Dema show???

[Leadking]

Thanks Lee. As always, you provide great professional input. I am dying to know.....what to YOU think about the apparent difficulty DEMA is having getting the "big boys" to attend the show? Is this purely an economic decision for the manufacturers, or are we seeing the decline of DEMA? From your spot on the sunny beaches of retirement, what changes do YOU think should now be made in the organization?

Phil Ellis
Discount Scuba Gear at DiveSports.com - Buy Scuba Diving Equipment & Snorkeling Equipment

In my opinion (I have lots) this has been in the making for years. I left DEMA out of frustration 10 years ago.(WARNING DIATRIBE AHEAD, contains both truth and opinion)

The roots of all this go back to just before I became DEMA president. The travel segment was revolting and threatening to start their own show. They felt they had no input into the trade show. A group was put together to try to figure out a way to bring the various stakeholder groups (travel, education, retail & publishing) into DEMA. The manufacturers' felt that it (DEMA) was created and developed by them and was worth a considerable sum of money and wanted a "buy-in" of sorts.
We negotiated with the group and formulated a plan where each stakeholder group got two seats on the Board of Directors (BOD) and the Manufacturers kept their nine seats. The retailer and travel group said they could bring massive numbers of their groups(s) in and it would generate over $1.3 million in additional annual funding to be used to promote the industry as their buy-in. If this happened, all groups, including the manufacturers, would have two seats on the Board.

I was president when all this went down and my life turned into hell after that. Every Board meeting turned into a debate about the "unfairness" of nine mfg. members to eight stakeholder members and the manufacturers where still calling the shots. I always responded that the bylaws called for the $1.3 million annually and then we could vote for two stakeholders from each group (equal representation). I fought this battle for four years until I left the Board. The next meeting the manufacturers capitulated and the Manufacturers lost control of the Board and DEMA got NOTHING for it.

Roll this forward a number of years and DEMA moves the show to the fall, again to appease the travel segment. This was the beginning of the end. My research on the trade show committee convinced me that most retailers are still trying to figure out how their season performed, or are still finishing out the season, or hunkering down cash wise for the long cold winter. The travel segment is convinced that a fall show will generate additional bookings for the winter. Between the fiasco of going a year without a trade show (never let the customers know they can live without you), to the Houston debacle, and then Orlando back to back. The poor management decisions kept compounding the problem.

My opinion is that the travel industry would like to open the show to the public so that they can by-pass the retail stores and book direct. All this said, it is my opinion that the dedicated dive retailer is an endangered species. I foresee the day when dive stores will roll back up into the sporting goods stores from which they came. The overhead to run a dive store crushing them into submission.

I got involved with DEMA in the early 1990's as I saw a demographic wall coming at us and sought to find a way to go over it. I failed! It is a great personal disappointment to me. During my DEMA years I spent more time and energy on it than I did on my own business and I failed to convince the industry of the problems ahead.

It's not a pretty picture. This has been a long time coming and I hate to say it, but I told you so.

 

[Leadking]

I do find this surprising. Why more money for a consumer show? I cannot recall any consumer show I've exhibited at that charged more than DEMA does for a both. Of course most consumer shows are 2-3 days, not 4.

I do agree that combo trade / consumer show is going to have problems attracting both exhibitors and attendees.




Something needs to be done to address the cost of "local drayage" The exhibit halls have a monopoly on moving goods from their loading dock into the booths and back out to the dock. For smaller exhibitors this "drayage" cost can exceed the cost of the booth space. $0.70 - 0.80 per pound is not uncommon.

That's not a big deal if you are a travel company with stack of brochures to bring in. It's quite another matter if you are a manufacturer with a few 1000 lbs of goods and display to transport. If it is cost prohibitive to bring your goods to the show why attend at all?

In addition the companies and personnel employed to actually perform the "drayage" are essentially without liability for damage. They can literally destroy goods and booths, and seem to take pleasure in doing so, without any liability for the damages. Truly ridiculous. Every show I've attended that required drayage has required extensive repairs to my shipping crates and display. One year at DEMA the "drayage monkeys" ran their forklift forks right through my crate and display. I had a smashed display for that years DEMA, and $1000's in damage, and after a lengthy process I was offered $100.

