Dying DEMA???

[scubapro50]

That's leap. I do both kinds of shows. I want to talk to everybody, I just usually lose my voice ~ half way through day 3. I learn differnt things at each. I love the chance to talk directly to users. That's one of the huge benefits of SB, unfiltered feedback from end users.

I too agree that DEMA has changed in ways that are not healthy for the long term. My suggestion would be a return to a winter / early spring time frame. Regional consumer shows are in my opinion a better fit than a "national" consumer show. The problem is "Dive Travel" gets booked in the fall for fall winter and spring. I don't see a way around this problem if Dive shops need to see travel operators in the early fall.

Hey I'd love it if there was just one annual "do it all show" I just don't see it working all that well.

5 days is a looong time. Trust me on the 4 & 5th days attendees will not be seeing any of the booth staffers at their best. For smaller companies that means all the staff is out of the office for 6-7 days, very hard to do, and maintain any kind of customer service durring that period for the vast majority of your customers who aren't at the show, don't care that your out of town, just want their problem solved now.

I have experience as an exhibitor in another recreational sport activity. Been to many trade shows, been to many consumer shows. Been to two combo events, both disasters. Too long, to confused, many people upset. Dealers mad that what they consider a consumer got a hold of a "dealer" price list. Consumers mad that they can't buy at wholesale. "Maybe dealers" (folks we aren't sure about) offended that we won't provide a dealer price list. It goes on and on.

Consumers expect to purchase gear at the show. Now we have to transport 2 sets of literature (and keep them seperate) + enough stock for the consumers (how much? who knows!) Hope all this is not stolen from the booth, and enjoy the tender mercies of the local exhibition hall unions to move said goods into and back out of the hall. It's just not a good scene. ****************************************************************************************************************************** I worked both sides of the street. Back in the 70's i worked with BLUEWATER DIVERS in houston that did the regional show SEASPACE ...... at Seaspace we could show but not sell equipment (a rule they still have today) which I did not like. We bring in a large assortment of equipment to show the brands we carried (Scubapro and Dacor) and tried our best to sign people for classes or get them back to the shop to make a sale. Dacor, U.S. Divers and Scubapro always had a large booth there not to sell equipment directly to the public but to let potential customer see their merchadise and hopefully purchase it at a later date. Durning the 90's I worked as a salesman for a large appliance company. I did many home improvement shows showing our merchandise and handing out catlogues and answering questions. We brought examples of our newest models of ranges, refrigators, ac's, counter tops, washer and dryers ...... never actually sold anything at the show but made contacts to follow up with ( sold over 2.7 million in less than 3 years). Most shows lasted 3 to 5 days in places like Houston, Dallas, New Orleans , ect. and my biggest problem was how late I would stay out at the "after the show" parties. True you can get "burned out" but as a salesman I sometimes went on the road for weeks at a time;

 

[USIA]

USIA made one of the toughest decisions that we have ever made this year. For the first time in 17 years, we have decided not to attend DEMA. Like many of the other manufacturers, we can no longer continue to pour large amounts of money into a show that does not generate the amount of buyers that it used to. The past two years have been absolutely amazing for USIA in regards to the Sport Diving market. We've have continued to grow and grow. But the last two DEMA shows in Miami and Houston were very poor from a Dry Suit Manufacturers point of view. Even though the show is in Vegas this year, in a recent survey of all of our current dealers, we have found out that they are not attending DEMA this year. Some of the LDS owners are going, but because of the downturn in the business, they can no longer afford to send their staff. Since I've have been attending DEMA, I have noticed the shift from Manufacturers to Dive Travel. We have also noticed in Vegas, many times the first two days of the show are solid, but after that, many of the buyers have either left or decided to just enjoy the town. We decided that we would rather invest our money into doing more consumer shows like Scuba Show in Long Beach, Our World Underwater in Chicago and Beneath the Seas in Jersey. We continue to be DEMA members, but, like many other manufacturers, I do not see us participating in the show in the near future.

 

[scubapro50]

Well DEMA HAS changed... it is FAR more focused on TRAVEL than on gear.

