Adrian J Cotterill, Editor-in-Chief
Industry nice guy, Paul Flanigan was named on Friday as the new Executive Director of the Digital Screenmedia Association.
Regular readers will likely know our opinion of the DSA and our general belief (it’s sort of obvious) that there is no room in our industry for two supposed ‘industry’ associations – see our post ‘DSA vs DSF (We Only Need One)‘.
Whilst Paul now has a salary, after (even he would admit) a bit of a torrid time in the job market after leaving Best Buy, this is actually the time for him to properly work himself out of a job!
If Paul is brave enough†, here’s what needs to be done…
- Job #1. It’s olive branch time to the DSF. Start negotiations and find a way to merge the DSF and the DSA.
- Job #2. See Job #1. Forget CETW for the time being, don’t bother at the moment with webinars, blog posts, PR, education initiatives, new member recruitment, trolls etc. – they are, or will be, a complete waste of time or a sideline to the main event. Be the man to negotiate the merger of the DSA and DSF and you go down in history.
This is your chance Paul, this is your time to shine! Get on with it now and let’s have at least a memorandum of understanding by the time of #dse2014 in Feb 2014.
† Oh! and by the way this is also the time for members of both ‘associations’ to collectively bang their boards’ heads together and get this sorted once and for all. It’s not just Paul who will need to work at this, we are looking at you Mighty Phil Cohen, Ken Goldberg, Boomer and the rest of the DSF Board.
November 2nd, 2013 at 12:52 @578
Adrian:
As you know, I’ve been fairly passionate about this topic since the Digital Signage Federation was formed. Even when something appears inevitable, as this has always seemed to be, you still have to let it play out. The last time the topic was officially broached, the idea was stillborn (details here: http://bit.ly/jPHrWj). But times, events and people have changed, so there is always hope that pragmatism will prevail. Until then, we will press on, powered by a very active and engaged membership.
I can not speak for the DSF Board without an internal discussion, but I can unequivocally say that our mission is the advancement of the industry through education, advocacy and opportunity. That is best accomplished with an independent, diverse, not-for-profit entity. Few people think there need to be more than one, especially as the industry itself consolidates, but that is reality at the moment. Paul and Bill certainly know how to get in touch with us, and I hope that their members will encourage them to do so, even if one particular Director is not likely to be eager. Our door is always open to ideas that benefit our members and the industry. That is what we exist for. You never know what can happen when reasonable people discover common objectives.