posted May 11th, 2012 - An interesting event took place yesterday in DeLand. It was not really a skydiving event, even though it was directly and strongly related to the sport.

The DeLand Chamber of Commerce had a business meeting, and the representatives of the local skydiving industry were invited to present their strong business community to city officials and other business owners.

Host was the DeLand Clarion Hotel, and it was not the first time that the conference rooms were used for skydiving events. In fact, it was not too long ago that the opening ceremony of the Paraclete XP Outdoor Championship 2012 was held at the same place, which included competition draw and team introduction of the international field. Even longer ago, the DeLand skydiving community also partied at the hotel to celebrate the New Year's evenings and nights.

The local media was impressed by the worldwide participation in March 2012. This time, the local business owners and city officials were also impressed by the numbers and information that the representatives and speakers of the skydiving industry community, Mike Johnston (Skydive DeLand), Bill Booth (United Parachute Technologies) and Bill Coe (Performance Designs), presented.

The skydiving industry is the strongest employer in town, with over 500 people working for the numerous smaller and larger companies. The DeLand Municipal Airport is the center of the skydiving industry, and most of the the business facilities are located in close proximity, including the NSL headquarters.

The main reason for most of the skydiving industry to be in DeLand is the full time operation at Skydive DeLand, as test jumping and direct contact with potential customers and other business operators is crucial to do good business in this sport.

Once in a while, the NSL News reports other aspects of the sport but the athletic side. It was not too long ago that the whole business situation in DeLand was one of those topics.

Proponents of a control tower at the DeLand Municipal Airport had threatened the operation of Skydive DeLand itself and with it the smooth operation of most of the skydiving industry. The same parties joined forces already by then, lobbied strongly against the construction of the control tower and succeeded.

The tower was not a topic on Wednesday at the Clarion Hotel. It is an issue of the past, as members of the Chamber of Commerce confirmed. This time, the representatives of the skydiving industry were invited to find ways how to work together with the other business community. There can be a lot of mutual benefits, which are usually not well known in the other world. It was a good presentation of the sport's business side.