Business View Magazine | Volume 8, Issue 12

110 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 8, ISSUE 12 AT A GLANCE THE SPA INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION (SIA) WHAT: A global, member-based organization for the Wellness Industry WHERE: Based in Phoenix, Arizona WEBSITE: www.dayspaassociation.com T he Spa Industry Association (SIA) is unique in many aspects, with one of the most important being its mission to “Connect the Community”– which is why membership in the organization has no charge for those actively practicing the pursuit of ‘Wellness’. Nationally and Internationally, all are welcome to join. Not surprisingly, the association is nearing 90,000 members and is growing by leaps and bounds. To catch up on all the news and views, Business View spoke with Allan Share, President of the Spa Industry Association, about the SIA’s history, current initiatives, and industry insights for the future. As he reports, there is a lot to look forward to! BVM: Allan, can you give some background on the SIA? Share: “The SIA started in 1989 as the Day Spa Association and years later added the International Medical Spa Association. I took over in 2010, and we moved them from Union City, New Jersey to Minneapolis where I was living at the time. “If you think back to 2010, we were in the depths of a depression; people weren’t spending a dime to join any association. So we had one of those epiphany moments and thought, let’s make membership free and let’s put together better sponsorship programs for the vendors. So we did something completely different from other associations and, to our way of thinking, the reason it worked was that my team of six was made up of manufacturers, and distributors, and consultants in the industry. We realized that we were always the ones paying for marketing. The fact is: vendors pay. That’s just the nature of our industry. “So we put together a program that gave vendors everything we would have wanted – emails, blogging, social media, banner ads, and so on. And it seemed to work right from “ C O N N E C T I N G T H E W E L L N E S S I N D U S T R Y ”