This year was my first DEMA and quite likely will not do another for a long time. Don't get me wrong, it was a lot of fun working the HOG/Edge booth with Chris and getting the chance to see some new people and a few new items. What I got most out of the show personally was the contacts with manufacturers and distributors of products. What pleasantly surprised me was the number of those who possibly years ago would not have looked at me. An independent instructor with an on line store. Now not only are they looking but actively seeking my business. I have been an Edge/HOG dealer since March of this year. Getting other items to offer to my students and customers has been problematic. I have some good relationships with other on line retailers who will sell me items my students and customers want but do not want to go on line for or do not want to purchase from multiple sources. I make a little on those items but the main idea behind aquiring these items this way is serving my customers the best I can. I am trying to give what I consider to be the same level of service they would get in an actual shop. And from what I hear much of the time it's better than that what they can get locally.
It is amazing what that kind of attitude and level of service can mean to a distributor or manufacturer. I had one Chinese wet suit mfg offer to make suits for me with no minimum order! Shipping could be a bear but if I did have a need for say 50 or 100 shorty wetsuits for my girl scout programs they would make the sizes I need and ship them to me direct. With my own logo if I wanted. No 1000 or 2000 suit order with 500 in each size. If I wanted 20 suits in 4 sizes they were more than willing to do it.
There are mfg's of unique or niche products desperate to get those items into new areas. Today I got in samples of hard cases similar to Pelican (who will not sell to me) from Vault Case. No one in my area has them. No one in my area really carries Pelican cases at a reasonable price. Looking at these I see very little difference in quality of materials and construction. The major difference- Vault will sell to me and the price is in the neighborhood of 40% less than a comparable case from someone else. The selection is limited and that's ok, easier for me to deal with. So in a few days they will be on my website.
I also saw some of the old ways in effect with some items where they wanted a minimum order of 200 pieces of an item I doubt any shop would be able to sell at one time or in a short enough time to make it worth it to bring in that kind of quantity. But if they would drop the minimum order I bet I could move 10 or 20 of those items in fairly short order. The industry is changing and at the same time there are elements that are resisting that change. And from my vantage point as a small business owner to their own detriment.
DEMA is part of the problem and they could be a big part of the solution if they chose to be. They do not. I saw no DEMA board members going around and visiting all the booths asking how things were going. Not one. I had the DEMA board president a couple weeks before the show tell another board member to call me and have me look at the Divecaching program stuff. To "tell that Lapenta guy to see what we are doing for local diving". Yet I never saw him at the show if he was there. I wanted to see him and thank him for considering my views on how little DEMA was doing for local diving and taking a baby step to correct that.
I wanted to ask him why after looking at the stuff and then emailing him some other questions in a very nice way why he never responded. I wanted to know what else they were going to do and what were they going to do for those areas that have a high number of independent instructors like me. I wanted to know when they were going to start asking for input from all members on new directions and new projects. Not just the same old boys who have big numbers of votes and deep pockets. If I thought my voice would make a difference and by becoming a DEMA member I could have a vote and some input, I would. But after seeing the lack of communication between the board and the smaller companies I know that would only be a pipe dream.
I got to see first hand the disinterest and uncaring attitude for the smaller guys that Tom Ingram has. Without going into details it is true that he doesn't have a clue. The Ft Lauderdale show in 2013 that was reported in DiveNewswire is a prime example. Plans were made, some mfg's invited (guess which ones), some agencies (again guess), and I would suspect a few others. What was remarkable though was that the Dive Newswire story was how many of the members found out about it. The job of the director I though was to keep the membership informed of developments, changes, policies, etc. To communicate those items personally while they were going on. Not inform the members and general public at the same time. Thus denying those not in the clique a chance to have input and participate. But that's what went down.
And Mr Ingram, your dismissive and disrespectful attiude to a member that brought that to your attention was disgusting. You really do not have a clue. Smirking and laughing in their face is beyond rude.
