Members Update – SDI/TDI/ERDI

What: Seminar Presentation
Date: Wednesday 11/16/16
Time: 11am-12pm
Where: S227
Who: Sean Harrison

Seminar Description: This seminar is of value to all SDI, TDI, ERDI members. We’ve got some new things that we’re excited to tell you all about. The seminar is open to all SDI, TDI, ERDI members for you to learn all about the newest changes with training standards, teaching materials, products and a virtual tour of the new website. This is also a great time to met members of our team and ask questions. A must-attend for all MEMBERS.

How to Win with Social Media Marketing – Awesome tips for your limited schedule

What: Seminar Presentation
Date: Wednesday 11/16/16
Time: 12pm-1pm
Where: S227
Who: Darren Pace

Seminar Description: What? You can win social media? Of course you can! Winning with social media is all about the engagement.  What is engagement?  Anytime a fan likes, comments or shares your post.  If you are getting good engagement, then you are being effective. But, effective tactics like crafting relevant content to publish (or finding it) and engaging with your followers, can cost you something very important: your time.

Join Darren Pace with SDI/TDI/ERDI for a social media marketing jam session and walk away with tactical advice.

You are part of the problem – A discussion of Sean’s open letter to the industry

What: Seminar Presentation
Date: Wednesday 11/16/16
Time: 1pm-2pm
Where: S227
Who: Sean Harrison
Presentation Description: In our small little industry we often focus on a problem and that problem typically is a diver or that divers ability. We take our observations and our critical opinions and we redirect them towards someone else, the blame game. In any industry we will face problems that can affect us personally and professionally. In this presentation we are going to break down our observations and provide potential solutions to turn not only negatives into positives but also make them into opportunities.

How BIG is Technical Diving? A statistical look at TDI Certifications

What: Seminar Presentation
Date: Wednesday 11/16/16
Time: 2pm-3pm
Where: S227
Who: Brian Carney
Presentation Description: Earlier this year, TDI released its certification numbers at TEK Dive USA and released a video of the presentation.   Join Brian Carney, President of TDI as he releases updated statistics, along with further discussions of why the market is the size it is, and ways to improve it.  Some items that will be presented include, the total number of Open Circuit Technical certifications issued by course, and by year.  In addition, learn which CCR courses are most commonly taken and the most popular Overhead courses.

Cylinder Inspection; The New Revenue Generator- Learn how to make money outside scuba

What: Seminar Presentation
Date: Wednesday 11/16/16
Time: 3pm-4pm
Where: S227
Who: Don Kinney
Presentation Description: Even the newest open water diver knows, that a scuba cylinder is subject to at a minimum, of at least once a year internal visual inspection. But, what about those paint ball cylinders? Or beverage containers? In this seminar, we’ll present a number of opportunities that can open up to you and add to your bottom line in your service center.

A PESTEL Analysis of the Diving Market

What: Seminar Presentation
Date: Wednesday 11/16/16
Time: 4pm-5pm
Where: S227
Who: Mark Powell
Presentation Description: “The Only Thing That is Constant, is Change -” These words are as true today, as they were when they were first spoken by Heraclitus in 500 BCE , a Greek philosopher from Ephesus. In the 2500 years since Heraclitus, the rate of change has only increased and any business must keep up with change or get left behind. Change can come from within our business, it can occur within our industry or it can be driven by the world around us.
Why is it, that some businesses seem to be very good at anticipating and making the most of change while others, seem to completely missing out on changes and do not react until it is too late? How can you anticipate the changes that may impact the diving industry in the next few years? 

As well as being a member of the TDI/SDI Training Advisory Panel and author of “Deco for Divers”. Mark Powell has been a visiting lecturer in marketing management at the London School of Business and Management, and is also a regular speaker at various dive shows throughout Europe. In his DEMA seminar, Mark will show how your business can increase its chances on being on the right side of change.

Instructors, Bring More to the Table than a Rating

What: Seminar Presentation
Date: Wednesday 11/16/16
Time: 5pm-6pm
Where: S227
Who: Cris Merz
Presentation Description: Instructors are educators – that is why they teach.  One of the biggest obstacles instructors may have ,is turning that into dollars.  Learn how as an instructor, you can increase sales and revenue for your business and yourself.  There are many common questions like when is the right time to sell equipment, advanced classes and travel?  How can you increase customer awareness using social media? In this seminar, Cris will help answer these questions as well as, help you find out how to become a confident instructor that can also close the deal.

Public Safety Diving – How do I start training public safety divers?

