Anybody going to the Colorado Dive Show?

[RonFrank]

I was there on Friday evening. If anyone from SB stopped by, I am not aware of who they were... I worked mostly the ScubaBoard booth as Michelle was sometimes off wandering, and the Shark Bait was better manned for the most part.

Not sure what kinda turn out they had Saturday, but Friday was somewhat pathetic. There were mostly vendors out and about, and I saw very few regular (non-vendor) divers. As they gave away free tickets to this event, and based on Friday evenings turnout, this maybe the first and last...... We shall see.

The one bright spot was that on Friday evening Shark Bait got a bunch of new folks for their email distro... like maybe (30), so maybe the turnout was better than I thought, but it sure seemed slow..

 

[Jewls]

Saturday surely had more attendance than Friday. I don't think they allowed enough time for Friday events, and given the distance from Downtown, I think most people decided to go on Saturday instead. IMO, it should have been Saturday and Sunday, not Friday and Saturday. There were quite a few people there between 10 and 2 pm on Saturday, but the seminars had only a handful of attendees (with the exception of Sea Shepherd).

Overall I think it had a pretty good turn out, but I think it could have been better advertised. It kind of felt like this more like a travel show more than a dive show. There were a few vendors marketing equipment, but not enough. I really wanted to learn more about dive computers and thought this was my chance to ask a bunch of questions to different vendors, but the only one was Sunto and the Sunto rep was no where to be found....

Anyhow, I had a pretty good time and would go back again. I met a bunch of new people from Scuba Board and local divers. I even won a couple free classes, so it was definetly worth it to me

 

[boulderjohn]

There were quite a few people there between 10 and 2 pm on Saturday, but the seminars had only a handful of attendees (with the exception of Sea Shepherd).

With the exception of the Sea Shepherd presentation, the ones that I (or others I was with) attended did not deserve the attendance they got. I have attended a lot of conferences (not diving) in my time, and I have never seen the like. We decided that if there is going to be another such show, we are going to see about doing presentations ourselves.

I wonder about what it takes to get on the list of presenters. When I have presented, I have had to make an application and have it judged for worthiness. I wonder of that was the case here, or if they just said, "Hey you're sponsoring the show--go ahead and do a presentation."

 

[Shark Whisperer]

I thought the show went pretty well for Shark Bait...we got close to 60 new members signed up and some of the vendors expressed an interest in speaking at our meetings sometime...so that worked out well for us. However, talking to the other vendors, they were not impressed with the show. They said it was one of the slowest shows they have been to and were disappointed that there was not enough advertising. I do know that the show is scheduled again for next year at the Crowne Plaza...hopefully they will do more advertising on the radio, etc...and I agree, they do need to get more equipment vendors there too.

 

[UnderwaterBumbleBee]

I was also very glad we did not trek down there Friday night. I'm biased because I attend A-1's sale every year and think they do a fantastic job and they are hard to beat. This show was really disappointing and from what we saw the turnout was pretty poor. They need to work on their website with a schedule that actually pops up (it was unavailable when I checked a day or two before the show).

The distance for the seminars was pretty far and the rooms/schedules weren't very well pointed out. They should book a room closer to the seminars, maybe have someone announce when the seminars are starting. It would be nice to have a larger sign with the room name and a list at every door with the seminars/times. We went to a couple and almost no one was in the room, pretty sad for the presenters.

The majority of the show seemed to be mostly travel vendors and little to no equipment. Better luck next time but I'm not sure I'd be interested in attending again.

 

[georoc01]

I was there on Friday evening. If anyone from SB stopped by, I am not aware of who they were... I worked mostly the ScubaBoard booth as Michelle was sometimes off wandering, and the Shark Bait was better manned for the most part.

Not sure what kinda turn out they had Saturday, but Friday was somewhat pathetic. There were mostly vendors out and about, and I saw very few regular (non-vendor) divers. As they gave away free tickets to this event, and based on Friday evenings turnout, this maybe the first and last...... We shall see.

The one bright spot was that on Friday evening Shark Bait got a bunch of new folks for their email distro... like maybe (30), so maybe the turnout was better than I thought, but it sure seemed slow..

Sure Ron, I saw you Friday night. I guess I don't count