However, Tobin is part of the overall solution... he just sees that he has TWO shows to get ready and not just one. Well, Tobin, that's exactly how ScubaBoard is doing it! We plan on adding BOTH users and advertisers. The former will sooner or later beget the latter.

is Scubaboard going to be at SeaSpace in Houston June 2006 .... it's a large show that would increase awareness of the board ..... I would think that Scubaboard would want to do more "local" shows to build up a larger "member" base so they could then go to advertisers and say .... look we increased our audience by X% over the last year so your ads now reach more divers ....

 

[Bob3]

DEMA's new policy of requiring copies of business licenses is a buttpain; my fax machine ate the damn thing & now I have to get another one. :cussing:

 

[scubapro50]

Scott .... I asked for you at SeaSpace and was told you didn't come ...... I would think Zeagle would like to introduce your line to the many divers who not only haven't heard of your company much less seen any of your products. Nonselling shows are surpose to whip up excitement for your line of products .... after all when you go to a large auto show corp. reps from the major car companies (like Ford, Chevy, Honda, ect.) are there to explaine the feautres and advantages of their products not sell cars directly to the public skipping the middle man (car dealer) .... The average diver (especial new ones) are taken advantage of many times by the dive shop personel. The shop wants to sell what they have in stock, or what they can make the largest profit on. My local shop did not carry either Zeagle, Aeris, or XS Scuba but I saw all three at SeaSpace. Several people came back and asked him about it and he how carries some of there products. ??????????????? I guess one of the real reasons manfuctures don't want to do shows is they don't want their products doing a "Head to Head" comparison with the competition. Let the consumer compare "apple to apples" and let them deceide..... I'm surprised that the large net dive shops don't do the shows handing out flyers on how to find their websight. They may not be able to sell dive equipment at the shows but could have one "hell" of a day on internet sells afterways ... but wait ... local shops wouldn't want "internet" shops having booths at
"their" shows because it would be too much competition for them ... right ?

 

[ScottZeagle]

I don't personally do every show - that is why we have capable sales reps!!!

I do attend the DEMA show yearly, and if my schedule allows, I like to do the Long Beach show.

This year, I also went to Dallas for the Scuba Diving Magazine In-Ten-City tour stop at Scuba Toys, as well as the Diver's Fair in Seattle at Underwater Sports.

That is about as much travel as I care to do...

I don't believe that DEMA is a good place to sell to consumers, but I do believe that consumers shows should allow product sales. The problem comes when you have an area with 2 or more authorized dealers - who gets the credit for the sale?? Regardless of how you slice it, someone will end up unhappy...

Edited to add: The DEMA show (from my perspective) is for writing business. We have "DEMA Specials" to intice our customers to place orders over the winter, as well as introduce new products. For many of our international customers, DEMA is the one time a year that we get to sit down and talk to them face to face.

Consumer shows are done for exactly the reasons you mentioned - to introduce our products to people who are unaware, as well as answer questions for people who have asked questions on internet forums and recieved 10 different answers, and are simply looking for the truth!!!

My personal favorite: "I was told that if I ever pull the ripcord, I can't dive again until I send it back to the factory to have it reinstalled - is that true?"

If you are at the DEMA show, stop by and say hello!

Scott

 

[scubapro50]

National shows like DEMA as well as smaller regional shows like SeaSpace gives the manfuctures a chance to roll out their new lines of products to be seen. It also gives them a chance to unvale new programs like the Mares/Dacor trade in program. I found out about the "trade in" program thru a discussion about problems with the Dacor web sight. Phil Mintz mentioned the program and surprising few people knew about it (including dealers). I was lucky that Debra at Surface Interraval Scuba knew about the program and how it worked. She made the "trade up" (exchange) of my old Dacor 360's for a couple of Marres Abyss regulators very easy. Friday afternoon the UPS truck pulled up and I got my new regulators ..... going to find some water today to get them wet ............. thanks PHIL .... thanks ... Debra .... I'm going to have some fun with them (regulators).

 

[The Chairman]

As finances allow, we will be attending more and more of these shows. We will be having our very first booth at DEMA and would love any of the other shows who would like us to contact me ASAP so we can coordinate our efforts.

 

[royalediver]

wrong post

 

[paolov]

we are having two Banners made of the winning banner
( http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?p=1264050#post1264050 )

we can send one to the DEMA and some pictures of the Dive-O-Rama if you may desire.

As finances allow, we will be attending more and more of these shows. We will be having our very first booth at DEMA and would love any of the other shows who would like us to contact me ASAP so we can coordinate our efforts.