been achieved to one of our trade websites.  View Archive.  We have plans to start achieving our Newsletters once again and will soon have our back issues posted.  Subscription is FREE and open to anyone interested in diving and adventure travel.  Subscribe today   – Read complete article

Step 4 – Voice Your Opinion – Participate In Industry Surveys. Before anyone can attempt to deal with problems in the industry, it must first be defined, studied and analyzed.  Surveys establish a base line when it comes to determining where we are on a particular issue or as an industry.  Once we have established a baseline, we can measure any change in a positive or negative direction.  If we conduct surveys over a longer period of time, we can formulate trends that will help us estimate future conditions.    Then we can brainstorm on problems and possible solutions to achieve our desired outcomes.  By measuring the effect of various inputs on the outcomes we achieve, we can establish “Industry Best Practices.”  Sounds simple, doesn’t it?  But first we have to agree to produce good, short, quality surveys and entice dive industry professionals to participate in them.  There are currently four industry surveys conducted on an ongoing basis.  The Non-Profit, Dive Industry Foundation conducts the Retail Dive Center annual survey and the Manufacturing Sales Representative annual survey.  DEMA conducts its quarterly & annual Manufacturing Equipment Sales survey and the Cline Group conducts its survey.  Read complete Blog Post

Step 5 – Participate in the International Diving Cooperative Program, DIVE LOCAL:  DIVE LOCAL is a project of the Dive Industry Foundation, a non-profit, 501 (c) (3) tax-deductible, charitable organization.  DIVE LOCAL is international in scope and one of its sponsors is the Dive Industry Association.  DIVE LOCAL has a Blog Website, a Facebook Page and its own Twitter Account.  The main goal of DIVE LOCAL is to create opportunities for local diving businesses and help them succeed in business, thereby growing the industry.

Our first task is to define the size of the industry and its economical potential.  To do that we must identify the dive businesses and dive industry professionals that make up the dive business community.  To ensure that only current dive businesses are listed in our directories on https://divelocal.wordpress.com we are asking dive businesses to send us their current business card and any marketing materials they may have on their company.

Anyone who comes in contact with a Dive Industry Professional can participate in this project.  Manufacturers can send us a business card from each of their key employees and Reps as well as their product catalog, Dealer Price Sheet and any marketing materials they may have.  Dive Retailers can get a business card from every Sales Rep who visits their store.  Sales Reps can get a Business Card from every Dive Store they visit throughout the year or see at the DEMA Show or Regional Dive Show they attend.  It would be very helpful if you put them in the mail to us on a monthly basis.  Training Agencies come in contact with a tremendous number of Dive Industry Professionals and can and should be a big help in this project.

The reason we ask for the original business cards is that we use Card Scan hardware and software to process and file the cards for our industry database, which is currently at about 4,400 Dive Businesses and Industry Professionals.

But first, allow me to destroy some common myths and assumptions associated with this project and give you some guarantees that will make you feel more at ease.  First of all, DIVE LOCAL will not share any sensitive content about your company to any individuals in the industry.  In the case of dive companies, we only list the name of the company, it’s city, state and country and its website address on our Regional and Worldwide Directories.  That is to give you exposure and promotion to potential customers, not to get you on everyone’s spam list.  In the case of Dive Stores and Dive Boats, 99% of these businesses want people to visit their business website.  That’s how you get customers.  Dive Clubs and Dive Instructors may have different ideas on how they advertise for customers and that is on our “To Discuss” list.

Secondly, we are listing dive businesses (Manufacturing, Retail, Training and Travel) that are registered businesses with their city, state, county and country governments.  They are finite in number and their contact information is available to the public.  There is no secret as to who they are or where they do business.  Why would any company doing business in public want to hide from being discovered by potential customers?

  • Manufacturers – Send us Business Cards for your Key Employees and Sales Reps
  • Training Agencies – Send us Business Cards for your Key Employees and Sales Reps
  • Sales Reps – Every time you visit a Dive Center, get a card for us and mail them monthly.
  • Dive Stores – Tell us who your Reps are and get a Business Card for us.

DIVE LOCAL already has special cooperative programs for Training and Manufacturing Sales Reps to help them identify Retail Dive Centers in their territory.  We have gotten business cards from a number of Reps and even listed their accounts on a database that is specifically tailored to them.   Their list can be emailed to them quickly and as needed should they lose or forget to bring their Dealer Accounts Book with them on the road.  Of course, their list is never available to anyone but them.  A great benefit of this program is our automatic updates to the Reps when we discover an out-of-business Dealer or a new Dive Store in their territory.  Any Sales Rep can call our office for details and how our program can be of value to them.