These exhibit halls are now reaping what they have sowed.

Tobin

The higher cost is to rent the facility, not admission to the show.

I tried to solve the drayage problem by negotiating a "single payer" program. This would mean that a reasonable amount of drayage would be included with your booth purchase. We (DEMA) could negotiate bigger discounts as we a single payer and all the billing and associated issues would go away. DEMA, in my opinion, has never aggressively negotiated on behalf of an exhibitor. Most will never understand that the cost of the booth in minimal compared to the other costs of attending the show. I tried repeatedly to get these cost under control because it is issues like this, rather than booth costs that were driving exhibitors away.

 

[Leadking]

Then why are they ignoring the membership and not enacting term limits? Why can't I bring my disabled wife who is in a wheelchair, and cannot be left alone in a hotel room, unless I or a shop lies and says she is an employee? Why is it so geared towards travel and resorts now when the economy is forcing so many to stay home? If the venues are to keep costs down why does DEMA charge so much to exhibit? Who gets all the money after expenses? Why is the so-called be a diver commercial so expensive to get use of and why weren't all the agencies involved in making it? And why can't I see it? Who came up with the brilliant idea to allow members to buy additional votes? (thereby making sure that smaller companies and individual members have NO SAY in what goes on. Want to increase DEMA membership? Do away with that and give a one member one vote set up a try. Hell I'd even join then as an instructor. The way it is now- screw em. I'll get my info and make my deals on line, on the phone, at a regional show for DIVERS, or through a local shop.

The questions you are asking were, for the large part, decisions that were made after I departed.

I'm not trying to avoid them, I just don't have the answers.

 

[cerich]

But they also said that if the show would be in Vegas every year, than they would reconsider.

That is half the problem, the west coast dive mafia still think only in terms of west coast, that includes DEMA....

 

[cerich]

The higher cost is to rent the facility, not admission to the show.

I tried to solve the drayage problem by negotiating a "single payer" program. This would mean that a reasonable amount of drayage would be included with your booth purchase. We (DEMA) could negotiate bigger discounts as we a single payer and all the billing and associated issues would go away. DEMA, in my opinion, has never aggressively negotiated on behalf of an exhibitor. Most will never understand that the cost of the booth in minimal compared to the other costs of attending the show. I tried repeatedly to get these cost under control because it is issues like this, rather than booth costs that were driving exhibitors away.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I was told at the last Orlando show by a convention center employee that every show negotiates the rates like dryage, electrical etc., he stated that part of the negotiation included the kick back to the organizer. The higher the rates the higher the return for all parties (except exhibitors). He then smiled and told me that DEMA had higher than normal rates.... I don't know how correct he was but it sure left a bitter taste in my mouth.

We haven't even begun to bring up the salaries of DEMA employees or "expense accounts" yet. We should.

 

[Leadking]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I was told at the last Orlando show by a convention center employee that every show negotiates the rates like dryage, electrical etc., he stated that part of the negotiation included the kick back to the organizer. The higher the rates the higher the return for all parties (except exhibitors). He then smiled and told me that DEMA had higher than normal rates.... I don't know how correct he was but it sure left a bitter taste in my mouth.

We haven't even begun to bring up the salaries of DEMA employees or "expense accounts" yet. We should.

I can't comment on any current "kickbacks".

When I was just cutting my teeth on the DEMA BOD and the Bob Gray incident blew up (I was on the Board less than two months) I was given the title of "trade show chair". I think they did that to keep me busy while the executive committee did other things. I made contacts with a gentleman who ran the trade shows for General Motors who took me under his wing. He said there are kickbacks on EVERYTHING. He said they are buried so deep you will never find them, claimed it was part of the culture.

I found a woman who ran trade shows around the world for the computer industry and who was looking for a job without a heavy travel schedule. She came with amazing credentials. I proposed bringing the trade show in house and DEMA negotiating on behalf of the members. I got blindsided when Mike Chapman brought in Browning & Cohen. He was going to sell them the show. I fought it tooth and nail and rallied the membership. The eventual agreement was a management contract with them.

 

[mike_s]

One year at DEMA the "drayage monkeys" ran their forklift forks right through my crate and display. I had a smashed display for that years DEMA, and $1000's in damage, and after a lengthy process I was offered $100.

