DEMA 2005 Wrap up

[Wreck Wench]

Hee! Hee! I may have been that customer! I discovered Tobin and his cool company at the show this year! I'm hoping to work with him and am expecting a bc any day now!

I was a buyer at DEMA however I usually do a booth at the consumer shows so certainly understand your concerns. In other words...I feel your pain.

DEMA's of late have been tightening up on who can attend i.e. qualified buyers vs. anyone who wanted to attend. As a buyer it was extremely helpful to not have to fight crowds of people in order to talk to someone...unless you were trying to talk to Tobin and then you had hordes of 'buyers' to wait for before getting any of his time.

But alas...that is a good sign too!

Hi, Tobin, I dropped by your booth but you were busy with a Buyer and I couldn't stick around.

Every exhibitors favorite is drayage, you can't carry anything in.

At least it wasn't as bad as Miami with all the pilferage...and how about requiring an electrician to plug anything in?

For international visitors like myself, it was over $1.5K just to attend, breaks down to about $1K in airfare, $500 for lodging/food, plus 2 weekends of missed diving during the best season. Think my business got $1.5K of benefit out of the show, not to mentions lost opportunity cost?

I have voiced my opinion to a few of the DEMA board members and know that there is a grassroots effort to get the show moved back to January/February timeslot. Uh oh, sounds like I am starting to rant...

 

[USIA]

I would have to agree with those attendee's siting the expense of doing the show. They are correct. In the past, most manufactures would write a quarter of their business at DEMA. In the past five years, this trend has continued to decrease. This was the main reason USIA decided not to attend DEMA this year, and why after 18 years, we probably won't be attending any DEMA's in the near future. Our CEO went down to DEMA to see whether we had made a mistake by not attending and she came away feeling not only did we make the right decision, but that many of our friends in the industry are also considering not attending in the future. It's not a slam on the DEMA organization, but more that many of the buyers are not interested in inventorying a great deal of equipment, especially with the competition from the internet and the overall down turn in business.

Vegas is a great draw for everyone, especially after having the show in Miami and Houston the past few years. Most of the Manufacturers we spoke with said that the show was much better attended than the previous two, but they wrote up about the same amount of business, which wasn't overwhelming. But I really can't see the majority of West Coast dealers and buyers spending the money to attend DEMA in Orlando next year.

What I would like to see is more centralized consumer oriented dive shows where Manufacturers can go to in support of their dealers and customers. We wrote more business in support of one of our dealers at the California Scuba Show than we did at DEMA. And we only sent one employee to work the show.

 

[scubatoys]

I have voiced my opinion to a few of the DEMA board members and know that there is a grassroots effort to get the show moved back to January/February timeslot. Uh oh, sounds like I am starting to rant...

I believe the main reason for the fall is, we all know this is a very cyclical business. Dive shops make money in the summer, and die in the winter. Most do not have the funds to attend a show, or buy stuff in Feb... So vendors would offer all kinds of incentives and payment plans. "Buy now, don't pay for 120 days" type deals. But then the shops would over extend, and not be able to pay the bill when it came due in June or July.

Talking to some of the vendors I know, they prefer the fall... It's a bit slower, they're not ramping up for the coming season, and the customers have more spendable cash. But to me, it doesn't matter either way. Spring, Fall, heck, I was kinda disappointed the other show flopped or else there would have been two.

 

[BigWaveDave]

Just a quick correction the equipment for the underwater press conference was provided by DEMA The Scuba Tour and it's suppliers www.thescubatour.com

 

[cool_hardware52]

I believe the main reason for the fall is, we all know this is a very cyclical business. Dive shops make money in the summer, and die in the winter. Most do not have the funds to attend a show, or buy stuff in Feb... So vendors would offer all kinds of incentives and payment plans. "Buy now, don't pay for 120 days" type deals. But then the shops would over extend, and not be able to pay the bill when it came due in June or July.

Talking to some of the vendors I know, they prefer the fall... It's a bit slower, they're not ramping up for the coming season, and the customers have more spendable cash. But to me, it doesn't matter either way. Spring, Fall, heck, I was kinda disappointed the other show flopped or else there would have been two.

