The Chairman
Chairman of the Board
OK, I admit that I was drawn to this meeting because of the PADI social. Hey, the good folk at PADI know how to throw a shindig, and the atmosphere is always casual and fun. How could I go wrong?
Early. Somehow, I got to the party early. I don't know how, but if you are going to miss all the talking heads, it's important to show up 15 minutes late. Anyway, since I was there, I walked into the Grand Ballroom with HowardE to see the entire place PACKED and listening attentively to this guy on the stage with three victims, er volunteers. After listening for a bit, I leaned over and whispered to HowardE: "Sounds like pscho-babble to me!" and HowardE looked back in surprise and said "They brought in a motivational speaker?" I started to look for a place to sit since my ankle started whining a bit. After all, I had surgery for a broken Achilles tendon this past February, and I have four more days of walking and standing to endure!
But the guy, Joel, was having fun, so were the participants and he had the audience eating right out of his hand. On top of this, our good friend Annie Crowley was one of the volunteers. I shifted my weight a bit and started to listen a bit trying to figure out what was going on. I was getting intrigued!
It seems that Joel was conducting an exercise. He would demonstrate three things to the first volunteer: a location, an occupation and an object, she would in turn try to communicate these to the next person and he would communicate these to Annie. You could only speak Gibberish (he's heard some of our instructors!) and had to stop when the receivor said they understood!
You know. This was way entertaining to watch, from the practised MC all the way to Annie actually getting all three things correct! (Space ship, belly dancer and giraffe). What's more, he made a really good point: in order to communicate effectively, you have to understand your audience. I couldn't help but think of so many people who have come to ScubaBoard to straighten everyone out on how to really dive! As Joel pointed out, once you have ignored your listener's unique background, you become spam to them: Click, delete and IGNORE! This was some pretty good stuff for mere psycho-babble! He also pointed out that the best way to transmit or receive a message was to get involved in the process. This was good stuff, but I must admit that I was glad to see them start to wheel in a good number of bars. It was about time to PARTAY!
But it wasn't quite time yet. They started this thing of giving the mic and cam on individuals so they could say: "I believe!" After about the tenth one, I leaned over to HowardE again and said "They call us a cult!" But in actuality they were being quite sincere. Then a new MC came on and started going on about how lucky we were for working in the Dive Industry. He pointed out that many of our family and friends think we are just on permanent vacation and having the time of our lives. He was right. Fortunately, no one was asked to throw down their crutches, but they didn't stop there. They had their director of marketing and communications come up and she told us all that PADI had done in marketing this past year and what they were planning on doing. The fresh marketing approach was impressive. As a marketeer myself, I was floored at the sheer number of people they have reached this year: 34+ billion!
So PADI, be proud of where you have come and even more proud of where you are going. You have every reason to BELIEVE. To believe in your agency, in the industry and most importantly: YOURSELVES. You'll find me rooting for you all the way!
As a caveat, they finally did open the bars and they served a wonderful munchies. Did I tell you that those PADI folk sure know how to put on a shindig? You can believe in that too!
Early. Somehow, I got to the party early. I don't know how, but if you are going to miss all the talking heads, it's important to show up 15 minutes late. Anyway, since I was there, I walked into the Grand Ballroom with HowardE to see the entire place PACKED and listening attentively to this guy on the stage with three victims, er volunteers. After listening for a bit, I leaned over and whispered to HowardE: "Sounds like pscho-babble to me!" and HowardE looked back in surprise and said "They brought in a motivational speaker?" I started to look for a place to sit since my ankle started whining a bit. After all, I had surgery for a broken Achilles tendon this past February, and I have four more days of walking and standing to endure!
But the guy, Joel, was having fun, so were the participants and he had the audience eating right out of his hand. On top of this, our good friend Annie Crowley was one of the volunteers. I shifted my weight a bit and started to listen a bit trying to figure out what was going on. I was getting intrigued!
It seems that Joel was conducting an exercise. He would demonstrate three things to the first volunteer: a location, an occupation and an object, she would in turn try to communicate these to the next person and he would communicate these to Annie. You could only speak Gibberish (he's heard some of our instructors!) and had to stop when the receivor said they understood!
You know. This was way entertaining to watch, from the practised MC all the way to Annie actually getting all three things correct! (Space ship, belly dancer and giraffe). What's more, he made a really good point: in order to communicate effectively, you have to understand your audience. I couldn't help but think of so many people who have come to ScubaBoard to straighten everyone out on how to really dive! As Joel pointed out, once you have ignored your listener's unique background, you become spam to them: Click, delete and IGNORE! This was some pretty good stuff for mere psycho-babble! He also pointed out that the best way to transmit or receive a message was to get involved in the process. This was good stuff, but I must admit that I was glad to see them start to wheel in a good number of bars. It was about time to PARTAY!
But it wasn't quite time yet. They started this thing of giving the mic and cam on individuals so they could say: "I believe!" After about the tenth one, I leaned over to HowardE again and said "They call us a cult!" But in actuality they were being quite sincere. Then a new MC came on and started going on about how lucky we were for working in the Dive Industry. He pointed out that many of our family and friends think we are just on permanent vacation and having the time of our lives. He was right. Fortunately, no one was asked to throw down their crutches, but they didn't stop there. They had their director of marketing and communications come up and she told us all that PADI had done in marketing this past year and what they were planning on doing. The fresh marketing approach was impressive. As a marketeer myself, I was floored at the sheer number of people they have reached this year: 34+ billion!
So PADI, be proud of where you have come and even more proud of where you are going. You have every reason to BELIEVE. To believe in your agency, in the industry and most importantly: YOURSELVES. You'll find me rooting for you all the way!
As a caveat, they finally did open the bars and they served a wonderful munchies. Did I tell you that those PADI folk sure know how to put on a shindig? You can believe in that too!