The last myth I would like to dispel is the fact that any customer and belongs to you.  Customers do not belong to you.  They are yours only for that period of time when you meet their needs with goods and services they need, want and can afford.  If you want them to be your customer for a longer period of time, you must continue to meet their needs.  In the 1960’s and 1970’s the major certification agencies published Directories of their Scuba Instructors.  The directory listings helped working Instructors find new students.  As Instructors stopped teaching classes, the need to be in a directory vanished and actually became a problem with unwanted phone calls asking about new classes.  Another problem was that agency competitors may have been using their directory to solicit their Instructors.  Either way, the working Professional Educators lost a good source of marketing exposure.

Now in the 21st Century we have Instructor and Dealer Directories on-line.  It seems that everyone has a directory, but unfortunately many are not well kept or current.  And there still is no all-inclusive, industry-wide directory.  Maybe with DIVE LOCAL, that will all change.

The DIVE LOCAL Website, Facebook Page and Twitter is live.
Visit our website – https://divelocal.wordpress.com  read our blogs,
Like us on facebook –  https://www.facebook.com/DiveLocal/
Follow us on twitter – https://twitter.com

Step 6 – Become a Member of the Dive Industry Association:  Becoming a dues paying Member of Dive Industry Association helps fund the projects the association undertakes to promote and help grow the industry.  By becoming an Active Member of the association, Dive Industry Professionals are participating in the industry’s growth and success.  Without active members that care enough to get involved in their profession, an industry would wither and die.

The whole purpose of this Unifying the Diving Industry campaign is to get Dive Industry Professionals engaged in their industry and work with their peers to make this a better place to work and recreate.  Think of your annual dues payment and a few hours of your time as a means to promote and grow the industry in a cooperative manner.

For critics of the industry, who complain about decreasing sales, loss of our customer base and a decreased interest in scuba diving, let me assure you that this campaign can help breathe new life and vitality into our recreation, hobby, and profession.  Steps 1-3 of our campaign focuses on three things that industry professionals could sign up for and observe – for free.  Step 4 & 5 focuses on two things that we could do for the cause.  A little bit of effort but still no cost.  Now in Step 6 we are asking the industry to make an investment of $125 to help fund the marketing tools and technologies the association uses to promote scuba diving and adventure travel to the general public.  Purchasing marketing tools, electronic hardware, and software programs to build websites, blogs, press releases, advertisements and marketing campaigns is expensive.  If one company had to pay for everything, very little would get accomplished.  You can only do limited things on a limited budget.  However, if every business in our industry pitched in just a little, imagine what we could do to promote our Members and our trade?  That’s the purpose of Dive Industry Association, and as you’ll see in Step 9, the Dive Industry Foundation.

Step 7 – Submit 24 Press Release per year for Publication:  Press releases are a very important part of uniting the diving industry.  There is an inexhaustible need to read information about people, products and places in the diving industry.  We all want to know what is happening with diving equipment, diving education and diving travel.  That goes equally as well for industry professionals who work in the trade and for divers who scuba dive for the fun of it.  As Adventure Seekers and Adventure Travelers we are all natural born story tellers to begin with, whether we realize it or not.   I’ve seen dull parties comes to life when someone starts a conversation about diving in some exotic corner of the world.  Throw in the words SHARK or LARGE MARINE ANIMALS and you immediately have people’s attention.  Why not develop that ability in writing and tell your story to the masses?  We can help you with that.

The Business of Diving is all about selling what we do, to people who want to do it too.  To call it a business, you have to sell something to someone.  For a sale to take place, your customer has to become aware of your product, the fact that you sell it and where they can buy it.  That’s called marketing.  To have a successful business you need to sell a sufficient number of products to a sufficient number of people, and to do that you need to have a marketing vehicle that delivers your message, about your product, to the potential  customers that are in the market to purchase it.

Advertising is all about telling your customers that you have something for sale that they need, want and can afford.  Selling is setting up a mechanism where you can close the sale and allow a transfer of product for compensation take place.  A Press Release can therefore be the message that gains the interest that paves the way for a sale.

How can press releases unite the industry?  Here is just one example.  If every one of our Members created 24 press releases per year for publication, more people would subscribe to and read our Weekly News.  Growing the number of subscribers puts more people on the same wave length.  That is what unifies the industry, more people on the same wave length.  The major obstacle is to identify and unify the many different wavelengths in our industry.

Our goal is not just to have everyone just read our Weekly News.  Our goal is to let the general public know about all the major media sources in our community.  That will benefit all of the major media sources and their readers.  We’ll do our part to increase the circle of our influence, to benefit the industry.  We’ll even help our members get their press releases into other sources of media in our community.

Step 8 – Submit 2 Articles about your Company for Publication:   Submit two articles about your business, your products or your people to the major print media in the diving industry every year. That may sound like a monumental task, and at this time it probably is.  There is no doubt that print media has lost some of it popularity in the digital age.  Yet, when we look a little closer we see there are a number of fine magazines that are of interest to the diving community.  There are a number of factors we looked at when we compared six diving magazines from our non-profit’s business library.  We compared readership and the number of copies printed per month.  We felt the overall look and feel of the magazine was important in regards to the quality of the paper, the layout, and the quality of the images.  The most important aspect for us is the quality and relevance of the articles and the diversity of topics.   All the magazines we looked at covered a diverse range of topics of interest to the diving public.  We read articles about diving equipment, dive travel, training, health and fitness, marine life and environmental concerns, local diving, photo techniques and current events.  We saw a number of encouraging similarities and we even saw a few topics of interest that are not currently being covered.