What: Seminar Presentation
Date: Thursday 11/17/16
Time: 10am-11am
Where: S227
Who: Thomas Powell 
Presentation Description: The most common question we hear from people that want to get involved in public safety is, “Where and how do I begin?”. Join our PSD pros in this seminar to learn about the requirements on how to become a safety instructor. Leading in to how to overcome the struggles and obstacles with starting a public safety dive team.  See you there!

Managing Millennials – Hiring, Communicating, and Working with this Generation

What: Seminar Presentation
Date: Thursday 11/17/16
Time: 12pm-1pm
Where: S227
Who: Brian Carney and Stephanie Miele Carney
Presentation Description: Last year SDI/TDI/ERDI presented a widely popular seminar on “Inside the Millennial Mind”. This year’s presentation will be a follow up to that one, where Brian Carney will discuss the strengths and challenges, with working with this often misunderstood generation. Does your younger staff drive you crazy sometimes, with how much they rely on social media or communicate without talking with people? Does your boss drive you nuts, because you always have to show him how to download and use an app? Is communicating with each other a challenge? If so, this is one of the must attend seminars at DEMA this year! 

WTF is up with Professional Liability Insurance – Panel discussion with brokers

What: Seminar Presentation
Date: Thursday 11/17/16
Time: 1pm-2pm
Where: S227
Who: Brian Carney, Bill Ziefle & Peter Meyer 
Presentation Description: Join a number of brokers who are currently offering professional liability insurance’s. They will discuss why rates go up year after year, why renewals are difficult, and where they believe the insurance industry will be in the coming years. This is the first of its kind, where competing brokers will not only answer a series of panel questions but also field questions from the floor together as a group for the first time.

Human Factors in Diving

What: Seminar Presentation
Date: Thursday 11/17/16
Time: 2pm-3pm
Where: S227
Who: Gareth Lock  
Presentation Description: Gareth retired after 25 years in the Royal Air Force in February 2015 and it was during this period that his interest in Human Factors in diving germinated. Having seen how military aviation learned from its mistakes, he tried to apply these processes to diving. Five years ago he wrote a white paper on the application of a human factors model to diving which wasn’t too well received. To improve his credibility and improve the body of knowledge in this area, four years ago he enrolled on a self-funded, part-time PhD examining the role of HF in diving incidents at Cranfield in the UK. Last year he recognized that there was a gap in knowledge of HF skills in diving, and created a classroom-based course and an online course to teach and coach human factors skills. He truly believes that if ‘human error’ is the answer that comes back from an ‘investigation’, it is only the starting point to determine why it made sense to those involved to behave in the way they did. His key aim is to develop a Just Culture within the diving community, so we can continue to learn from others’ mistakes and behaviors, by being able to talk about those adverse events free from negative criticism. As well as being a PhD candidate, he is currently self-employed as a consultant teaching and providing advice on human factors and human performance in a number of domains including healthcare and high risk businesses.

Communicating with my customers, how do I close the deal in 2017?

What: Seminar Presentation
Date: Thursday 11/17/16
Time: 3pm-4pm
Where: S227
Who: Cris Merz 
Presentation Description: Selling in 2017 will not be the same way we sold back in 2007.  Shoppers now make 51% of their purchases online, compared to 48% in 2015 and 47% in 2014.  Find out, how to sell to customers that are shopping differently, than what we are used to.  Learn how to improve sales and marketing tactics by reaching out to consumers, the way you should be in 2017.  Is your website mobile friendly?  44% of smartphone users made buys through their devices, compared to 41% a year ago.  Learn what you need to do to stay current, to stay open. 

101 Marketing Tools to Generate More Business

What: Seminar Presentation
Date: Thursday 11/17/16
Time: 4pm-5pm
Where: S227
Who: Darren Pace 
Presentation Description: If you’re a small business, you don’t have the budget to throw at expensive advertising agencies like your larger competitors can.  Believe me, I know.  To compete at their level, you have to market smarter.  Join me for a content rich hour of great marketing ideas you can start implementing right away.

Retailers – We want to know what the industry needs to do to grow

What: Seminar Presentation
Date: Thursday 11/17/16
Time: 5pm-6pm
Where: S227
Who: Cris Merz 
Presentation Description: Join VP of Sales Cris Merz and part of the U.S. Sales Team for this rap session on our roles in the industry.  Have the opportunity to be heard by your training organizations leaders and give us the chance to listen your suggestions.  Success is grown by using feedback, both positive and negative and applying it for a greater benefit.  So drop by and tell us – we want to hear it, “What do we, as an industry, need to do to grow?”.