As long as DEMA keeps going in this direction I see the possibility of consumer friendly dive show drawing more than the DEMA show does. My next show is in Columbus Ohio. My 4th year. It has grown each year and I get more business from it each year. And at least 3 or 4 times during those 2 days just about every member of the show committee comes by every booth. To ask how we think the show is going, do we need anything, and how can they make it better for us next year.
To the DEMA BOD and Mr Ingram, maybe you should come by this year and see how to run a show and how to treat every vendor there. Not just the biggest ones.
It is amazing what that kind of attitude and level of service can mean to a distributor or manufacturer. I had one Chinese wet suit mfg offer to make suits for me with no minimum order! Shipping could be a bear but if I did have a need for say 50 or 100 shorty wetsuits for my girl scout programs they would make the sizes I need and ship them to me direct. With my own logo if I wanted. No 1000 or 2000 suit order with 500 in each size. If I wanted 20 suits in 4 sizes they were more than willing to do it.
There are mfg's of unique or niche products desperate to get those items into new areas. Today I got in samples of hard cases similar to Pelican (who will not sell to me) from Vault Case. No one in my area has them. No one in my area really carries Pelican cases at a reasonable price. Looking at these I see very little difference in quality of materials and construction. The major difference- Vault will sell to me and the price is in the neighborhood of 40% less than a comparable case from someone else. The selection is limited and that's ok, easier for me to deal with. So in a few days they will be on my website.
I also saw some of the old ways in effect with some items where they wanted a minimum order of 200 pieces of an item I doubt any shop would be able to sell at one time or in a short enough time to make it worth it to bring in that kind of quantity. But if they would drop the minimum order I bet I could move 10 or 20 of those items in fairly short order. The industry is changing and at the same time there are elements that are resisting that change. And from my vantage point as a small business owner to their own detriment.
DEMA is part of the problem and they could be a big part of the solution if they chose to be. They do not. I saw no DEMA board members going around and visiting all the booths asking how things were going. Not one. I had the DEMA board president a couple weeks before the show tell another board member to call me and have me look at the Divecaching program stuff. To "tell that Lapenta guy to see what we are doing for local diving". Yet I never saw him at the show if he was there. I wanted to see him and thank him for considering my views on how little DEMA was doing for local diving and taking a baby step to correct that.
I wanted to ask him why after looking at the stuff and then emailing him some other questions in a very nice way why he never responded. I wanted to know what else they were going to do and what were they going to do for those areas that have a high number of independent instructors like me. I wanted to know when they were going to start asking for input from all members on new directions and new projects. Not just the same old boys who have big numbers of votes and deep pockets. If I thought my voice would make a difference and by becoming a DEMA member I could have a vote and some input, I would. But after seeing the lack of communication between the board and the smaller companies I know that would only be a pipe dream.
I got to see first hand the disinterest and uncaring attitude for the smaller guys that Tom Ingram has. Without going into details it is true that he doesn't have a clue. The Ft Lauderdale show in 2013 that was reported in DiveNewswire is a prime example. Plans were made, some mfg's invited (guess which ones), some agencies (again guess), and I would suspect a few others. What was remarkable though was that the Dive Newswire story was how many of the members found out about it. The job of the director I though was to keep the membership informed of developments, changes, policies, etc. To communicate those items personally while they were going on. Not inform the members and general public at the same time. Thus denying those not in the clique a chance to have input and participate. But that's what went down.
And Mr Ingram, your dismissive and disrespectful attiude to a member that brought that to your attention was disgusting. You really do not have a clue. Smirking and laughing in their face is beyond rude.
As long as DEMA keeps going in this direction I see the possibility of consumer friendly dive show drawing more than the DEMA show does. My next show is in Columbus Ohio. My 4th year. It has grown each year and I get more business from it each year. And at least 3 or 4 times during those 2 days just about every member of the show committee comes by every booth. To ask how we think the show is going, do we need anything, and how can they make it better for us next year.
To the DEMA BOD and Mr Ingram, maybe you should come by this year and see how to run a show and how to treat every vendor there. Not just the biggest ones.