That's interesting Larry, you may well be correct.

I always assumed the winter timing of DEMA was to provide the LDS with a view as to what was to be new and available for the coming (read spring and summer) season. Winter was a down time for most shops making travel easier.

I thought the move to the fall was to accomodate the sellers of travel, given that much of dive travel is from the cold, snowy north to the warm sunny south during the winter.

The January / Feb timing also allowed the Manufacturers to actually have the new goods ready, and the catologs to go with them.

For me it really doesn't matter all that much, as I'm never as ready as I'd like to be for a show whenever it is!

Tobin

 

[mdb]

That's interesting Larry, you may well be correct.

I always assumed the winter timing of DEMA was to provide the LDS with a view as to what was to be new and available for the coming (read spring and summer) season. Winter was a down time for most shops making travel easier.

I thought the move to the fall was to accomodate the sellers of travel, given that much of dive travel is from the cold, snowy north to the warm sunny south during the winter.

The January / Feb timing also allowed the Manufacturers to actually have the new goods ready, and the catologs to go with them.

For me it really doesn't matter all that much, as I'm never as ready as I'd like to be for a show whenever it is!

Tobin

Tobin: Glad to hear that you a good busy DEMA. The first DEMA show was scheduled
in Miami during January for two reasons. Previous to the DEMA show the SCUBA trade
exhibited at the annual National Sporting Goods Assoc. show held each January @ McCormick Place in Chicago. SCUBA had its own section along with all the sports, hunting, bowling, Tennis etc. I attended the DEMA meeting where the first DEMA show was developed. DEMA was then Diving Equipment Manufacturers Assoc. The
presidents of US DIVERS, IMPERIAL Wetsuits/drysuits, SCUBAPRO, etc. voted to start a dive industry trade show. To force the issue they choose exactly the same dates as the NSGA show and picked Miami as a stark contrast to the famously cold Chicago winter. It worked. The first two shows were in Miami and our sport had its own show. After a bit manufacturers began to complain that having a show three months or so before the start of the SCUBA season did allow enough time to produce the products that were a success at the trade show. Most equipment intensive sports, ie: skiing, have their buying show 6 months or so ahead of the prime season. Travel folks also weighed in that a fall show would have benefits to them. Now DEMA is trying to find a good balance. In a previous post I mentioned that SCUBAPRO was spending about 500k to exhibit at DEMA, my math was a bit off, to show a 10% profit they would need to book 5 Million in sales. Since they are a $58,000,000 International company perhaps that made some sense. In any case, we all wish DEMA well; after all, its us.

mdb
www.diveapollo.com

 

[Wreck Wench]

I prefer fall myself...just not the first weekend in October! It interferes with a wreck and sharkdiving expedition I do every year, so Novemeber will certainly be better for me next year!

And I got my pkg in the mail today from DeepSeaSupply...my new harness and bladder looks great. I can't wait to try it! Thanks Tobin!

 

[Tom Winters]

Gotta love those ancilliary charges - I did a dive show in Hawaii back in the mid-80's and we had to pay an electrician something like $62 to plug our power cords in.

 

[cool_hardware52]

I prefer fall myself...just not the first weekend in October! It interferes with a wreck and sharkdiving expedition I do every year, so Novemeber will certainly be better for me next year!

And I got my pkg in the mail today from DeepSeaSupply...my new harness and bladder looks great. I can't wait to try it! Thanks Tobin!

WW, glad to hear the gear arrived, thanks for letting me know. Go get wet!


Tobin

 

[ScottZeagle]

Gotta love those ancilliary charges - I did a dive show in Hawaii back in the mid-80's and we had to pay an electrician something like $62 to plug our power cords in.

Oh Tom.........

Our electric bill this year was nearly $1000. And that is AFTER we waited until Monday to get it hooked up, to avoid "time and a half" charges.

One single booth we had, the charge was nearly $350 and all they did was plug in a cord and lay it in the back of the booth.

I really like DEMA, but I am not fond of the robbery that the convention centers get away with...