industry trends
Not long ago, I was reminded in a big way of the importance of understanding the international nature of our industry. It was July, and my Genesis 3 partners Skip Phillips and David Tisherman and I were on the Gold Coast near Brisbane, Australia, presenting a program at the Splash! Conference – an experience that, once again, underscored the fact that ours is not just a North American business, but is instead a global industry in which people worldwide share
Through the years – but particularly within the past two or three – one of the comments I’ve heard with the greatest frequency is that WaterShapes is improving dramatically with respect to the content it presents. I’m always happy to hear any kind of positive feedback, but I’m always curious to know what about our coverage seems to be improving the most and always ask those who are making these comments to be as specific as they can. “Frankly,” I tell them, “I’m so close to what we print in the magazine that I
“I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore.” Those words (originally uttered by the fictional newsman Howard Beale, for those of you who remember the movie “Network”) reflected the frustration of a man overwhelmed by the forces that governed his working life and the society in which he lived. His declaration became the rallying cry of a movement that formed around his sense of outrage. I’m in that same sort of outraged mode right now and find myself on a similar quest for allies: I want the watershaping industry to change now and for the better, but
One of the longest-standing knocks against the pool and spa industry is that too many designers and builders rely too heavily on convention and seem disinclined to pursue new paths and ideas no matter how compelling they might be. Of course there are exceptions, but there’s a lot of truth to that statement when it comes to the technology chosen, for example, to drive circulation systems and chemically treat or light the water: All too often, pool and spa professionals tend to keep on specifying and installing equipment they’ve used for years – even if it’s outmoded or is no longer the best available approach – because they feel comfortable with it and
Through the past several months, we’ve heard all sorts of voices discussing the current state of economic affairs – including mine in last month’s “Aqua Culture” column, but, more predominantly, those of representatives of the 24-hour-a-day news media. Anyone who isn’t living in a cave is by now aware that we’re caught up in an economic crisis of global proportions and that the consequences may be dire. We’ve heard that line so often and with such fervor, in fact, that it’s
If you’re paying even the slightest bit of attention to the world at large, you’ve probably heard more than you ever wanted to know about current economic conditions. Indeed, everything that has happened in the past year or so with both our national and the global economy has made it hard for some people to think optimistically about the future. These are perilous times, as some say, and in one way or another, I know we’re all being affected by what’s going on. But that doesn’t seem to be the whole story. In fact,
I imagine that many of you said “good riddance” instead of “farewell” to 2008 – and that almost as many of you might want to skip right over the looming uncertainty of 2009 completely and head directly into 2010. Nobody can jump
You never know where and when a good time will unfold. That thought certainly crossed my mind late in July, when I attended "The World's Most Extreme Pond Build" at Aquascape's headquarters in St. Charles, Ill. That company, which manufactures a variety of pond, stream and waterfall systems and accessories, has been remarkably successful through the past decade: In that span, it's built a
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