At the top of our list for a quality publication is Alert Diver, The Magazine of Divers Alert Network, published by DAN, Inc.  The magazine is a DAN Membership benefit and has an average monthly net press run of 143,949 copies.  DAN uses high quality paper, has interesting articles, covers a wide range of topics and has a good balance of advertisements vs articles.  I like the fact that Alert Diver had the most pages (112) of the six magazines we compared and the lowest percentage of advertising pages (17.4%) in its Winter 2018 issue.  The magazine has good industry support and attracts advertisers from the equipment, training, non-profit and travel sectors.  The magazine is laid out very well, doesn’t look cluttered and is easy to read.  Alert Diver is our role model and industry standard for future articles on dive industry media publications.  Keep up the good work.

During our research of different industry media, we did not look at Digital Magazines that did not have a print component to it.  This medium and business model needs a comprehensive study to determine its impact on our industry.  We did not include digital media in our twelve part series on Uniting the Diving Industry.  We also did not look at in-house publications of the certification agencies and have not included them in our white paper on Uniting the Diving Industry.  

Step 9 – Make a Donation to Dive Industry Foundation: Dive Industry Foundation is a non-profit, tax-exempt, 501(c)(3), charitable organization dedicated to promoting economic development in the worldwide diving community.  The Foundation maintains a full time office in Melbourne, Florida.  It sponsors DIVE LOCAL, conducts industry surveys, exhibits at diving trade and consumer shows, and conducts business improvement seminars and workshops for dive business owners and their employees.  It is establishing a Business Reference Library with books and magazines from the diving industry.  The Foundation has sponsored three Regional Summit meetings (Dallas, Chicago, Secaucus) and conducted two industry luncheons in Tacoma, WA.  Dive Industry Foundation has held fund raisers to donate money to a Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles and two dive industry families during their time of need.  The Foundation has no paid employees and uses only Volunteers.  It operates on donations from individuals and businesses.  Their web site is www.diveindustry.org and they maintain a Facebook Page and post to Twitter.

Donating funds to the Dive Industry Foundation is very important for the growth and survival of the diving industry.  Every dive business and industry professional should make it their responsibility to fund this organization that works to research, analyze, advise and promote our industry.  The tasks and projects the Dive Industry Foundation takes on are detail oriented, time consuming and non-income generating in the short term.  The long-term benefits of having a research, educational, promotional and unifying organization in the industry is priceless.  An outside consulting firm can never do what needs to be done in our industry.  We must gather and use the collective wisdom, knowledge and experience of Dive Industry Professionals who have had successes and setbacks in their life-long profession.  Think of the Dive Industry Foundation as an organizer, mentor and guide that will assist the diving business community in dealing with its own internal strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.  I am confident that the dive industry can correct itself.

As an organization with its primary goal of “Unify the Diving Industry” the Dive Industry Foundation has accepted the responsibility to define, analyze, advise, unify, promote and increase the economic impact of the diving industry.  Working within the parameters of these six steps, I believe the industry will be able to understand the complexities of its makeup, work to end the fragmentation of the market,  and increase the opportunities for all industry professionals.

Step 10 – Volunteer to work with Dive Industry Foundation or Dive Industry Association. Exhibiting at Trade and Consumer Dive Shows has been a priority of DIA & DIF since their beginning.  For a history of shows we have exhibited at, go to diveindustry.org/shows-events/exhibition-history/   We are looking for volunteers to staff our booths at Trade and Consumer Dive Shows.

Step 11 – Join Specialty Advisory Groups to stimulate discussions concerning Industry SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, & Threats). Another Group is the DIMP – Dive Industry Marketing Professionals.

Step 12 – Participate in Future On-Line Webinars and Digital Summit Meetings. The three industry summit meetings that were held in 2016 produced some amount of success but the concept did not have sustainability.  It doesn’t make sense to hold annual meetings to complain about the problems of the industry and then do nothing about it.  Rather than conduct an in-person summit meeting at trade & consumer dive shows, maybe an ongoing series of short, specifically targeted, digital meetings would be better.  The format is simple.  Identify the industry’s SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities & treats) – Suggest potential solutions to the problems – create a plan to pick the best solutions to the problems – Delegate assignments and implement plan – Follow-up.  It is also important to record what was suggested, what was implemented and what was accomplished.  Having a history of what worked and what didn’t is critical to the following year’s plan of action.

September 4, 2018 – White Paper Completed.   Download Summary