Tim Hale on "Why DMI?"
 (DMI) is the best kept secret in the industry. The content that DMI deals with is usually the answers to all the questions that many are afraid to ask or don’t know who to ask.
Tim Hale
Senior Vice President, Design Management, Fossil
How has DMI membership benefited you?
DMI, more than any organization that I have been associated with, has provided deeper insights and actionable knowledge related to design process, innovation, design theory and the relationship and vital interface that design and creativity play in the context of business. Every time that I have come in contact with DMI, I always have the ability to take valuable knowledge away from the experience.
How your Company has benefited?
Our company has continually supported interaction with DMI due to the knowledge base that is accessible there across a number of design and business disciplines. We often will send a senior studio member to a conference and require that they return and relate back the training and information that they received to our whole design community internally. This way we can leverage the knowledge transfer in a very meaningful way to the whole organization. Additionally, two members of our human resources team attended the Cape Cod Conference a few years ago and found it to be extremely meaningful for gaining better insights into the mindset of designers in a broader context. Since we are very design-centric organization, this trip fostered the motivation to develop better internal training programs for designers that would serve as continual learning and a unique offering as a design employer.
Why you are still a member?
I hate to say it, but as the son of a banker father and accountant mother it has always been hard to justify my career choice—yes, I really am a professional, which to mom and dad’s credit they have always supported. But let’s admit it, that it is still the case in many professional environments that “Art Depts” are viewed as little more than paper, rock, scissors and not understood as the asset they should be or even utilized appropriately. So, DMI, to a certain degree has validated my career. To be around a large group of like-minded professionals has a tremendous effect on your confidence and the ability of re-contextualizing what you do everyday and because of that, the ability to actually bring more value into what you do. Many times, changing others perceptions of what you do, requires that you change your own perception first. DMI has helped me do just that and I have benefited and so has my company.
Any other tidbit about DMI that would be useful
DMI is a fantastic resource for networking with other professionals. I have stayed in contact with many people from the first conference that I ever attended over 10 years ago and it is always exciting to hear the progress they have made and the challenges that they still encounter. So tell every professional you know that they need to be a member of this organization—this secret needs to be out.
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