BTS New Jersey review

[RonzoTheGreat]

Dennis:

Congratulations on having a great show @ BTS. Once divers see your unique and high quality reel they can see the difference and make an informed choice.

why werent you there?
(missed you)

 

[mdb]

BTS is always a great gathering place and a good show. Sorry to miss it.

 

[nadwidny]

Agree that the host hotel should not require a shuttle ride to/from convention center. We drove to the host hotel for the Film Festival Saturday night and with traffic and poor NJ signage it can be very frustrating for out of towners.

It is a weird setup. Also there was some sporting event going on at the Meadowlands on Saturday night that created the traffic nightmare. I don't think this is the norm.

The shuttle should be much more frequent than once an hour. I stayed at the host hotel last year and the Holiday Inn this year. Staying local to the convention centre was so much better and seems to be where the BTS regulars stay. The only cool thing about staying at the Sheraton was that I saw people like Sylvia Earle and Stan Waterman in the lobby waiting for their cabs.

Yes, I absolutely agree with your point. Logistically if you wanted to attend back to back seminars that were located you either had to cushion in the travel time by leaving one seminar early or arrive late to another seminar. Not convenient at all.

You can mostly blame this on the speakers. The talks I was at, the moderators seemed to want to wrap things up at 15 or 10 minutes before the hour, however the speakers would go on, and on with a couple of them even running into the time allotted for the next speaker. I have experience with scuba conferences as an attendee, a speaker, and an organizer and I find this behaviour to be rude and inconsiderate (especially running into someone else's time). In most cases there should have been enough time to get from one venue to another, however some of the speakers failed to follow common etiquette.

Great event overall. Got to connect with many divers. Learned a lot and spent a lot more money at the booths than I expected.

Agree on all points. I'm going to Boston Sea Rovers next year but I plan on doing BTS every couple of years as it is such fun.

 

[andymaher]

Hi, folks. I'm a volunteer with BTS, and have worked at the show for some years now. On Saturday I was talking to a bunch of vendors about the show, and they made a point that I think bears telling ... the attendees at BTS were cheerful, happy, polite, and knowledgeable. Despite the crowd (and, having made the run from the lobby to the office countless times I can attest to the density of the crowd), people were great. So, my personal thanks to all of you for showing off our little community in the best way!! Keep the compliments, criticisms, and suggestions coming! And, by the way, BTS is always on the lookout for qualified HELP! We're all volunteers, and it's a heck of a huge production!

 

[Buoyant1]

This was my 5th time and what a great show! Spent a lot of $$$$, hit some great seminars, got to see and hang with some friends, and picked up LESS stuff than last year! (each year gets a little better....the FIRST year I attended, I bought home more stuff than you could shake a stick at!)

Too many travel based booths for my taste, but I guess it goes with the territory. Some of the equipment vendors had some interesting gear, but not enough informational handouts to support it (HOG for one, I got a nice sticker, but...)

As far as the locations of the seminars...I don't mind the quick walk to them, it does break up the day, gives you some fresh air and all that, but yeah, if you want to hit two consecutive seminars that occur in different places, you need to be creative. (if it rains it would really suck!) Some of the seminars needed more than an hour! (JJ, Steve Lewis) If I really planned better, and didn't leave my poor wife to just shop all day, I would have attempted to go all three days, I could have sat in the room at the MEC and listened to the Cousteau's all day.

I think the location is great, because there IS something for the non-diving spouse to do close by (without calling and saying "are you done yet" after the first few hours) Yeah it's a confusing area to leave (I think we've taken at least ONE wrong exit heading home every year) but the Expo center is big enough, the food places surrounding it makes up for what's inside, and parking and hotels are close enough (and most of them provide shuttle service)

Can't wait for next year!!

 

[ScubaSam]

Also, this year's BTS program had last year's seminar schedule, at least for the tech seminars. I thought it was just mine but others discovered the same.

 

[HenrikBP]

To keep the convention in the area, the Jacob's Javits Center in NYC would work out nicely.

Anything in the Javits Center is outlandishly expensive. Think $300+ hourly rate to get a union electrician to plug in an extension cord so you have power at your booth - the outlet is already *in* your booth area (no, really ...).

It would certainly be convenient for seminars and such, but I think it would scare off all but the biggest vendors. It's also quite isolated out there on the West side, and not much in the way of restaurants around.

Oh, and if you think hotels in Seacaucus are expensive ...

Other than the Host Hotel situation and a few smaller issues others have mentioned, I think it works out ok where it is. A bit more space would be nice, but overall a very enjoyable show.

Henrik

 

[deeper thoughts]

I miss BTS!

 

[jar546]

The current location is too small and NYC is too expensive. Are there any alternatives nearby that can handle something of this size and provide room for all seminars to be in the same building as the expo?