7  Steps for your Next Website Redesign

What: Seminar Presentation
Date: Friday 11/18/16
Time: 10am-11am
Where: S227
Who: Darren Pace 
Presentation Description: Redesigning a website can be quite intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be. I’ve designed hundreds of websites and made plenty of mistakes along the way. Let me help you avoid some of these pitfalls, by sharing with you the best practices of web design. If you are planning to revamp a website in the next year, don’t miss out on this session.

Members Update

What: Seminar Presentation
Date: Friday 11/18/16
Time: 11am-12pm
Where: S227
Who: Sean Harrison 
Presentation Description: This seminar is of value to all SDI, TDI, ERDI members. We’ve got a few surprises that we’re excited to tell you all about in our 3rd Quarter update. The seminar is open to all SDI, TDI, ERDI members for you to learn all about the newest changes with training standards, teaching materials, products and a virtual tour of the new website. A must-attend for all MEMBERS.

International Training success – Learn about the culture that keeps our business thriving

What: Seminar Presentation
Date: Friday 11/18/16
Time: 12pm-1pm
Where: S227
Who: Brian Carney
Presentation Description: We are often approached by business owners as to what our secret is, for our business success.  Bottom line, the reason for our accomplishments and success is because of the people and culture at International Training.  Join Brian Carney, as he gives you an inside look into the process International Training uses every year and outlines steps, other businesses can follow to succeed.

WTF is up with my website and why isn’t it selling

What: Seminar Presentation
Date: Friday 11/18/16
Time: 1pm-2pm
Where: S227
Who: Darren Pace
Presentation Description: So, you’ve designed a website that you are extremely proud of and you are now waiting for the sales to come pouring in.  But, for some reason they’re not.  WTF!  You’re not Kevin Costner and this isn’t the field of dreams.  You have to do work.

Join me this hour for an inbound marketing discussion about creating content, optimizing it for search and sharing on social.  Start engaging your prospects with landing pages, calls 2 actions and email marketing.

 That’s how you market to people, that’s inbound marketing!

Incompetent and Unaware: Potential solutions to the problems we face in the diving community in terms of human factors and human error

What: Seminar Presentation
Date: Friday 11/18/16
Time: 2pm-3pm
Where: S227
Who: Gareth Lock
Presentation Description: Despite improvements in technical diving equipment, the diving community continues to suffer from fatalities and near misses. This presentation will identify and demonstrate the issues we face under the banner of ‘human error’, and ways in which we can improve both diver performance and diving safety. Unfortunately, ‘human error’ is used as the end game when it comes to a number of incident or accident investigations, but it should really just be the starting point. This thought provoking and challenging presentation will include material not seen before; material that is applicable to the beginning technical diver, right through to the most experienced instructors out there.

Increase Sales Through Customer Service Overnight; Effective pointers to earn your customers trust and turn it into dollars

What: Seminar Presentation
Date: Friday 11/18/16
Time: 3pm-4pm
Where: S227
Who: Cris Merz
Presentation Description: Did you know that for most consumers, customer service means more than price?  That’s right; learn to apply the value of customer service and the importance behind it.  We will cover the trends and figures between customer service and sales, looking at the good, the bad, and the ugly.  As a company that competes against the corporations, we have instilled the importance of customer service within our business philosophy and have grown every year by building loyal customers.  Understand why customer service may be your most effective way to build brand awareness.

MUSA- Cancun’s Underwater Museum- How a Simple Idea Impacted an Entire Ecosystem

What: Seminar Presentation
Date: Saturday 11/19/16
Time: 10am-11am
Where: S227
Who: Brian Carney
Presentation Description: With over 500 sculptures already underwater for up to 7 years, and more going in every year. Learn how this project has successfully taken pressure off of other natural underwater resources, and continues to be funded by multiple sources while being one of the national treasures for the country of Mexico.

Presented by Brian Carney (BOD MUSA)

How to Run DEMO Days

What: Seminar Presentation
Date: Saturday 11/19/16
Time: 11am-12pm
Where: S227
Who: Pete Nawrocky
Presentation Description: Dive gear, what should I buy? What do I need? How does it fit? How do I use it? Questions that new divers always have and more experienced divers occasionally scratch their head over. Divers will look for information on the internet or chat on lists, but the best way to learn is by using it. Try it first hand, gain experience. The stumbling block is getting organized; the second is getting their attention. This presentation will cover ways of using a “DEMO day” to get divers excited. It’s not all about gear, it’s also about knowledge. There are multiple facets to introduce your divers to gear, your skills, and why they should work with you. All within the DEMO day.