I've seen that before at other non scuba shows in convention halls where you are held hostage to use their union workforce to move equipment....

usually it's an "accidental 'forking' " by an equipment laborer after someone from the show has pissed off the worker though....

 

[PhilEllis]

........and the Bob Gray incident blew up.......

OK Lee, we gotta know! If it can be done without violating confidences, please explain to us the "Bob Gray incident".

Phil Ellis
www.divesports.com

 

[cool_hardware52]

I've seen that before at other non scuba shows in convention halls where you are held hostage to use their union workforce to move equipment....

usually it's an "accidental 'forking' " by an equipment laborer after someone from the show has pissed off the worker though....

Gee I wonder how I managed to piss off any one at an exhibition hall I'd never been to before, and before I even set foot inside.

I arrived at Orlando to find my crate in my booth with one side and one end caved in and the bolted on skids on the bottom torn off.

This crate has a welded steel frame, which was badly bent.

It is such a racket. You have to build essentially a "bomb proof" shipping crate, which of course weighs a great deal more, which leads to much higher freight and drayage costs.........

This does not have to happen. I just returned from the Tacoma Dive Show. None of this ridiculous hiway robbery was on display.

Exhibitors could unload and transport their own goods with their own labor. The show hall even provided 4 wheel hand carts if you needed one!

I guess the Tacoma Convention Center actually wants exhibitors to return next year, and spend money in the greater Tacoma Area. (Odd concept I know)

Tobin

 

[Leadking]

OK Lee, we gotta know! If it can be done without violating confidences, please explain to us the "Bob Gray incident".

Phil Ellis
Discount Scuba Gear at DiveSports.com - Buy Scuba Diving Equipment & Snorkeling Equipment

Mike Chapman, who was President at the time, started bringing proper governance to DEMA. This included things like audits and the. One of the issues discussed was Bob Gray was in his early sixties and there was no transition plan in place. What we discussed at the executive sessions of the BOD was to have Bob work with us to recruit his eventual replacement. We (the BOD) felt that we needed Bob's co-operation in making this happen. It is my opinion that Bob felt insecure of his position and felt the BOD had plans to eliminate him, which was absolutely untrue.

In his paranoia he decided to launch a fall show at the Sands Convention Center. The BOD got wind of this and the Executive Committee (Betsy Royal, Tim Peloza, and Mike Chapman) met with our lawyer, Ed Towle, to discuss what to do. It was decided that Ed would be sent to have a talk with Bob and state to him (Bob) "Either explain or resign". Apparently in the discussions Ed told Bob that the BOD was ready to fire Bob, so Bob resigned along with Shirley. The BOD was now in a panic as we had no one to run the show as the whole management organization was Bob Gray, his wife Shirley, and one or two of their children running the thing out of a second home Bob owned.

I always felt Bob was not on the up and up and when I joined the BOD wanted to get rid of him. When I found out there was a long term transition in place, it was something I could accept. All that being said, I wanted to ensure that he was being treated fairly. I called the Sands facility and talked to the persons in charge and confirmed that Bob was in fact trying to set up a competing trade show.

Shortly after Bob and Shirley resigned we get served with an age discrimination lawsuit by Bob and Shirley. At this point the BOD and especially the executive committee clams up. As it goes, under the rules of discovery, the less you know the better. I never did learn of all the things that were dragged out of the muck and only I heard bits and pieces, which I have no factual basis to confirm the truth, so I will not repeat them here.

This thing gets the membership riled up. John Cronin and PADI sue us. The membership (which at the time was about 55 member companies) calls an emergency meeting with the BOD to have a recall election. Things are so heated that we actually hired a person to make sure Robert's Rules of Order was enforced. The meeting was held in Long Beach and the day before the meeting there was a large earthquake and during the meeting aftershocks were being felt. It was something that will forever be burned into my memory.

We came to an agreement with PADI that stopped the lawsuit and tried with some success to explain to the membership that this was something we did not start and were victims of. The BOD obviously survived the recall and the membership quit calling for our heads. There were many who felt we over-reacted but I will still defend the BOD. What are you supposed to do when your employee is trying to set up a competing show? What would you do?